Book One: Chapter I:

The narrator, Lieutenant Frederic Henry, describes life in an Italian village he lives in during the summer. It is World War I, and troops and cars with officers frequently go by on the road - dusty at first, then wet during autumn - to fight in the nearby mountains. If a car goes very fast, it probably carries the King, who checks daily on the horrible battle situation. When the winter begins, it rains incessantly and brings with it cholera, and 7,000 men in the army die of it.

Analysis

Hemingway was probably the most influential American prose stylist of the 20th century, and his spare, journalistic method is in top form in this famous chapter. Though the detached narrative at times seems almost mechanical, great feeling emerges through what is unsaid and through specific images, such as the soldiers with guns and ammunition under their capes that make them look "six months gone with child."

That image is particularly well chosen, for even in this opening Henry connects rain with an undesirable type of fertility that actually heralds death and destruction. In addition to pregnancy's equation with weaponry, rain makes the country "wet and brown and dead" and brings on the cholera; the dusty opening, on the other hand, is idyllic in its pastoral splendor. Many writers of Hemingway's Lost Generation, the disillusioned youth who felt The Great War had irrevocably devastated both their bodies and values, saw an emptiness and sterility in their modern culture. Dryness and dust frequently represented this sterility, a system T.S. Eliot sketches out in great detail in his poem "The Wasteland." Though the Lost Generation disdained this sterility, they seemed to take a strange comfort in it. In the famous opening of "The Wasteland," Eliot writes

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

(1-7)

While fertile, wet April is "the cruelest month," cold, sterile "Winter kept us warm." Rain will become a prominent symbol in A Farewell to Arms (as well as being the last word of the novel), and it is important to note its ironic application: it is not an agent of fertility and creation, but rather of sterility and destruction.

Book One: Chapter II:

The next August, Henry's unit moves to a house in the captured town of Gorizia while fighting goes on in the next mountains over. Life is fairly idyllic there over the fall, as it has not been badly bombarded, and there are hospitals, cafés, and two brothels.

One snowy night at dinner, Henry's captain mocks the unit's priest with remarks about his sexual practices, which the priest accepts with good humor. The conversation takes a nastier turn when the other men, who are atheists, insult religion. Henry is friendlier to the priest. They all discuss where Henry should go on leave in Italy, since it is doubtful an offensive will take place in the snow. They go to the brothel.

Analysis:

As is frequently the case with soldiers, the brothel is the main form of entertainment. The act of casual, emotionless sex takes on special meaning when we consider the subtle fear of fertility Henry and the others have, as demonstrated in Chapter I. In war, with violence all around, they do not wish to propagate, but only to divert themselves from the specter of death.

This brand of diversion shows up as the men eat spaghetti "very quickly and seriously." In a chaotic war where the men have little control over anything, at least they have precise control over one area - here, the act of eating. This refinement will recur to demonstrate what is known as the code of the Hemingway hero, specifically the concept of "grace under pressure": the ability to withstand great conflict, especially that of imminent death, and gracefully execute an action.

Book One: Chapter III:

Henry returns from his trip in the spring. He discusses his trip with his surgeon roommate, Lieutenant Rinaldi, who tells him he is in love with and plans to marry an English nurse in town, Catherine Barkley. Henry loans Rinaldi some money so he can impress Catherine.

At dinner, the priest is upset, but ultimately understanding, that Henry did not visit his hometown of Abruzzi. Henry wishes he had gone; instead, he only drank and cavorted about cosmopolitan nightspots. The captain again mocks the priest, but the major tells him to leave him alone and they all leave.

Analysis:

Rinaldi's zeal over wanting to marry Catherine - whom he still refers to as "Miss Barkley," indicating their lack of intimacy - does not merely stem from his raging hormones. Rather, in the face of a brutal war - Rinaldi catalogues all the ailments they have suffered even without real fighting - the characters must find other diversions over which they have some degree of control. Rinaldi (and soon Henry) dives headlong into love - or, rather, lust - as a way to blind himself temporarily to war, much as the characters are spaghetti very intently in Chapter II.

The diversions extend to playing with other people's feelings. The captain here mercilessly mocks the priest again, going from jests about his sexuality to more serious ones about whose side the priest is on.

Book One: Chapter IV:

A battery of guns in the next garden wakes Henry the next morning. An ambulance driver, he discusses the condition of the ambulances with some mechanics. Back in the room, Rinaldi asks Henry to come with him to meet Catherine. They drink first, then meet Catherine in the British hospital's garden. Rinaldi talks to another nurse, Helen Ferguson.

Henry, who is struck by Catherine's beauty and her hair, is unable to explain to her why he has joined the Italian army as an ambulance driver. She carries a leather-bound stick that she says belonged to her fiancé of eight years, who was killed last year in the war. Henry admits he has never loved anyone. They discuss her fiancé and the war more, then Henry and Rinaldi leave. Rinaldi notes that Catherine prefers Henry to him.

Analysis:

Henry is unable to explain why he has joined the Italian army to drive an ambulance. In Chapter III, he explained that the priest "had always known what I did not know and what, when I learned it, I was always able to forget." There seems to be a premium on not knowing things, on remaining ignorant, as if that is some kind of protective armor. Catherine reverses this, wishing she had known that her fiancé was going to die: "'He could have had anything he wanted if I would have known...I know all about it now. But then he wanted to go to war and I didn't know.'"

Henry's character emerges more here. He briefly admits to having never loved anyone, while Catherine seems somewhat numbed by her fiancé's death. That she carries his stick "like a toy riding-crop" suggests she will treat love mostly as a game-like diversion from her pain.

Book One: Chapter V:

Henry drives in Plava and sees a new windy road that, when finished, will allow a new offensive. He drives along a narrower road that is hit by three artillery shells, then goes to see Catherine in Gorizia, but she is on duty and he is told to return at night.

After dinner, Henry visits Catherine in the hospital's garden. Helen leaves them alone. Catherine explains that she is a V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment), which takes less time to become than a nurse does. When Henry tries to link his arm around hers and kiss her, she slaps him. She apologizes, but he understands. After he makes her laugh, she kisses him, but she starts crying and asks if he will be good to her, as they will have a "'strange life.'" He comforts her. Henry later walks her home, then goes home himself. Rinaldi teases him good-naturedly about his "'progress'" with Catherine.

Analysis:

When Henry says they should drop the discussion of the war, Catherine humorously points out about the war, "'It's very hard. There's no place to drop it.'" She is right - in nearly every chapter, the war machine rolls on in the background, as it does here when Henry sees the new road and nearly gets hit by shells on the other road.

While Catherine is literally tight-lipped at first with Henry and defiant against his come-ons, her ostensible grief over her fiancé's death reveals itself when she cries on Henry's shoulder.

Book One: Chapter VI:

After a few days away at the medical aid posts, Henry visits Catherine at the hospital. He feels uncomfortable holding a pistol while waiting for her in the office. They go into the garden. She says he should have sent her a note to tell her he would be away, and she asks him if he loves her. After she says she loves him and makes sure he will not leave her, they kiss. Henry thinks she may be a little crazy, but he does not mind - this is certainly better than going to the brothel with the officers. This is more like a game of bridge, only you say things instead of playing cards; the only difference is he does not know what the stakes are.

