In Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, love and intoxication are closely tied to the even grander theme of escape. While escape is a larger driving force, it exists in its connection to these other themes. This complex relationship is found not only in Hemingway's use of action and language, but also in the minds and philosophies of most of the main characters. Flight seems a natural concern in a state of war. Hemingway makes it the founding principle in such a situation, and focuses on what is being avoided rather than on the skeleton of a war fought in the meantime. From time to time, love and intoxication appear in this guise. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHemingway creates a strong foundation for this relationship in the action of the novel. Presenting the characters facing a universally threatening situation, there is an understandably survivalist tone to its characters' attitudes towards war. Escape as a driving theme is a product of this subtle tone. War is averted in conversation, thought, and ultimately participation when Henry and Catherine abandon their roles in its development. Both of these characters have left their homeland behind, and Henry in particular has several physical escape scenes in the story. It is particularly significant that he lost his permit in Milan, because he was even accused of knowingly using alcoholism to escape from the front. (144) But beyond the larger and more obvious escape events in the novel, love and intoxication become the everyday vehicles of avoidance. It is crucial that both exist at the same time for Henry to survive this war. Intoxication and love have similar characteristics in the novel. Henry's thought that "the thing to do was to stay calm and not get shot or captured" (212) is representative of the motivation behind all of these characters' hedonism and escapism. Every day they patiently escape the war in subtle ways. These avoidance methods involve concentration on erotic drives. Hemingway weaves these sensual moments into what Professor Fisher calls a "narrative of omission." This style itself is the symbol of escape. The author's decidedly modernist goal of representing complete moments of experience brings him to the center of the reader's attention away from the war. The story is told in a series of erotic moments, all avoiding the horrific reality of war that should be more central. These moments are especially subtle when they are made "calm" in the form of love and intoxication. The idea that these are calm sensations is unique to Hemingway and unique to the context of the novel. In the opening pages, Henry is already "[sitting] with a friend and two glasses," (6) an arrangement he finds himself in too often to be called simple social ritual. Rinaldi later classifies this systemic numbing with alcohol as "day after day self-destruction." (172) It is extremely important to note that the intoxication in this novel includes the consumption of food. Hemingway's descriptions of eating are strangely sensual, almost drunken in their strenuous hedonism. He recounts the scene of a group of men who ate pasta without a fork: I put it in my mouth, sucked and broke the ends, and chewed, then took a bite of cheese, chewed, and then drank the wine. .They all ate, holding their chins over the bowl, tilting their heads back, sucking on the ends... Something landed outside that shook the earth. (54)In this case men experience a specificationerotic feeling with the war raging in the background. A less obvious juxtaposition of this nature can be found in an interaction between Henry and Rinaldi. Having just reunited, the two men relate on a level personal enough to be called erotic, with the nicknames "baby" and even Rinaldi's request to "kiss me once and twice. Tell me you're not serious." L Eroticism runs parallel to the consumption of alcohol, justified by Rinaldi with "this war is terrible... Come on. We'll both get drunk and be happy... and then we'll feel good." (168) The sensuality of this exchange is also embodied by alcohol, since the clinking of cognac glasses replaces sexual consummation. successful escape, since these two men deal with the situation by loving each other and becoming intoxicated. Through his feelings for Catherine, Henry comes to understand the importance and difficulty of truly escaping the pain. With the need to avoid an accepted state, lovers are always running away from each other 'other and run away together. This activity drives their relationship, from beginning to end. The reader is introduced to Miss Barkley when Henry first hears about it, by Rinaldi language of this moment. When Rinaldi concludes his speculation that "Every week someone is injured by rock splinters... Next week the war starts again," with "He thinks I would do well to marry Miss Barkley after the war, of course ?", " Catherine is established as a way out of horror and atrocity. When Henry visits her alone for the first time, the head nurse has to remind him that "there's a war going on, you know," only to "[say] I knew." (23) This also establishes the nature of their relationship very early in the novel, both for Henry and the reader. In this first meeting, he even responds to Catherine's hope that "we get along," with "yes,...And we managed to escape the war." (26) This is in the early stages of their love story, when their interaction still falls into the category of inebriation. Henry still doesn't realize that this isn't enough. What at first is an indulgent escape from reality turns into a more serious love as the war gets closer and closer to the characters. Initially, Henry misdiagnoses his relationship with Catherine as simply "better than going every night to the officers' house where the girls jumped on you...."(30) At this point, he has not realized the capacity of runaway love from the larger dilemma at hand. He has yet to understand the powerful role Catherine already plays in his war experience. It is only when she is not there one night to provide him with this necessary escape that he realizes that he "had treated the sight of Catherine very lightly." (40) Now he sees that his "nights when the room swirled... when you knew that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking up and not knowing who was there with you, and the unreal world in the dark and so exciting that you have to pick up again without knowing and without worrying until late at night, sure that this was all and all and not caring,” (13) were inadequate. Simple intoxication isn't enough when love isn't there too. Henry survives the war by understanding the need for something worth running to, and by being lucky enough to find it in Catherine. Escape not only drives the love story, but also describes its nature. When they find themselves in the American hospital in Milan, Catherine sneaks into Henry's room every night. This act in itself is a small escape. In the details of their interaction, these small instances of escape are frequent. Immediately, Henry asks “there is nowhere.