The significance of the rain

——Book report of a farewell to arms

A farewell to arms is written by Hemingway (1899-1961) who is good at using brief language and dare to try different kinds of writing skills to elaborate the plot. Symbolism is an important writing style in Hemingway's works. A farewell to arms is a good example of the symbolism usage. Among the descriptions of the natural scenery is lot of deep symbolic significance, especially the description of the rain. It not only implies heroine’s encounter but also adumbrates heroine's fate in this novel.

In the following text we will discuss the symbolic significance of the image-- rain

In the novel, Hemingway endowed “rain” with special significance. The word “rain” is a clue through the whole novel natural descriptions. To the author’s point of view, “rain” indicate all the hardship, suffering and the beginning of the heroine’s tragic ending.

At the beginning of the novel, the author gave us a bleak miserable picture of wizen leaves, full of dust, the pierce cold wind, and the freezing rain of winter. All of these implied a disastrous ending.

The first presence of the “rain” is in the first chapter, with the sentence: “At the start of the winter came the permanent rain and with the rain came the cholera. But it was checked and in the end only seven thousand died of it in the army.” (page220) This is the first time of the author combining the “rain” with “death”. The disaster and misfortune are companied with the “permanent rain”.

The rain cased the cholera and only this caused more than seven thousand deaths in the army. There had lost a lot of soldiers’ lives before the war beginning. We could imagine that when the real war began how many people would die? The number must be numerous! Here, the description of “rain” serves as a foil. In the following chapthers, the author mentioned a lot of “rain”. The “rain” have been a indispensable setting of the novel.

When the troops moved forward, Henry and another three comrade-in-arms

withdrawed difficultly in the heavy rain, Henry and Catherine fled to Switzerland in the clod rain, even when Catherine died from hemorrhages, the weather was still rainy. All the tragedy happened in the rain.

In the ninteen chapter, there is a description of rain like this: “ The moon was

supposed to rise but there was a mist over the town and it did not come up and in a little

while it started to drizzle and we came in. Outside the mist turned to rain and in a little while it was raining hard and we heard it drumming on the roof.＂(Page311) This

wispy change of the weather is more like the change of the herion’s mood and implies herion’s unpredictable fate.

When Henry talked to Catherine,

Catherine said:＂That’s good. Because I’m afraid of rain.＂

Henry: “Why?”

Catherine: “I don’t know, darling. I’ve always been afraid of the rain.”

Henry: “I like it.”

Catherine: “I like to walk in it. But it’s very hard on loving.”

Catherine told Henry: “I am afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it. And sometimes I see you dead in it.” She was crying. Henry comforted her and she stopped crying. But outside, it kept on raining. (Page 312)

No doubt, the author borrows Catherine’s lines and implies the tragic ending of the story. This time, Hemingway combined the “rain” with “death” again. At this time, the rain makes readers feel cold, fearful and Catherine is doomed to death.

In the last part of the novel, Catherine died in childbirth and hemorrhages. The weather is rainy also. All the misery happened in the rain. The novel ended with: “But after I had got like saying good-bye to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.” (Page470)

Although the novel ends with few words, no crying, no tears, we could still touch the grief-stricken feelings from Henry’s bottle of heart. This is the last time that the author combines the “rain” with “death”. This time, Henry says farewell to his best love. His aspiration of pursuing ordinary happy life is destroyed by the war. The last “rain” takes Henry’s happiness and hopes, the remains are only the feeling of helpless.

第二篇：The Elements of Style读书报告

海南大学外国语学院研究生读书报告

书 名： The Elements of Style

年 级： 2014 级

专 业: 英 语 笔 译

姓 名： 英 语 笔 译 学 号： 14055101210002

﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡

导师评语： 导师签名： 年 月 日

The elements of style·14级英语笔译·方雨君

The elements of style读书报告

2014级英语笔译 方雨君 The elements of style是一本短小而精悍的经典英文写作基础教程。在读完这本书后，我在网上大概查了一下对这本书的介绍：本书第一版作者William Strunk Jr.是康奈尔大学写作老师。19xx年E.B White是他学生，当时，这本书在学校已经广有名声。19xx年E.B White在原书基础，增加一个章节，成为现在的版本。80多页的小册子，延续了快90年，不减风采。

没有泛泛之谈，书里都是关于写作很细小的问题：标点怎么安排；句子怎么分割；某个词具体要怎么用......作者近乎偏执的相信——英文写作风格就应该是这样，变了就不好。归根结底，所有这些小问题都是让文字更有力度，更清晰，更简洁。本书的作者用简短精炼的文字揭示出了我们作为外语学习者在英语写作上常犯的一些错误。

第一是花拳绣腿，而清楚明白的文章是要有话直说。由于我们中国人的说话习惯，我们通常不会开门见山地直奔主题，通常会拐弯抹角地说一些其他话题作为引子。这个习惯如果运用进英文写作当中就会给外国读者云里雾里之感。