Catherine, seeming to be reading Henry's mind, calls what they are doing a "'rotten game,'" and says Henry plays it very well. Henry insists he loves her, but she asks him not to lie. Nevertheless, she says he is a very good boy, and asks him to see her again. She reluctantly kisses him briefly, then has him walk her home. Henry goes home, and Rinaldi expresses relief that he did not get involved with an Englishwoman.

Analysis:

Catherine at first appears naïve and even, as Henry thinks, slightly insane, when she gives in to love with him so quickly. However, she also shows her telepathic and self-protective side, calling their flirtation a "'rotten game'" after Henry thinks nearly the same thing, and insists she is not "'mad'" or "'gone off. It's only a little sometimes.'"

Whatever her sanity, she and Henry hit upon something when they call love a game. It is a distraction from the horrors of war, a way to lose oneself in another person, with unknowable stakes. This last feature of the game of love makes it all the more exciting, and it proves what both Henry and Catherine have previously said about love. They never know about something until after it has happened to them, so they do not know what the stakes are until the game is over.

Henry can never come up with a good reason for joining Italian army. Here, he shows his utter self-consciousness about being in the army. He feels "a vague sort of shame" when he meets English-speaking people while he holds a gun, and he obviously does not feel comfortable in the role of a soldier.

Book One: Chapter VII:

The next afternoon, Henry drives back from his post and picks up a soldier with a hernia (he calls it a "'rupture'"). The soldier confesses he threw away his truss (support for the hernia) to worsen his condition, but the captain doctor at his regiment will be able to figure this out. He thinks that if he gets an operation, he will be put back in combat again. Henry hatches a plan: the soldier will get out, fall down on the road and bump his head, and then Henry will pick him up again and take him to a hospital. They drop him off and drive on, then return. They find two men lifting the soldier into a horse ambulance. The soldier yells "'Nothing to do. They come back for me.'"

Henry goes home. In two days, he will go with the cars to Plava for an offensive. He sends some army postcards to the U.S. He does not think he will be killed in the war, as it seems to him as dangerous as war in the movies. He wishes Catherine were with him, and entertains an elaborate fantasy about making love to her in a Milan hotel room.

At dinner, Henry has a dull conversation with the priest, and one of the men tells a joke about a priest. The men trade more jokes. The major challenges Henry to a drinking contest, but Henry bails out early so he can see Catherine. Rinaldi helps him sober up with some coffee beans. When Henry goes to see Catherine, Helen tells him Catherine is ill and cannot see him. Henry leaves and feels lonely.

Analysis

The soldier's hernia recalls the war-caused impotence of protagonist Jake Barnes in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. In that novel, Jake's impotence was a metaphor for how the war emasculated men and stripped them of their innocence. Obviously a believer in this theory, Hemingway continues to describe the debilitating physical and psychic effects of war in A Farewell to Arms.

Henry feels empty about not seeing Catherine only after he loses the chance to see her for the night. This is another example of not knowing about the magnitude of something until a tragic, or slightly tragic, event happens to destroy it.

Instead, he has treated seeing her "very lightly," like a game. In fact, he plays a game before seeing her - the drinking contest with the major. In this case, drinking is a double distraction, as it is both a game and inebriation helps the men forget the war.

Book One: Chapter VIII:

Henry rides up to the river with three other cars in preparation for a possible attack. Henry gets out at the British hospital and makes plans to catch up with the cars. He tells Catherine he will be away until tomorrow for a meaningless "'show,'" and she gives him a St. Anthony medal (though she is not Catholic). In the car, Henry clasps the St. Anthony around his neck. He mentions that he was not able to find it after he was wounded. The cars drive through the beautiful countryside to the river.

Analysis:

Henry mentions he will be wounded in the future. This foreshadowing casts a tragic shadow over his relationship with Catherine, as we know she will have to deal with a second injury - though obviously one that is not fatal this time - to a lover.

The St. Anthony's failure to protect for Henry is ironic, not only because as a religious item it does not take care of him, but also because he loses it after he is wounded. Hemingway makes clear that religion has little effect in this chaotic, violent war.

Catherine again exposes her fear of abandonment, a theme that will deepen throughout the novel.

Book One: Chapter IX:

Henry's car parks at a dressing station near the river. He learns from the major what his driving task will be once the fighting starts. Henry drinks with the major and smokes with the other drivers in a dugout. They discuss the attack and the war in general. Henry believes it will not end if one side stops fighting, since "'Defeat is worse'" than war, but another driver disagrees and thinks nothing is worse than war.

Henry takes another driver to find out when the drivers eat. The bombardment starts. Henry receives some macaroni and cheese and runs out with it through the shelling. A shell knocks them down, but they make it to the dugout. They eat the macaroni without utensils while artillery shells blast outside. A huge, hot blast comes through the dugout, and Henry thinks he is dead. He soon returns to his senses. Another driver has been badly wounded and both his legs are amputated or nearly amputated. Henry tends to him, but the driver dies. When Henry gets up, he realizes he has been hit and his kneecap is gone. The two surviving drivers carry Henry to the medical post.

At the medical post, where the wounded and the dead are separated, an English ambulance driver promises to return the Italian ambulances to their villa, and says he will talk to the doctors about taking Henry back with them. The Englishman returns, exaggerates the importance of Henry's identity, and has Henry taken to the dressing room. The medical captain reports on Henry's injuries - a skull fracture in addition to his major right knee and foot wounds - and tends to them, causing Henry great pain that alcohol slightly dulls. Henry is taken by stretcher to the English ambulance, and they drive off. The man in the stretcher over him bleeds on to him, and by the time they reach the post on top of the hill, the man is dead and they replace him.

Analysis:

Although Hemingway has hinted at the horror of war, he has not graphically detailed it until this point. Henry's somewhat out-of-body experience when hit by the shell is rendered in the same spare style his narration has previously used, and as such it feels plausible and not overly dramatic.

This chapter also marks the second instance of characters' paying great attention to eating pasta. The difference this time is that the drivers eat the macaroni without utensils, and while a bombardment takes place outside. It is more evident, then, that they exercise such detailed attention to compensate for the chaos outside they are powerless to stop. Moreover, they demonstrate "grace under pressure," the ability to execute an action in the face of deathly conflict.

As an inverse function of Hemingway's stylistic repertoire, he omits pertinent details that ultimately draw the reader's attention to them. A minor example is Henry's discussion with the major of "when it should start," in reference to the fighting. It is almost as if he cannot bring himself to say what "it" is. The more notable example is of the blood dripping on him from the above stretcher: "I felt something dripping. At first it dripped slowly and regularly, then it pattered into a stream." This bloody "it" is far more horrific and mysterious than had he used the word "blood."

Book One: Chapter X:

Orderlies tend to Henry in the ward at the field hospital. Rinaldi visits him and gives him a bottle of cognac. He tells him he will receive a medal for being wounded while doing a heroic act. Henry says he did not do anything heroic, but Rinaldi says Henry's desire not to be helped before others counts. He says the mission was a success, but expresses his displeasure with the girls in town. He promises to send Catherine over, but he thinks Henry handles women the wrong way. They have a small fight, then make up and Rinaldi leaves.

