A Farewell to Arms

“People lived on it and there were hospitals and cafes and artillery up side streets and two bawdy house, one for troops and one for officers, and with the end of the summer, the cool nights, the fighting in the mountains beyond the town, the shell-marked iron of the railway bridge, the smashed tunnel by the river where the fighting had been, the trees around the square and the long avenue of trees that led to the square; these with there being girls in the town, the King passing in his motor car, sometimes now seeing his face and little long necked body and gray beard like a goat’s chin tuft; all these with the sudden interiors of houses that had lost a wall through shelling, with plaster and rubble in their gardens and sometimes in the street, and the whole thing going well on the Carso made the fall very different from the last fall when we had been in the country.” 

Chapter 2 takes place a year later, and the Italian victories against the Austrians have made this year much better than the dismal scene in Chapter 1, when 7,000 men died from cholera alone. However, despite the victories, the markings of war are everywhere, as architecture bears the scars of wars, such as the “shell-marked” bridge and the missing walls of homes, and the military has taken over the “very nice” town (Gorizia). Hemingway’s flattened style of language again relies on the use of “and,” which he uses eleven times in this sentence. The effect of this stringing together of images using “and” (a technique known as “polysyndeton”)is that nothing takes precedence over anything else, all is just as important, or least important, as the other. Even the king with his gray beard and little body is just another detail used to create the picture of life during wartime. 

“I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the dark and so exciting that you must resume again unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring. Suddenly to care very much and to sleep to wake with it sometimes morning and all that had been there gone and everything sharp and hard and clear and sometimes a dispute about the cost. Sometimes still pleasant and fond and warm and breakfast and lunch. Sometimes all niceness gone and glad to get out on the street but always another day starting and then another night. I tried to tell about the night and the difference between the night and the day and how the night was better unless the day was very clean and cold and I could not tell it; as I cannot tell it now. But if you have had it you know.” 

In this passage, Frederic erupts in stream of consciousness, in marked contrast to his usual reliance on short direct sentences and clipped dialogue. He usually restrains himself from sharing his feelings and thoughts. But in this passage, he releases his thoughts in a flood, as if drunk, in order to convey the bewildering feelings from his leave. When he is on the battlefield, he is focused on his job. When he’s not working, he has alcohol, sex, and the banter with his fellow soldiers to distract him from his feelings of hopelessness. When he’s on leave, he’s alone with his thoughts. He still tries to distract himself with alcohol and sex, but it’s harder to do so. His thoughts about life, war, and death loom especially large when he’s confronted with the fact that “that was all there was.”Frederic feels that there is no higher purpose in life to guide him.

“I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards.” 

In the beginning of the book, Frederic treats Catherine selfishly. He sees her pain over her dead fiancé and takes advantage of it. He compares his actions with her to the actions one would take in a game of bridge. At first, she is like all the rest of the woman he has slept with. She soon teaches him how to love her, and later, he is shocked when he finds out how strong his feelings for her have become.

“‘We in the auto-ambulance cannot even realize at all how bad it is. When people realize how bad it is they cannot do anything to stop it because they go crazy.’” 

The Italian ambulance drivers are discussing their disgust with the war with Frederic. Even though Frederic is an officer, they are comfortable sharing their thoughts with him. Although they are not fighting in the infantry, they feel the wastefulness of the war. But they also know that if they were in the middle of war, they would “go crazy” because then they would know the true extent of how bad the war is. They say that everyone hates the war except for the “stupid” class that controls the country. Ironically, it is Passini, who is speaking, who ends up being the one who is killed, only moments after this conversation. 

“‘I was blown up while we were eating cheese.’” 

When Rinaldi visits Frederic in the hospital after he is wounded, Rinaldi is excited that Frederic may earn a medal for his wounds if they can prove that he did something heroic. Frederic denies any heroism, insisting that he was wounded doing something very mundane and un-heroic, eating cheese. He refuses to seek glory and insists on the facts of the situation: he was blown up in the midst of a meal with his men. The fact that he is even injured is shocking to him. As part of the ambulance corps, he felt protected from such a fate. Now he knows that war does not discriminate; it can destroy anyone, even when they believe they are safe.

“‘Still even wounded you do not see it. I can tell. I do not see it myself but I feel it a little.’” 

Unlike Rinaldi, the priest is much more subdued and tired when he visits Frederic in the hospital. He tells him how much he hates the war. He thinks Frederic is unable to see the horrors of war even though he has just been blown up. The priest feels aligned with the common men, men like Passini, who are stuck in a war they didn’t create, and it seems as if they are powerless to stop it. 

“‘What you tell me about in the nights. That is not love. That is only passion and lust. When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.’” 

In the past, Frederic has confided to the priest about the nights he has spent in the arms of prostitutes. The priest reminds him that true love is about sacrifice and service, not passion and lust. He tells him that he too will experience this type of love and will find happiness, clearly foreshadowing Frederic’s relationship with Catherine.

“God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her. I had not wanted to fall in love with anyone one. But God knows I had and I lay on the bed in the room of the hospital in Milan and all sorts of things went through my head but I felt wonderful and finally Miss Gage came in.” 

Frederic vowed never to love Catherine Barkley, but one they have reconnected in Milan, he realizes that is impossible. He is no longer playing a game; this time, he has found love, just as the priest predicted. This is the beginning of their relationship, which will grow stronger throughout Frederic’s convalescence in Milan. 

“‘I want what you want. There isn’t any me any more. Just what you want.’” 

Critics point to lines like this as showing how submissive Catherine is, interpreting passages like this as sexist since Catherine denies herself any desires, choosing only to focus on Frederic’s desires. And yet, the reader needs to remember how scarred she is by this war, a war that destroyed her fiancé of eight years. She is clearly traumatized and regrets that they were never able to be as one, either through marriage or through sex. She sees her relationship with Frederic as a second chance to find oneness with a partner. She will not be held back by conventions or shame, but instead she will actively seek love to give her life meaning. A life of love with Frederic is her desire.

"Even if they took all the Bainsizza and Monte San Gabriele there were plenty of mountains beyond for the Austrians. I had seen them. All the highest mountains were beyond.” 

Although the news on the northern Italian front is good because the Italians have taken Mount Kuk, and the Bainsizza plateau looks like it is next, Frederic is still concerned about the geography. There are many mountains in the area, and he wonders how they will ever have enough men to take all of those mountains. He later says that Napoleon would never try to fight in the mountains but would instead fight on the plains. Frederic then wonders if the nature of war has changed so that wars are not won anymore but just continue endlessly. The trenches shift back and forth, but no side ever seems to be winning.

“‘I’ve got the bronze twice and three silver medals.’”

Ettore Moretti likes to brag about the medals he received from the war. Catherine and many others find his endless bragging about medals boring. And Ettore represents those who would valorize words like glory, honor, sacrifice, words that Frederic avoids since he finds them to be deceptive. Ettore is Italian but from San Francisco, so he seems like he needs to find a way to prove his Italian identity, showing his patriotism to the Italian army. He mocks the other singers who are trying to create an Italian identity by changing their names to Italian-sounding names without having the ability to even speak the language. 

“‘He was probably a coward,’ she said. ‘He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he’s intelligent. He simply doesn’t mention them.’” 

Catherine calls Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar a coward for saying: “Cowards die many times before their deaths./ The valiant never taste of death but once” (II.ii.32-33). She insists that the brave suffer death countless times, not just once. The truly brave suffer fear over and over again and yet don’t give up. She says the brave don’t boast about their sufferings but confront them stoically. She is like other Hemingway heroes, stalwart in the face of tremendous odds. When Frederic says he is not a hero but rather more like a mediocre hitter in baseball, Catherine retorts that mediocre or not, he’s “still a hitter” (122). She believes in not giving up, no matter the odds.

“‘I have known many men to escape the front through self-inflicted wounds.’” 

A running theme in the novel is how the war is so horrible that men will hurt themselves grievously in order to escape being sent back to the front. After Frederic is wounded, the doctors tell him how they will write the report, proving the wound was not self-inflicted. Earlier, Rinaldi tells Frederic that as a surgeon, he has seen many self-inflicted wounds. And now, Miss Van Campen, who has disliked Frederic from the beginning of his convalescence, accuses Frederic of drinking excessively in order to bring about jaundice so that he does not have to return to the front. 

“‘Have you any need for a sword?’ she asked. ‘I have some used swords very cheap.’

‘I’m going to the front,’ I said.

‘Oh yes, they you won’t need a sword,’ she said.” 

The woman at the armorer’s shop is bringing out guns for Frederic since he no longer had his gun after he was wounded. The woman tries to interest him in a sword, but when he says he’s going to the front, she quickly realizes that the front is no place for old-fashioned swords. Swords are for battles that took place in another century. Swords are for swashbuckling adventure stories, while the fighting on the front is not glorious at all. It’s a brutal and different kind of warfare. This is reminiscent of when Catherine said she kept expecting her fiancé to show up wounded in her hospital “with a sabre cut” (17). Instead his body was blown to pieces due to the advanced technology of trench warfare.

The dialogue in this exchange emphasizes Hemingway’s style. The tags on the dialogue are simply “I said” and “she said.” There is no description of facial expressions or tone; the dialogue is flattened to straightforward exchanges where the reader must infer how each of the characters interprets the war.

“‘But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near,’ I said.” 