第二是喜欢用深字，比如几个有同样表达能力的字以供选择，就喜欢选用较深的一个，以为可以此而向读者表现一下自己是个读过书之人。而这本书向我们传达的观念是应该取其中较浅的一个，因为文章不应用晦涩难懂的语言，应使大部分人都能看懂。

第三是用长句。以前一直以为句子一定要长才算是好的文章，而本书的作者却说清楚的文字要用短句。不仅句子要短，分段也要短。一句说完就用句号或分号；一个小小的论点，说完就要立刻分段。清楚的文字，是不能拖泥带水地写的。 第四是着重文法。每次写文章时都会小心翼翼地担心自己会犯一些语法错误，而作者却告诉我们在进行初稿写作时要把文法置之度外，这样才有利于思维扩散。至于语法检查，可以放在第二次修改的时候。

其五是以为读者可以明白。好些时，为了文字之美，我们会写些有欠清晰的、以为读者仔细阅读一下就会明白的文字。但我们却忽略了读者读文章不是下象棋，肯大费工夫研究你在说什么。行文之中，认为读者可能不明白的，就要修改、浅化。好些时，为了达意，宁可多用几个字，虽用得不大"美"，但是却以读者能够理解。

为了帮助我们规避这些错误，这本书直陈其事，一、二、三、四??列出规例，英语怎样写可取，怎样写不可取，不作解释，没有哲理。例如，小书上说，一句之中，重要的字要

The elements of style·14级英语笔译·方雨君

放在句首或句尾，不要放在中间。此规其妙无穷也。类似的规则，书中还有很多，例如：

第一，不要有意显露自己。文章是用文字、思想打动人，而不是要把读者的注意力集中在自己身上。而我们现在不是正有很多人，不管做报告还是写文章，总是忘不了摆一下自己的资格吗？这不过是思想无力的表现。

第二，多用名词和动词。名词和动词是真正有表现力的词，不管对英语还是汉语都一样。而我们现在不是老习惯于一种浮夸的风格，使用一大堆比喻，却不能传达出印象与观点。这种风格，在电视上见得最多了。而这种风格能够影响很多人，特别是青少年，正说明我们总体在文体上的教育是很不够的。

第三，不要过甚其词。过分，似乎是现在中国人发议论的一个特点，似乎不如此就不足给人留下印象。这种例子在网上所见最多，往往抓住一二点，就觉得抓住一切问题了。这种捕风捉影的行为运用在写作中。

第四，不要佯装谈笑风声。往往语言的浮华往往该呢过凸显出我们精神的贫乏。

这只是略举几条。其它，诸如“使用肯定、明确、具体的词语”、“省略不必要的词”这些都是我们在日常写作中要注意的。

这本书的写作本身就是一个典范，是一个明确、有力、得体的典范。拥有一本这样的书，不断研究它所提的各个要点，是一定能够使你的文章涣然一新的，当然，我们必须以原则来对自己的实践进行严格的检查，不断练习才能生效。

中国自古就非常重视文章。所谓“文以载道”。毛泽东在延安整风，三个内容之一就是“整顿文风”，这的确有着超凡的见识。文字是表达、传播思想的，如果一个时代文风浮夸，思想就必然是紊乱、萎靡的。中国自己也有非常优秀的文体传统，南北朝的刘勰就已经提出“风骨”作为标准，所谓“文明以健”，后来凡是大家，大体都是合乎这标准的。但到了现在，却是空言横行，萎靡成风，已经到了必须纠正的时候了。斯特伦克和怀特的这本小书，虽是“他山之石”，却的确“可以攻玉”。

我们是怎样学习写作的？在学校里，我们主要是通过分析范文来学习。这能教给我们一些技巧。至于真正的写作能力却仍然象是一个黑盒子。如果我们留心一下书店里教人写作的书，最常见的都是《文章学》之类。这些书能给人很多知识，但要以此来提高写作能力，却恐怕是一种奢望。我们需要的，是一种指导原则，一种真正从实践中来的原则，它不是要以哗众取宠的名目来打动人心，而是真正对写作过程进行分析，得出必须遵守的原则，如果我们用这些简单的原则来指导自己、检查自己，就能得到切实的提高。但是，这样的书太少了。 由斯特伦克和怀特合著的《文体指南》（ The elements of style)是能满足我们要求的一本书。

The elements of style·14级英语笔译·方雨君

这本小书，虽然译成中文只有一百多页，却是一本经得起考验的书。无论是英语专业的学习者，还是那些在日常工作中会用英文写作的上班族，都可以从中获益。

参考文献：

1、 William Strunk Jr. The elements of style.Penguin Books, 2007.

2、王忠梁主编：《大学英语写作技巧》，东方出版中心20xx年版，第30 页。