Analysis:

Rinaldi jokes that Henry is homosexual, but his own actions - constantly calling Henry "'baby,'" kissing him, and generally doting on him - suggest he is the one who has homosexual tendencies. They have what is referred to in literary criticism as a "homosocial" relationship, an intimate bond generally between men that sometimes verges on homosexuality. However, Rinaldi differs from Henry in that he is not at all a believer in love, but only in sex.

Henry's nonchalance over receiving a medal is not merely a testament to his stoicism. He simply does not care about the rewards of war.

Book One: Chapter XI:

The priest visits Henry and brings him vermouth and English newspapers. They drink and discuss the war. The priest believes there are people who make war and people who do not make war; Henry believes he helps the first group force the second group to make war. Henry admits he does not love God or anything at all; the priest says Henry will love and, when he does, will be happy. The priest leaves, and Henry thinks about the idyllic Italian countryside the priest has told him about. He goes to sleep.

Analysis:

When speaking about love, the priest echoes the sentiment that Catherine and Henry have expressed: "'You cannot know about it unless you have it.'" Henry, admittedly, does not yet know about love, especially the kind of sacrificial love of which the priest speaks.

Book One: Chapter XII:

Henry describes how screens are put up around a bed if the inhabitant is going to die. He is to be sent to a better American hospital in Milan tomorrow. That night, Rinaldi and Henry's major visit. There is much speculation among the Italians over whom America will declare war on in addition to Germany. Rinaldi tells him Catherine is also going to the hospital in Milan. They leave Henry, who goes to sleep. Henry makes the unpleasant two-day train trip to Milan.

Analysis:

The discussion of whom the U.S. will declare war on becomes a game of sorts for Rinaldi and the major. In an attempt not to consider the actual consequences of what capturing cities and countries means, they carelessly toss off the names as a way to pass the time.

Rinaldi's teasing Henry over his injury and his need to be "cuddle[d]" by Catherine steps over the line. Though Rinaldi is lustful and disdains intimacy, he appears jealous over Henry's potentially loving relationship.

Book Two: Chapter XIII:

Henry arrives in Milan and, after some difficulty with the stretcher, is taken to the American hospital. After some bureaucratic difficulty with an elderly nurse, he gets a room and goes to sleep. When he wakes, he rings the bell and gets a young, pretty nurse, Miss Gage, who washes him and makes friendly small talk. She does not know of Catherine. Later, Miss Van Campen, the somewhat mean superintendent, comes in, asks Henry several questions, and forbids him from drinking wine. Miss Gage tells Henry the doctor will be arriving soon from his clinic in Lake Como.

Henry sends the porter for some vermouth, wine, and newspapers. He reads war news, then hides the vermouth when Miss Gage comes in, as he is not supposed to drink. Miss Gage brings him his dinner; she says Miss Van Campen has allowed some sherry in his eggnog. He goes to sleep, waking once sweaty and scared, then sleeps again until morning, when he sleeps again.

Analysis

The bumbling transition into the hospital - foul-ups with Henry's stretcher and with securing a room - reduces whatever honor there is in Henry's injury. Not only is the war chaotic, but so is the homeland action.

Again, Hemingway's style of omission makes Henry's emotional life more resonant. He does not tell us what his nightmare is about, but we understand implicitly that it is related to his recent injury.

Book Two: Chapter XIV:

Henry wakes in the morning. He rings for Miss Gage and asks for a barber. She says she found his vermouth that morning, and says she would have had some with him. She also tells him Catherine has arrived. She sends for the porter, who shaves Henry but refuses to discuss the war as he thinks Henry is an enemy Austrian officer.

Catherine comes to Henry's room. Henry thinks she looks beautiful and feels he is in love with her. He kisses her and begs her to stay on at the hospital. Later, Henry convinces Catherine to have sex with him for the first time. She says they will have to be careful in front of others. After she leaves, Henry feels wonderful. He learns the doctor will come that afternoon.

Analysis:

Hemingway again uses omission to good effect when he shows, purely through dialogue, how Henry convinces Catherine to have sex with him. What seems like a throwaway, somewhat humorous line - after Catherine tells Henry to "'Feel our hearts beating,'" his bald statement "'I don't care about our hearts. I want you'" - has unintended significance. Henry does feel he loves Catherine, but he has maintained previously, as to the priest, that he does not love anyone. Whether he and Catherine can forge a meaningful love in spite of war - or possibly as a reaction to the horror of war - is the main conflict in their relationship.

Although water is generally used to signify a kind of destructive fertility that ultimately leads to death, here and elsewhere Henry undergoes symbolic baptisms through water that renew. He is washed by Miss Gage to start his reentry into civilization. However, soon after the barber lathers him with water to shave him, and Henry learns the barber might have cut Henry since he thought he was Austrian. No matter what, water is tinged with death.

Book Two: Chapter XV:

In the afternoon, the doctor tends to Henry's leg and arranges for Henry to take an X-ray with another doctor. Later, three doctors come into Henry's room consult with each other and remove the dressing on Henry's leg. They project it will take six months until they can operate on his knee. Henry does not want to wait so long, and asks one of the doctors to get the opinion of another surgeon. The higher-ranking, fast-talking Dr. Valentini looks Henry over and says it can be operated on tomorrow.

Analysis:

Hemingway shows off his little-used talent for comedy and caricature in his descriptions of the incompetent doctors and the more competent Dr. Valentini. However, the humor masks the novel's bias towards more masculine, heroic characters. The "thin quiet little man" who first looks at Henry's knee passes him off to three doctors who cannot make any independent decisions, and they ultimately defer to the much more confident, lusty Dr. Valentini.

Book Two: Chapter XVI:

Catherine sleeps with Henry at night. They flirt in the morning and discuss his upcoming surgery. He tells her has never loved and made love to anyone but her, though she thinks he is lying. She thinks that if she just says and does what he wants, he will never want anyone else. He asks her to come back to bed.

Analysis:

The sometimes cloying flirtations Henry and Catherine go through are necessary to distract them from Henry's upcoming surgery and, more prominently, the war in general. Love is yet another game, like cards or drinking, to numb the pain of war.

Less pleasing to Hemingway's female readers is his representation of Catherine. She promises to be totally submissive to Henry's demands, and is the inverse of the dominant Lady Brett Ashley in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. However, she does so less because submission is such a major part of her character, but because she wants to escape her grief over her fiancé through another man.

Book Two: Chapter XVII:

Henry wakes up after his operation feeling like he was choked. He feels better after a little while and is told the operation was successful. There are now three other patients in the hospital. Catherine continues to do night duty, and she and Henry spend time together when she is not working. Helen, who passes notes between the two lovers, becomes a good friend to Henry, though she warns him not to get Catherine "'in trouble.'" He asks her and Miss Gage to let Catherine off night duty for a while, as she has been tired lately. Catherine takes night duty off for three days before she comes back to renewed mutual interest with Henry.

Analysis:

Henry and Catherine settle into a steady routine that takes advantage of his hospital stay. Although Hemingway does not lavish attention on it, it appears that Helen and Miss Gage have mixed feelings about the relationship. While Helen is happy for them, her priorities are to protect the fragile Catherine, hence her warning for Henry not to get Catherine "'in trouble'" (pregnant). Miss Gage, on the other hand, appears slightly jealous, as if she wants Henry for herself. She twice reminds him "'I'm your friend,'" once while she leans over him.

Book Two: Chapter XVIII:

Henry and Catherine enjoy their romance throughout the summer, going out for carriage-rides and dinners. They love touching each other, and Henry especially enjoys taking down her hair and letting it cascade over them. They think about each other constantly. Henry wants to get married, but Catherine says she would be sent home if they were; besides, they are essentially married as it is. She admits she may have been crazy when she first met him, but now she wants them to maintain their happiness. Nevertheless, she pledges to remain faithful to him. She also reminds him she had a bad experience last time she planned to marry someone.

Analysis:

Catherine's hair emerges as a symbol of the safe haven love can create in times of strife. She and Henry hide within her luxurious locks to block out the rest of the world, and she even equates her hair with the "game" of sex: "'Would you like me to take down my hair? Do you want to play?'"

Her hair is also related to water, a rare positive association for the otherwise negative symbol in the novel. Inside the cave of her hair, it feels like they are "behind a falls," and her hair also shines "as water shines." However, it is important to note that her hair never feels like water, but only looks like it (in that it shines like water and looks like waterfalls). Therefore, it never takes on the negative qualities of water in the novel - muddy and destructive.

Nevertheless, Catherine fears something destructive will happen, as it has happened before to her: "'I suppose all sorts of dreadful things will happen to us.'" In the war-torn world, tragedy is inevitable, so they must savor their love while they have it.

Book Two: Chapter XIX:

Henry soon walks with a cane. He wants to spend as much time as possible with Catherine. The war takes a terrible toll on both sides, especially on the Western front. One day he has a drink with Ettore Moretti, an Italian-American in the Italian army, and Ralph Simmons, an opera singer. Ettore boasts about the medals he has won in combat, his war injuries, and his upcoming promotion to captain.

Later, Henry and Catherine talk on his balcony. It rains and they go inside. Catherine admits she is afraid of the rain: "'...sometimes I see me dead in it...And sometimes I see you dead in it.'" She cries, and Henry comforts her while it rains.

Analysis

Hemingway makes the most explicit statement about the destructive properties of water through Catherine's drawn-out explanation about her fear of rain. Water intrudes upon happiness, leads to inevitable tragedy, and inspires fear in the novel's characters. While we do not know if the rain has something to do with the death of Catherine's fiancé, statements like this indicate she withholds much of her grief in Henry's comforting presence.

Ettore is the opposite of Henry in their attitude towards war. Ettore loves the honor of medals and high ranks, while Henry does not care about either. Clearly, we are meant to side with Henry's views.

Book Two: Chapter XX:

Henry goes to the horse races with Catherine, Helen and her date, and an elderly man, Myers, and his wife. Myers wins frequently when betting on the fixed races, but does not like to give tips as it brings down the prices. The four young people bet on a long shot that wins, but crooked betting brings down the odds. For the next race, Myers gives them a tip. They bet on the horse and it wins, but it hardly pays off. Catherine wants to bet on a horse without Myers's help. It loses, but she does not mind. She and Henry spend some time alone before rejoining the others.

Analysis:

This chapter fleshes out Catherine's character beyond her submissive, slightly insane behavior we have previously witnessed. Her morals are strong; she does not approve of the crooked horse racing, and would rather take a chance on an unknown horse that loses than win through an inside tip.

The bond between Henry and Catherine also deepens in the reader's eye, as this is the first time we see them socialize with others besides Helen. They value their time apart from the crowd, though they are not selfish lovers who cannot handle socialization.

Book Two: Chapter XXI:

September passes. The Allied war effort is loses ground and, though every army is hurt, the Italian army is especially decimated. Henry receives three weeks' convalescent leave, then he has to return to the front at the end of October. He reads some personal letters and baseball news from home. He tells Catherine about his leave, and she says she will go wherever he goes. She tells him she is three months' pregnant. They feel self-conscious at first, then resume their loving ways and promise not to fight, as they are a team against the rest of the world. Henry says "'The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one,'" but they cannot remember who said it; regardless, Catherine thinks the brave "'dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.'"

Analysis:

The quote Henry refers to is from Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar," and reads correctly as "Cowards die many times before their deaths; / The valiant never taste of death but once" (II.ii.32-33). The quote exemplifies Henry's quiet bravery in the face of danger; unlike the blustery Ettore, Henry handles complications in his life with calmness and assurance, like Caesar. However, Henry does not know that Caesar spoke the quote, and thus he does not realize the implicit irony - Caesar is murdered soon after he makes this profound statement. For the reader who catches this allusion, disaster looms on the horizon for Henry and Catherine.

Still, they are a close-knit team, and her pregnancy only temporarily rattles Henry when he admits he feels somewhat trapped. In the developing theme of loyalty, Henry and Catherine pledge to remain loyal to each other, for, as Catherine points, it is the two of them versus the world.

Book Two: Chapter XXII:

It rains heavily and Henry gets wet. He gets sick, and the next morning is diagnosed with jaundice. He is sick for two weeks and does not go on convalescent leave as planned. One day while he is in bed, Miss Van Campen finds all his empty alcohol bottles. Eager to capitalize on her long-standing disapproval of Henry, she accuses him of inflicting the jaundice upon himself by drinking so much. Henry notes that giving oneself jaundice is as unpleasant a sensation as a "'kicking'" oneself "'in the scrotum.'" She leaves in anger and takes away Henry's leave.

Analysis:

This short, somewhat humorous chapter again glorifies masculinity. Although Henry is not the ideal soldier, he bears his wounds, both physical and emotional, with an admirable stoicism. His comparison of jaundice to the sensation of a kick in the scrotum is comic but important; though the war tries its hardest to emasculate its soldiers, the brave, courageous ones like Henry deal with it and survive. He also equates the sensation to childbirth, again indicating his fear of fertility.

As Catherine has predicted, bad things are starting to happen to her and Henry. While this episode is fairly harmless, Henry's jaundice does ruin their planned vacation. Once again, rain (at the start of the chapter) heralds the destruction of happy times.

Book Two: Chapter XXIII:

Catherine walks with Henry through town in the early evening; his train to the front is at midnight. Henry buys a gun in an armorer's shop. It starts to rain, and they take a carriage to a hotel. Catherine buys a nightgown on the way. They get a room and order dinner to be sent up. Catherine says she feels like a whore. They eat and make love and feel better. They discuss Catherine's slight craziness when they first met, and say neither will have to meet the other person's father - Catherine's has gout, while Henry has a stepfather. They make plans for when Henry is away - where Catherine will have the baby, how frequently she will write him - before they tear themselves away from the hotel room.

Analysis:

The lovers' last moments together before the soldier is sent off to the front is frequently used in war literature, but Hemingway poignantly renders this scene with two parts that undercut its air of romance. First, Henry buys a gun, a reminder that violence is on the horizon. Then, just when they get their room, Catherine says she feels like a whore for having sex in a hotel room. If the reader finds the rest of their conversation overly sentimental, these two darker notes remind us that the characters must plunge headlong into love to block out the horrific world around them.

We so rarely have conventional access to Henry's thoughts that when he does relate them, it comes as something of a surprise, as with "Oh, hell, I thought, do we have to argue now?" His narration is almost purely action, or indirect description of emotions, rather than direct translation of his thoughts. This style fits with the masculine code Hemingway endorses; the Hemingway hero is a man of action, not of intellect (which is not to say Henry is anti-intellectual - he certainly is not - but he is as much a doer as he is a thinker).

