Farewell To Arms Books 2&3 Essay, Research Paper

Book 2

General questions:

Summary for each chapter: title + setting

13.Henry has been taken to the American hospital in Milan where Miss Gage, a young nurse takes care of him. The head nurse forbid Henry to drink wine but he disobeys, and pays some Italians to bring him wine with the newspapers.

Titles : Arrival at the hospital in Milan, first days at the hospital, encounter with Miss Gage & Miss Van Campen.

14.Arrival of Miss Barkley(Catherine), at the American hospital and the revelation of their love for each other. Henry learns by Miss Gage that Miss Barkley has come to work at the hospital. A barber comes to shave Henry but he mistakes him with an Austrian soldier and he threatens to cut his throat. Henry realises that he’s in love with Catherine and they spent their first night together.

15. Dr Valentini,. Henry is visited by doctors who remove some of the shrapnel from his leg. The doctors seem incompetent, and tell Henry he will have to wait six months for an operation if he wants to keep his leg. He cannot stand the thought of spending six months in bed, and asks for another opinion; the house doctor says he will send for Dr. Valentini. He’s a skilled doctor. When Dr. Valentini comes, he says he will perform the operation in the morning.

16. Preparation for the operation Catherine spends the night in Henry’s room. Catherine prepares him for the operation, and warns him not to talk about their affair while under the anaesthetic.

17. After the operation, Henry is very sick. As he recovers, three other patients come to the hospital–a boy from Georgia with malaria, a boy from New York with malaria and jaundice, and a boy who tried to unscrew the fuse cap from an explosive shell for a souvenir. Henry develops an appreciation for Helen Ferguson, who helps him pass notes to Catherine while she is on duty. Catherine continues to stay with Henry every night, but Henry and Miss Gage finally convince her to take three nights off of night duty–Miss Van Campen has commented that Henry always sleeps till noon.

18. That summer Henri learns to walk on crutches, and he and Catherine enjoy Milan. They befriend the headwaiter at a restaurant called the Gran Italia, and Catherine continues to see Henry every night. They discuss marriage, but Catherine remains opposed to the idea for the time being. They pretend to be married instead. Catherine tells Henry that her love for him has become her religion.

19. When not with Catherine, Henry spends time with a soldier named Ettore Moretti, an Italian from San Francisco who is very proud of his war medals. Ettore is extremely boastful about his military prowess, and Catherine finds him annoying and dull. One night Henry and Catherine lie in bed listening to the rain, and Catherine asks Henry if he will always love her. She says she is afraid of the rain, and begins to cry.

20.Henry and Catherine go to the races with Helen Ferguson whom Henry now calls “Fergie,” and the boy who tried to unscrew the nose cap on the shrapnel shell. They bet on a horse backed by a racing expert and former criminal named Mr. Myers; they win, but Catherine feels dissatisfied, so they pick a horse for the next race on their own. Even though they lose, Catherine feels much better.

21.By September, Henry’s leg is nearly healed. He receives some leave time from the hospital, and Catherine tells him she will arrange to go with him. She then gives him a piece of startling news: she is pregnant. Catherine worries that Henry feels trapped, and promises not to make trouble for him, but he tells her he feels cheerful and thinks she is wonderful. Catherine talks about the obstacles they will face, and mentions the old quote about how the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one. She says that, in reality, the brave man dies perhaps two thousand deaths in his imagination–he simply does not mention them.

22.The next morning it begins to rain, and Henry is diagnosed with jaundice. Miss Van Campen finds empty liquor bottles in Henry’s room, and accuses him of producing jaundice through alcoholism to avoid being sent back to the front. Miss Gage helps Henry clear things up, but in the end he loses his leave time.

23.Henry prepares to travel back to the front. He buys a new pistol, and takes Catherine to a hotel. The hotel makes Catherine feel like a prostitute, but before the night is over they feel at home there. Before midnight, they walk downstairs and Henry calls a carriage for Catherine. They have a brief good-bye, and Henry boards the crowded train that will take him back to the war.

Book 3

1. Summary & climax

2. General feelings about war

3. Sources of tension during the retreat

1. Chapter 25 “first day back to the front”

Henri is back to the front, the past year has been very tedious and improving for all of the men, the major tells him, he was lucky to get hit when he did. Henri is thinking about Catherine, when Rinaldi comes into the room. He’s glad to see him; they talk about Catherine, about Rinaldi’s work (he says and says that he has become a skilled surgeon from the constant work with the wounded, but now that the fighting has died down temporarily he has a frustrating lack of work.) Rinaldi examines Henry’s wounded knee. At the dinner, like at the beginning of the book the officers (esp. Rinaldi) tease the priest. All the officers go to bed, only Henry and the priest stays.

Chapter 26 “Dialogue about war & Austrians between the Priest and Henry”

Henri and the priest talk together. The priest thinks the war will end soon, but Henry doesn’t agree with him, he says the Austrians feel that they’re winning and “no one ever stopped when they’re winning. The priest tells him he’s glad he’s back. After the priest leaves, Henry goes to sleep.

Chapter 27 “Broke of the Italian line, Retreat is decided”

He wakes when Rinaldi comes back, but quickly falls asleep again. The next morning, he travels to the Bainsizza area, the whole village is destroyed, there he can clearly see the damage caused by the war: Henry meets a man named Gino, he was a nice boy and everyone seemed to like him. They discuss the fighting. Gino says the summer’s losses were not in vain, and Henry falls silent–he says words like those embarrass him. He says that the names of villages and the numbers of streets have more meaning than words like “sacred” and “glorious”. That night, the rain comes down hard, and early in the morning (3o’clock) the Croatians begin a bombardment. In the morning, the Italians learn that the attacking forces include Germans; “the word German was something to be frightened of” they didn’t want to have any thing to do with Germans and prefer to fight against the Austrians. But still the line should be kept at any cost. The next night, the Italian line has been broken, and the Italian forces begin a broad retreat. Henri returns to the villa but finds it empty. Rinaldi has gone with the hospital, the major with the hospital personnel. Henry finds the drivers under his command, including Piani, Bonello, and Aymo. Instead of going now, