Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: This thesis is dedicated to illustrate the symbolism in Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. In the novel, the author of the novel uses a great deal of empathic artistic methods, such as “Iceberg Theory”—a new empathic artistic method created by Hemingway himself. In all of these empathic artistic methods, symbolism is one of the most outstanding one. The novel exposes some people—the Lost Generation’s hope of escaping from the war, and their wish for a peaceful word. All the symbolic meanings served to express the theme—the war destroys the world.

Key words: Symbolism ； War ；  Love ；  Hemingway

摘要：本文旨在阐释海明威作品《永别了，武器》中的象征意义。在小说中，作者大量使用了移情的创作手法，例如“冰山理论”——海明威自己发明了一种手法。在所有的这些移情修辞手法中，象征是最突出的手法之一。此小说揭露了一些人——“迷失的一代”逃离战争、获得和平的美好希望。所有的象征意义都是用来表达主题——战争毁了一切。

关键词： 象征；战争；爱；海明威
 
1. Introduction
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) is one of the most famous American writers in the world. A Farewell to Arms，one of his most successful novels，was written in 1929. It was set in WWI and based on the writer’s own experience.
The novel tells about the hero Frederic Henry’s experiences at war and his love story. He served in the Italian ambulance troop during WWI and fell in love with an English nurse—Catherine Barkley. Soon after Catherine found herself pregnant they escaped. They lived happily only for a short while. Catherine died in childbirth. Frederic fell into the hell of loneliness. His dream of living a happy life broke definitely. All these unfortunate things were quite common in times of war.
Symbolism, in general, is one of the writing skills. Its goal is to convey elusive illusion and its content is mysticism. What the writer wants to expound isn’t the realistic objective world, but the individual subjective inward world.A literary symbol combines an image with a concept with the invisible one. The advantage of symbolism lies in its function in arising people’s association, widening the field of vision of the soul as well as the description field, thus making soulful energy.
Reading through the whole novel, we may find that the author does not mean to explain or comment. The author conveys an important meaning that the war is a tragedy. It destroys everything. To convey this theme, the author employs many devices, such as the implication, the compressed irony or understatement，but the most important device is the use of symbolism.