Book Two: Chapter XXIV:

Henry and Catherine leave their hotel room. They take a carriage to the train station in the rain. They say goodbye and Henry takes a seat in the crowded train, reserved for him by a soldier. Another captain is angry that Henry has reserved a seat, as he has been waiting two hours and must stand. Henry gives him his seat and stands in the corridor. He sleeps on the crowded corridor overnight.

Analysis:

Henry's dignified brand of heroism emerges again in the confrontation with the captain. Rather than fight a foolhardy battle, Henry graciously steps aside. This is not cowardice, but grace under pressure - Henry's understanding that this is not worth fighting over, and that the captain, though rude, does have a point.

Book Three: Chapter XXV:

Henry rides from Udine over muddy roads and by bare fall trees to a dreary homecoming in Gorizia. His major asks to see the two ribbons Henry won. The major reports that the summer has been bad to them; Rinaldi is in the hospital now. He directs Henry to take a car to Caporetto tomorrow and send back another driver, Gino.

Henry goes to his room and thinks about Catherine, despite wanting to think about her only before sleep. Rinaldi greets him and inspects his knee. Rinaldi says he is depressed; when he operated all summer he never had the chance to think, but now he does not operate and he feels horrible. Rinaldi wants to get drunk, but Henry tells him he has had jaundice and cannot get drunk. They drink some cognac, anyway. Henry says he is in love with Catherine. Rinaldi asks sexual questions about her, but Henry refuses to discuss it. Rinaldi, who has no such sacred subjects, admits he may be jealous, and says he has no married friends because he is the "'snake of reason.'" The only things he likes, he says, are sex and drinking.

They go down to dinner. Rinaldo pushes more alcohol on Henry. The major joins them, and the priest comes in later. Rinaldi tries to tease the priest, but the priest does not rise to the bait, and neither Henry nor the major provides any encouragement. After Rinaldi makes some more harsh comments, the priest suggests he needs a leave, which only enrages Rinaldi more. Rinaldi leaves after dinner, and the major says Rinaldi thinks he has syphilis. The major leaves Henry and the priest alone.

Analysis

Death and destruction are again heralded at the start of the chapter with the rain and the images of bare-leafed sterility.

Rinaldi discusses his need to be distracted by work. When he is not working, he is forced to think, and it is inevitably depressing to do so during the war. Just as Rinaldi escapes into work, drinking, and sex, Henry escapes into love. When he arrives home he immediately thinks about Catherine, though he has promised himself he would think about her only before going to sleep. The temptation to think about something pleasurable is too great in such a horrible world.

Rinaldi admits he is jealous of Henry's love, but he qualifies it: "'I don't mean like that. I mean something else.'" He goes on to discuss how the married couple always starts to dislike him, but a possible subtext is that Rinaldi wants the man for himself. Hemingway builds up Rinaldi's homosocial attraction to Henry even more in this chapter, as Rinaldi asks for kisses and feels Henry's knee with his "fine surgeon's hands." Hemingway suggests that the code of the hero does not preclude these homosocial interactions - in fact, it may depend upon such fraternal intimacy.

Book Three: Chapter XXVI:

It is misty outside. Henry takes the priest to his room. The priest feels the war will be over soon, as it has taken a horrible toll on everyone and made them "'gentler.'" Henry thinks that in defeat we become more "'like Our Lord.'" He also thinks that the soldiers were beaten even before the fighting - especially the peasants taken from their farms to go to war. Henry feels depressed, and says this is why he tries not to think about the war, although when he talks he brings out what he has been unconsciously thinking. The priest says he will see Henry when he comes back from his mission, then leaves.

Analysis:

Though Henry is not necessarily religious, he is certainly spiritual. He believes that though the war is horrible, it at least makes everyone humbler and more Christian. He also has sympathy for the peasants, another Christian attitude.

However, Henry is too removed so far to be highly spiritual. He admits that he does not like thinking about the war, though his mind has evidently been whirring in the background without his consent.

Henry's description of his thought process - "'...when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking'" - is a good example of how Hemingway generally fashions dialogue. He brings to the fore the nearly unconscious statements of his characters. These are not polished, well-developed statements of purpose, but raw, unadorned feelings.

Book Three: Chapter XXVII:

Henry wakes in the morning and goes to the Bainsizza, a series of small mountains formerly occupied by the Austrians, beyond where he was wounded. The nearby village is badly damaged, but there is much artillery around and it is well organized. He finds Gino, and Gino relates war news and warns Henry about roadside artillery. They discuss war tactics and the state of food during the war. Henry thinks about certain abstract words used frequently in the military and believes they have no place in the war; only the concrete names of places have any dignity.

It storms until late afternoon. The Austrians fire some guns from the woods, but it is not too dangerous. Late at night, there is a bombardment. The wounded are brought in as the rain turns to snow. Two nights later, the Italian line in the north breaks and they are forced to retreat from the advancing Germans and Austrians. They march through the wet weather and evacuate the wounded along the way. They reach Gorizia in two days. Henry sees girls from the soldiers' whorehouse being loaded into a truck. Bonello, a fellow driver, wants to go with them. Henry finds the villa and hospital empty. He finds a note telling him to take some cars to Pordenone. He and the others rest and eat before they continue the retreat.

Analysis:

The novel turns its attention from the game of love in Books One and Two to the even higher-stakes game of war in Book Three. Henry remarks that the military-preferred words "sacred," "glorious," "sacrifice," and "in vain" are empty, and this chapter strips the reader of whatever romantic illusions he might have had about war. The retreat is presented as a gloomy, wet affair - in fact, the motif Hemingway draws of wetness magnifies throughout the chapter as the rain eventually turns into an even more sterile blanket of snow. Henry narrates the proceedings in much the way he narrated the march of the soldiers in Chapter I - with a detached style that focuses on concrete details.

Book Three: Chapter XXVIII:

Henry and the drivers join the retreating army in the rainy night. The column of trucks and horses stops for several hours before continuing. The column stalls later in the night. Bonello has picked up two sergeants of engineering, while Aymo, another driver, has two Italian girls with him. A third driver, Piani, also comes.

Henry thinks longingly and dreams about Catherine while in the rain. The column restarts again, but it moves very slowly. Peasants have joined them overnight. Henry thinks they need to find a side road in case the Austrians attack. He sees one and tells his fellow drivers to turn off. They do so and stop at a deserted farmhouse, where they make themselves a quick breakfast. Henry leaves first with another driver.

Analysis:

While thinking about Catherine in the rain, Henry consciously alludes to the anonymous English poem "Western Wind":

Western wind, when wilt thou blow?

The small rain down can rain.

Christ, if my love were in my arms,

And I in my bed again!

The lyric is famous as an earnestly romantic plea to be reunited with one's lover. The irony in Henry's allusion is that the rain, which heightens the passion in the poem, only serves as a destructive reminder of gloom and death during the army's retreat.

The other notable effect of the allusion is that while Henry has proved himself to be an intellectual man, here he delves into a highly literary mode while providing greater access to his thoughts than ever before. In fact, this passage is the closest so far to "stream-of-consciousness" writing, a narrative style pioneered by James Joyce and William Faulkner in which the writer approximates the rapid, oft-chaotic thought patterns of the character.

