Love and war are games we play and death is the ultimate outcome. In A Farewell to Arms, Henry comes to this conclusion a few times throughout his adventure. He realizes many rules of life during said adventure such as one cannot escape death, it will get them in one way or another. Then, to go along with the first rule: one must play by the rules or else one will get punished, and no amount of begging or bargaining can reverse the fact that one has not followed the rules. In each of these examples, Henry is not the one to meet death. Instead, Catherine is the unlucky one and she meant more to him than himself. 

            In both love and games, one cannot escape the fact that there is an end. In the game of love, the end may be a separation or death. The aforementioned separation can be compared to a draw in Chess and death would be checkmate. War is a game humans play, like chess, but on a much larger, more meaningful scale, and even in this game, there is also an end; however such an end could be a negotiation or total annihilation. In each of these, the players will ultimately face the end in one way or another. During his night at the hotel with Catherine, Henry analyzes why the end comes to certain people faster than others.

 “If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry” (Hemingway 249).

Henry’s reflection can also be used to describe games such as love and war. The players with too much courage, the ones with the oversized egos are the ones that get hit first because they have nothing holding them back. Catherine was one of those people. She is courageous towards giving birth, as she never really shows a desire to relax, nor is she completely fearful of being pregnant. Thus, she was killed first. Those players who get a penalty and then get back up are similar to people whose hearts are broken but then recover and become stronger people psychologically. Another example that supports this analysis of Henry’s is that he himself was a broken man who has healed. At the end of his story, when he walks out of the hospital after finding out that Catherine and his child had died, it was apparent that he had become a hardened man. He even claims that leaving “was like saying good-by to a statue.” (Hemingway 332). Many people’s knees give out in depressing situations, however, Henry’s have been broken and have healed, therefore they are strong, strong enough even to keep him standing after the death of his love and child. Henry is not courageous, nor is he gentle or very brave; therefore, the story finishes with him still alive, because he will die too, but not anytime soon.