Suffering Without Hope in A Farewell to Arms Towards the end of A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway has Fredrick Henry describe the time he put a log full of ants on the fire. This incident allows us to understand a much larger event, Catherine's pregnancy. Combined, both of these events form a commentary on the backdrop of the entire story, the First World War. After discovering that his son was stillborn, Lieutenant Henry recalls the time he placed a log full of ants on the fire. After sitting for a moment, the log began to burn. When it started to burn the ants came out of the trunk. They ran back and forth on the log, first toward the flames, then away. Eventually most of them fell into the fire and burned. A very small number escaped the fire, but these were also seriously injured. The only action Fredrick took was to throw a cup of water on the log, but "the cup of water on the burning log did nothing but steam the ants" (Hemingway, 328). This desperate and mechanical image of suffering allows us to understand other forms of pain in the book. Catherine's pregnancy follows this...