Book Three: Chapter XXIX:

After they take many side roads to avoid overhead planes, Aymo's car gets stuck in the mud at noon about ten kilometers from Udine. The two sergeants they have been giving a ride walk off despite Henry's orders for them to help. Henry fires his pistol at them and hits one; the other escapes. Bonello asks for Henry's pistol, then goes over to the fallen sergeant and shoots him twice.

The drivers try several tactics to get the car out of the mud, but are unsuccessful. They pile into the other car with the girls but soon get stuck in a muddy field. They go on foot to a road, and Henry gives the girls some money and directs them toward a main road, where he says they will meet other Italians. The drivers see other cars stuck in the field. Bonello is happy he killed the sergeant, the first time he has killed anyone. They walk quickly and silently up the road.

Analysis:

The men barely discuss the murder of the sergeant, and when they do, it is with humor. However, they quickly change the subject and then do not speak at all. Though Hemingway has written the action of the murder so quickly that it seems almost like an insignificant event, the episode deeply affects the men despite their attempts to hide it.

But it remains unclear how Henry feels about the murder, because the episode is written so succinctly and matter-of-factly. Hemingway writes this part, as he generally writes, under the influences of journalism and the literary movement of Naturalism. Both emphasize objectivity over subjectivity and refrain, especially Naturalism, from passing any moral judgment on actions. Therefore, neither Hemingway nor Henry expresses any type of emotional or moral response to the murder; it simply happens.

Nevertheless, such a detached viewpoint does make a moral statement: there is little room for morality in war. Does the sergeant deserve murder for abandoning the drivers? Does he deserve it any more than the other sergeant who managed to escape? These questions are moot in war. Seemingly contradictory behavior, such as the normally calm Henry's act of violence, and even overly violent behavior, such as Bonello's bloodthirsty execution, can be excused in a chaotic, sometimes meaningless world.

Book Three: Chapter XXX:

Henry and the drivers reach a river where abandoned trucks and carts sit by a blown-up bridge. Henry leads them to a nearby railway bridge. They cross it and Henry sees a German staff car, then German bicycle troops, cross another nearby bridge before disappearing up the road. Henry is angry that the main bridge they crossed was not blown up, while the smaller bridge before was destroyed. Still, his job is to get three ambulances to Pordenone, and now it is doubtful he can even get to Udine.

Henry leads them along the railroad track. They duck when another group of German bicyclists passes by on the road. The drivers establish that they were spotted, but that the Germans are after something else. They walk on and hear firing ahead. As Henry leads them down a side road by a plain, a shot is fired at them. The drivers scramble up a muddy embankment, but Aymo is shot and killed. The drivers believe the Italians, and not the Germans, shot at them - the men's attempt to cross the field scared the Italian rear guard.

The men decide to hide out near Udine and go through when it gets dark. They cross the field in the rain and enter an empty farmhouse. Henry lies down in the hay in the barn. Piani joins him and tells him that, afraid he would be killed, Bonello left to become a prisoner. They drink wine and look out windows to make they are safe, and later leave.

They walk on through the rainy night, a few times coming close to Germans. They later join some vehicles and troops. Henry and Piani think Bonello was a fool for becoming a prisoner, but Henry decides not to file a report that will cause trouble for Bonello's family. The soldiers, some of whom drop their rifles, believe the war is over, but Piani disagrees. Henry wonders why the Germans do not confront them.

Before daylight they reach a bridge over a flooded river. Henry is forcibly taken by several Italian battle police and interrogated for his "'treachery'" that led to the Italian defeat. They interrogate a lieutenant-colonel as well before taking him aside and shooting him. The officers interrogate more men, believing they are Germans in Italian uniforms, and shoot them. When he has an opening, Henry runs into the river, stays underwater, and lets the current carry him downstream. He is shot at, but he floats away too quickly to be caught.

Analysis:

Henry's anger over the main bridge's not being blown up is the first time he reveals true anger; prior to this, he has been dispassionate except when with Catherine, and hardly seemed fazed when he shot at the sergeant. The bridge episode only foreshadows the Italian military incompetence and chaos depicted later.

The chaos infects everyone. Bonello deserts the men even though they stand little chance of being captured by the Germans. His fearful act comes after the fearful act of the Italian rear guard that shot Aymo. As Piani says, however, Bonello (and the rest of them) simply does not believe in the war, and he does not want to take the slightest chance of being killed.

Ironically, Bonello might have been killed had he stayed with Henry, since the Italian army turns on its own men. The chaos and brutality here is as horrific as anything in the war, perhaps more so for its total injustice. Some manage to keep their pride, as the lieutenant-colonel does when he wearily asks to be shot since "'The questioning is stupid.'" Henry's escape is not cowardly nor particularly courageous; he is simply detached from the war and does not feel the need to take a humanitarian stand against such tyrants.

Book Three: Chapter XXXI:

Henry holds on to a piece of timber and floats down the cold river. With great difficulty from the strong current and a swirling eddy, he reaches the bank. He rests for a while, dries off, and cuts off the cloth stars on his sleeve that signify he is a lieutenant and pockets them. He walks down a road, and a machine-gun detachment passes and ignores him.

Henry crosses the Venetian plain and reaches a railroad line between Venice and Trieste. Wary of the nearby guard, he jumps into an open car of a slow-moving train. He hides under the canvas rain-guard and bumps and cuts his head on one of the many guns that are stored there. He wipes off the blood so as not to appear conspicuous, since he will have to get out before Mestre, when they take care of the guns.

Analysis:

Henry undergoes a baptism of sorts in the river. He has removed himself from the army, an act further symbolized by his cutting off his uniform's stars. While rain and water have previously been symbols of destruction and death, here for once the river is a symbol of rebirth. In fact, his furious fight to get out of the river is reminiscent of birth: "...when I looked up the bank was coming toward me, and I kept thrashing and swimming in a heavy-footed panic until I reached it."

Henry makes another connection to nature, as well. He holds on to the piece of timber to stay afloat, and thereafter refers to his and the timber's progress down the river with the first-person plural pronoun of "we," as in "We went down the river in a long curve." He and the timber are one, and Henry grammatically yokes himself to life-saving nature, not the life-killing men from whom he has escaped.

Book Three: Chapter XXXII:

Henry lies on the floor of the train car, cold, wet, and hungry. He tries not to think about Catherine, as it will make him crazy if he does. He thinks that he has no obligation for the cars and men he has lost. He also feels he is no longer angry; he is not involved with the army anymore, and he wishes them luck in their fight. He thinks the army might report him as having drowned. He thinks he will never see Rinaldi again, and then thinks about where he and Catherine will go when they reunite.

Analysis:

Hemingway ups the ante of the pronounal shift he uses in Chapter XXXI with Henry describing himself and the piece of timber as "we." Here, Henry thinks to himself with the second-person pronoun of "you," the longest usage of the technique in the novel. The narrative also loses it journalistic precision and slips into ungrammatical, awkward sentences: "...but you loved some one else whom now you knew was not even to be pretended there; you seeing now very clear and coldly..."