Frederic quotes Andrew Marvell’s poem “To His Coy Mistress” right before he is about to leave for the front. He, like the speaker of the poem, feels the pressure of time. Catherine is aware of the poem’s context. The speaker is using the dwindling time in order to persuade a woman to yield her virginity to him because life is short. Catherine is aware of how men use various arguments in order to get their way. She knows that Frederic tried to do the same with her. But now, as their time together is almost over, the time for seduction is past. Frederic feels the need to “talk facts” (135). He finally wants to confront Catherine’s pregnancy, asking her how she will arrange for the birth. She tells him not to worry because she has it all under control. She does not want to trouble him.

“‘You know Caporetto?’ 

‘Yes,’ I said. I remember it as a little white town with a campanile in a valley. It was a clean little town and there was a fine fountain in the square.” 

Frederic remembers Caporetto as a quaint, pretty town. Later on, when Frederic arrives at the front and talks to Gino, who he is sent to relieve, Gino also says that the town is lovely. Ironically, the pivotal battle scene of the novel takes place at Caporetto, and that is where the disastrous retreat begins. The day after he returns from his idyllic rest in Milan with Catherine, he suddenly finds himself, not in a “clean little town,” but rather a town devastated and running away from the enemy.

“‘All right,’ I said. ‘To hell with the whole damn business.’

‘No, no,’ said Rinaldi. ‘You can’t do it. You can’t do it. I say you can’t do it. You’re dry and you’re empty and there’s nothing else. There’s nothing else I tell you. Not a damned thing. I know, when I stop working.’” 

When Frederic returns to the front from convalescent leave, he can see that the depressing losses have hurt morale and made his friends bitter. At dinner, Rinaldi gets noticeably drunk. When Frederic proclaims that he doesn’t give a damn about anything, Frederic agrees with Rinaldi to appease him. Rinaldi rejects Frederic’s desire to share in his sentiment. Rinaldi says that he’s not allowed. Frederic spent the whole summer in Milan falling in love and doesn’t have an idea of what life on the front has been like for the past few months, whereas Rinaldi has been at the front non-stop. Yet Rinaldi doesn’t want to leave the front because when he stops working, he’s lost. He doesn’t know what else to do with his life. The war has made him useless for everything but war.

“‘They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That is why the peasant has wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is.’” 

The priest continues to express his frustration with the war to Frederic, but at the beginning of this chapter, he is hopeful the war will come to an end soon. But Frederic changes his mind when he says that Austria will not stop fighting because they are winning, and people only want to stop fighting when they have been defeated. When the priest counters that people have wanted the war to end even when they were not beaten, Frederic replies with this quote, saying that the common soldiers were beaten ever since they joined the army because they were forced into it. He says that the peasants are wiser than those who start wars, but if they were to get any power, they too would lose their wisdom and want war. This insight depresses both the priest and Frederic. 

“I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. […] Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.” 

When talking to Gino, a patriot, Frederic feels uncomfortable when Gino uses the phrase “in vain.” He feels that these words belong to the language of propaganda, a deceptive language that has tricked many young men into war, only to find out that there is nothing sacred or glorious in war, only a deadly slaughter. Thus, these words are “obscene” in the way that they lead young men on the path to carnage.

“All I had to do was to get to Pordenone with three ambulances. I had failed at that. All I had to do now was to get to Pordenone. I probably could not even get to Udine.” 

In short clipped sentences, Frederic bluntly admits his failure at completing his mission. This failure led to him even shooting an Italian sergeant, someone fighting on the same side as he is. Frederic is disgusted with the Italian army for their many blunders, but he is more disgusted with himself for his own personal failure. 

“Before I put on my coat I cut the cloth stars off my sleeves and put them in the inside pocket with my money.” 

Frederic is deserting the army. When he jumped into the Tagliamento River in order to escape execution, he knew he had no other option. When he emerges from the river, he knows there is no turning back. He has no clothes to change into, but he knows he must remove the stars so that people do not think he is an officer who has abandoned his troops. The officers at the river were being executed for abandoning their troops despite the frantic chaos and confusion that made an orderly retreat impossible. The military police insisted: “It is because of treachery such as yours that we have lost the fruits of victory” (193). Frederic must strip himself of this officer identity to escape being blamed for the loss of the army.

“In civilian clothes I felt a masquerader. I had been in uniform a long time and I missed the feeling of being held by your clothes.” 

After stripping his uniform of his stars, he goes further, stripping himself of his entire military uniform and putting on civilian clothes. But the civilian clothes are ill-fitting, and he misses the feeling of “being held by your clothes.” Although he no longer looks like a soldier, it is not so easy to strip his mind of the thoughts of a soldier. 

“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

One of the most famous passages of the book, this quote shows the power of an indifferent universe to destroy everyone. And yet some people are still able to be “strong at the broken places.” Hemingway’s friend and rival, F. Scott Fitzgerald, had suggested that Hemingway use this quote at the end of the novel, when Catherine dies. But Hemingway chose to use this quote on the first night that Frederic and Catherine are reunited in Stresa. By doing so, he adds a sense of foreboding to their blissful reunion, showing the reader that such happiness will not last.