and died of it in the army. (Pg. 4, 3)
             It is ironic that Henry says this while showing little to no emotion for it is a very powerful sentence. This is found in numerous instances during the novel when characters use the image of rain to understate the obvious.
             While it is hinted very early in the novel what the image of rain entails, its counter symbol, snow, is also found in the first few chapters. Henry is at the officer's house in Gorizia when he hints at the positive associations of snow:
             ...I watched the snow falling, looking out of the window of the bawdy house... looking out at the snow falling slowly and heavily, we knew it (fighting) was all over for that year.(Pg. 6, 3)
             It is clearly shown in this passage that snow is associated with peace and tranquility for due to the winter there can be no more fighting. Thus, everybody is safe and there will be no more death until the rains return. Similarly, Henry's descriptions of the snow and snowy landscapes are more heart-felt than those involving rain, as portrayed when he speaks of the Abruzzi:
             I had wanted to go to Abruzzi. I had gone to no place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear cold and dry and the snow was dry and powdery and hare-tracks in the snow and the peasants took off their hats and called you Lord and there was good hunting. (Pg. 13, 4)
             It is easy to see the contrast between this passage and the previous two about rain for Henry uses a lot more passion and emotion to describe images involving snow and the cold, whereas he speaks in a dull, depressive manner about the rain. The use of words like 'clear, cold and dry' when describing the snow directly oppose those used to describe the rain, 'muddy, dark and wet'. There is one aspect, however, that the image/symbol of rain has that snow does not.
             Rain plays a major role in foreshadowing important events pertaining to the war. It ...