This is Hemingway's foray into Joycean and Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness writing (Chapter XXVIII also featured the technique in some respects), and it not only pulls the reader into Henry's mind, but has another effect: it signifies how much Henry has removed himself from his former way of life. He must temporarily detach himself from his person to see how he has detached himself from the army, and he does this by stepping outside of himself and addressing himself as "you."

Book Four: Chapter XXXIII:

Henry gets off the train in Milan and goes into a wine shop for some coffee and bread. The proprietor offers to shelter him if he is in trouble. Henry thanks him but rejects the offer. The proprietor warns him that his sleeve shows signs that he has torn off his stars, and offers to sell him leave-paper, though Henry again turns him down. Henry goes to the porter's lodge at the hospital. He learns that Catherine left two days ago for Stresa with Helen. He asks the porter and his wife not to tell anyone they saw him.

Henry finds Simmons, a man he knows who is studying singing. He asks Simmons how he can get into Switzerland; Simmons says it is simple, though Henry's flight from the police may make it more difficult. Simmons offers to give him some civilian clothes, and tells him he needs only to row a boat to get to Stresa.

Analysis

As Henry switches into a new civilian life, he finds he has many allies. However, it is unclear, for example, if the proprietor of the wine shop earnestly cares about Henry's well being or only wants him to buy leave-papers from him. Even the seeming pacifists, Hemingway suggests, want to profit from the war.

Book Four: Chapter XXXIV:

Henry feels uncomfortable in civilian clothes as he rides a train to Stresa. He vows to forget the war, as he had "made a separate peace." He arrives and takes a carriage to the Grand-Hôtel & des Isles Borromées and gets a good room. He eats and drinks in the hotel bar and asks the bartender, Emilio, if he has seen two English nurses. Emilio tells him they are at a little hotel near the train station. Henry finds Catherine and Helen eating dinner at their hotel. Helen accuses Henry of having gotten Catherine into trouble, but Catherine defends him. Helen cries and tells Henry she hates him. Catherine finally calms her down.

Catherine spends the night in Henry's hotel room. He feels they are never lonely or afraid when together, and that nighttime, which can be a lonely time, is better with her. He thinks the world tries to kill anyone it cannot break. In the morning, he deflects Catherine's questions about his possible arrest, though he admits he feels like a criminal for deserting the army. He tells her his desire to go to Switzerland, and she agrees it would be nice.

Analysis:

Henry tells Catherine "'Let's not think about anything'" and summarizes what the war does to people, especially lovers: it forces them to ignore the horror around them and focus on more pleasurable, simply topics, such as the flirtatious games of love. As he points out earlier in the chapter, the war breaks or kills people; if you are strong, the war will not break you but will instead kill you. For strong people like Henry and Catherine who have weathered great adversity, they must hope they remain "strong at the broken places," as Henry says, or else face death. This is why Henry must make "a separate peace" and escape to Switzerland - if he stays in the war, it will kill him.

Helen's strength is different; she is more responsible than Catherine is and does not have a lover in whom she can forget the war. Hence, her jealousy over Catherine and Henry's relationship finally emerges, masked by her concern for Catherine.

Book Four: Chapter XXXV:

Catherine goes to see Helen while Henry reads up on war news in the bar. Emilio tells him that Count Greffi, an elderly former diplomat of Austria and Italy Henry knows from before, wants to play billiards with Henry. Henry and Emilio go fishing for a little while on Emilio's boat. They have a drink later and Emilio says if he is called to war next year, he will get out of the country - he has fought before.

Henry goes back to the room and waits for Catherine. Henry admits he feels his life is empty without her. They have lunch with Helen, and Count Greffi introduces himself and his niece to the women. Later in the afternoon, Henry joins Count Greffi for billiards. They make a small bet and Henry receives a handicap. They drink while playing but focus on the game, and Count Greffi wins by a little. They discuss the books "'Le Feu'" by a Frenchman, Barbusse, and "'Mr. Britling Sees Through It'"; Henry is apparently not a fan of either work. They talk about death, immortality, valuing life, and being devout, which neither of them claims to be. Count Greffi believes Italy will win the war because it is a younger country. They part.

Analysis:

Henri Barbusse's Le Feu (1916) or, in its English translation, Under Fire: The Story of a Squad, was one of the first critically acclaimed anti-war novels about WWI, while H.G. Wells's 1916 novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through (not "Sees Through It") similarly diagnosed the ills of the war. However, both books, and more importantly both authors, have a predilection for Communism, a system Hemingway critiques most notably in his 1940 novel about the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Rather, Hemingway prefers the individualism of Henry and his other heroes, men who make "a separate peace" but try to bond with others through non-political means.

Henry feels empty without Catherine and, once again, tries not to think at all without her to lessen the pain of emptiness. Count Greffi ably distracts him with another game, billiards, for which, unlike love, they both know the stakes ahead of time.

Book Four: Chapter XXXVI:

Henry wakes up during a storm to a knock at the door. It is Emilio, who warns Henry he will be arrested in the morning for a war-related crime. Emilio suggests Henry escape across the lake to Switzerland with his boat. Henry wakes Catherine, tells her the news, and she quickly packs. Emilio helps them with their bags and they go downstairs. The porter gives them an umbrella, thinking they are merely going for a stroll. They reach the boat, and Henry promises to send Emilio 500 francs through the mail. Emilio gives them some food and drinks, which Henry pays for, and gives them directions for the eight-hour ride. They shove off into the stormy night.

Analysis:

Hemingway establishes credibility for Henry's escape by using Emilio's boat as the source of a pleasurable diversion in Chapter XXXV. As with the river, a body of water will prove to be Henry's escape route, though he must also deal with water in its more destructive form through the storm.

Book Four: Chapter XXXVII:

Henry rows the boat in the dark. In the darkness they miss Pallanza, the intended checkpoint. He rows all night, his hands growing sorer and the boat nearly smashing against the shore several times. After a while, Henry holds the umbrella so they can sail with the wind, and Catherine steers the boat. But the wind rips the umbrella and blows it inside-out. Catherine finds it humorous, and Henry refreshes with some brandy and lake water. They sail with the oars up, wary of police by the shore, and Catherine takes over the oars. They near the shore by daylight and hide from some police in a motorboat. Henry believes they are in Switzerland.

They continue sailing near the shore. They see a soldier on the road and wave to him, and then land the boat in Switzerland. They are happy to be on Swiss ground, and even find the rain cheerful. They go to a café and have a breakfast of eggs. Henry is still worried about being arrested after breakfast, though Catherine tells him not to think about it.

As Henry predicted, they are arrested after breakfast when they retrieve their bags from the boat. They are taken to the custom house, where Henry lies to a Swiss lieutenant and says he and his cousin have been studying in Italy, and says they took out the boat for winter sport. The lieutenant says he will have to send them to Locarno, but when he finds out how much money they have, he is impressed and eases up on them.

A soldier drives Henry and Catherine to Locarno, where their money helps them to secure provisional visas. Two officials debate the superiority of Montreux and Locarno for winter sport. Henry and Catherine decide to go to Montreux. They are first driven to a hotel in town.

