Everything that is "good" seems destined to doom. Henry loves Catherine but must go to the front and fight a war that cares nothing for human life. Henry is an ambulance attendant during WW1 and he sees all that the senseless death and futility that rages around him. In the end when Henry faces death for shooting sergeants abandon the drivers when their car gets stuck. Henry escapes by jumping in the river but the horrors of futility and death chase him into civilian life. Catherine's baby is still born and she soon dies from a hemorrhage. Life is truly perilous and, in many cases, futile; Hemingway reminds of this every step of the way.