A Farewell To Arms: imagery

The author used imagery so heavily in the book to show what was going on when the characters point of view was slightly detached from the things going on around him. He was alone a lot of the time and everything was in Frederico's point of view so the added imagery compensated for the lack of action. It gave more detail and focus when the narrator wasn't the most elaborate about his feelings towards what was going on in the war.
Also the war is very graphic and needs more imagery then most other genres to show the great depth of each and every important event going on. From the very beginning the scenery and people around Frederico had imagery and description packed into every paragraph and sentence making it impossible not to think of it as the main literary element.