Analysis:

Catherine has been gradually gaining independence over the course of the novel, changing from a submissive, eager-to-please girlfriend to a strong woman who takes over the boat-rowing as she and her lover make their escape. In fact, the whole escape across the lake is a sort of parody of the typical scene of lovers rowing on the lake. Normally, it is a pleasant, easygoing afternoon diversion. Here, it is an arduous nighttime flight; the episode with the inside-out umbrella is the only humorous break from the hard work, and even that can be seen as a symbol of nature's being against them. The lake episode again functions as a symbolic baptism, and it is fitting that Henry eats eggs for breakfast once in Switzerland.

The humorous debate among the Swiss officials over winter sport in Montreux and Locarno showcases how different life during war is in neutral Switzerland from life in war-ravaged Italy; the last time we saw officials in Italy, they were choosing which members of their own army would be executed.

Book Five: Chapter XXXVIII:

Henry and Catherine board in a Swiss mountaintop chalet near Montreux and enjoy a mostly solitary life in the beautiful countryside, the town, and neighboring villages. Since the snow has not yet fallen, he knows that the fighting is still going on in the mountains. He learns from the newspapers that the war is going badly for everyone. Catherine worries about the baby's size, as she has narrow hips. Henry wants to get married now, but Catherine does not want to do so while pregnant with "'young Catherine.'" She says she will become an American citizen once they marry, and they fantasize about places they will travel in the U.S.

It finally snows three days before Christmas. Henry says he sometimes thinks about the front and people there, like Rinaldi and the priest. Catherine is very content with him, though she admits she was crazy when she first met Henry.

Analysis:

This interlude shows the idyllic effects of Henry's "separate peace": a relaxed, peaceful life in a Swiss chalet. However, as Henry admits, he cannot fully divorce himself from thoughts of the war, nor can he ignore his guilt over knowing that he has escaped from it while others, like Rinaldi and the priest, are still at the front. With this weighing on his mind, he and Catherine continue to dive into romance and play flirtatious games for distraction.

Book Five: Chapter XXXIX:

It is January and snow blankets the terrain. Henry, now bearded, has not yet cabled his family to let them know where he is, but has only sent them a sight draft. Catherine plans to cut her hair after she gives birth.

Analysis:

This short chapter is notable mostly for Henry's reference to his contentious relationship with his family: "'...we quarrelled [sic] so much it wore itself out.'" With the war surrounding him and an unsatisfying family life, it is no wonder that Henry seeks romantic escape in Catherine. The snow, too, covers all their worries; frozen water is far kinder to their happiness than is liquid.

Book Five: Chapter XL:

Henry and Catherine stay in their rented chalet through March. Rain turns the snow into slush. With their child due in a month, they move to a hotel in Lausanne to be near a hospital. They stay for three weeks, and Catherine prepares for the baby's arrival. Henry works out at the boxing gymnasium. He and Catherine cherish their remaining time alone.

Analysis:

Rain again impinges upon the couple's happiness at the start of the chapter, melting the peaceful snow and turning it to grimy slush. Bad weather also breaks into the "false spring" weather and repeatedly turns it bad. Henry says that with the baby's arrival, he and Catherine feel "as though something were hurrying us and we could not lose any time together." This statement applies to the general atmosphere in the book: if there is ever any momentary happiness, the war and the world will do its best to destroy it.

Henry does not like mixing his boxing exercises with his new beard - "it looked so strange to see a man with a beard boxing" - because his secluded and bearded new self is so divorced from the war and real fighting. Henry feels uncomfortable knowing he has left the violent war for the "play"-fighting of boxing.

Book Five: Chapter XLI:

One night, Catherine has contractions, and she and Henry take a taxi to the hospital. She is taken to a room and Henry joins her, but when her labor pains become bad she tells him he should go get breakfast. He has some wine and brioche at a café, and sees a dog burrowing through garbage.

He returns to the hospital and finds Catherine in the delivery room. She demands gas repeatedly to soothe her labor pains. She is still in labor by the afternoon. Henry goes out for lunch, and when he comes back Catherine is drunk from the gas. She assures Henry that she's "'not going to die.'" Henry goes out again and thinks about her pregnancy; he feels this is the price people pay for loving each other, and worries that she might die.

The doctor informs Henry that the pregnancy is stalled, and recommends a Caesarean delivery. Henry agrees and rejoins Catherine, who breaks down at the immense pain. She worries she will die, and demands more gas. She is transported to the operating room, and Henry remains in the hall. The doctor later emerges with the male newborn. Henry does not feel fatherly at all; he tells the doctor that the baby "'nearly killed his mother.'"

Henry goes in to see Catherine. She is all right, but looks nearly dead. When she wakes up he tells her the baby is a boy. He is taken out, and the nurse tells him the baby was born strangled by the umbilical cord. Henry wonders why the doctor had pretended the baby was alive. He thinks this will kill Catherine. He thinks of a time in camp when he watched a burning log full of ants; all he did was throw a cup of water on the log, which probably only steamed the ants.

Henry has a supper in the café of ham and eggs and beer. When he returns to the hospital, he learns that Catherine has had a dangerous hemorrhage. He prays to God not to let her die. He sees her, and she says she will die. They exchange a few words, but Henry has to leave so she can rest. He comes in later after she has fallen unconscious and suffered numerous hemorrhages. He stays with her until she dies. He later leaves the room and talks to the doctor briefly, then goes back into Catherine's room against the wishes of the nurses. But he feels it is like "saying good-by to a statue," and walks back to the hotel in the rain.

Analysis:

Henry's ruminations in the tragic final chapter of the novel sum up Hemingway's central theme about the horrific world: "But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you." inhabitants. The violence and chaos of war is merely an extension of the cruel world, which is out to break and kill its inhabitants.

The novel also ends in the same atmosphere of sterility and death with which it began. The dog Henry sees foreshadows Catherine's stillbirth and her own death. Picking through the garbage, it finds "coffee-grounds, dust and some dead flowers" - all markers of sterility and death. Recall, too, that dust figured prominently in Chapter I as a symbol of fertility, but was soon turned to deathly mud by the rain. Further symmetry between the two chapters reveals itself when we think back to the image of soldiers with guns under their capes looking "as though they were six months gone with child." The baby's death by choking also recalls Henry's sensation of being choked after his knee operation in Chapter XVII.

It is ironic, then, that Henry eats eggs, a symbol of life, for his supper - or perhaps a sign that he has intercepted a life that could have been, in the same way that he does not seem to mind his son's death. Whatever we make of this, the novel ends on an unequivocally pessimistic note. The final word is "rain," a reminder of the destruction and death the world inflicts upon those who hold out the most hope, and even those who most deeply love.

We have little access to Henry's thoughts on his rainy walk back home, but it is doubtful he will recover from the blow. As he and other characters have noted, one does not always know the stakes of something until it is over. Henry, who has previously tried to ignore thoughts of life without Catherine, must now confront it. He now knows what it means, but only because he has already lost her.

• Biography of Ernest Hemingway
• About A Farewell to Arms
• Character List
• Major Themes
• Short Summary
• Full Summary and Analysis
• Summary and Analysis of Book One, Chapters I-VI
• Summary and Analysis of Book One, Chapters VII-XII
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two, Chapters XIII-XVIII
• Summary and Analysis of Book Two, Chapters XIX-XIV
• Summary and Analysis of Book Three, Chapters XXV-XXXII
• Summary and Analysis of Book Four, Chapters XXXIII-XLI
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