Love

Harry's time in the war has drastically altered his perception of the world. Love is the emotion that guides his life far more than any other. The novel articulates loves as a compelling force for good and justice. Harry falls in love with Catherine the moment he sees her, and, in fact, Catherine falls in love with Harry much, much earlier, when she saw him swinging from the El as a young man. Harry is sympathetic to those characters throughout the novel who have love in their lives and have lost it, and he goes so far as to refuse to ask for Rice's help when he discovers that Rice is in love, married, and has a child. Harry himself seems to have fallen in love more or less constantly throughout his life, and tends to feel this emotion permanently, as he did with Eugena Ebla, whom he...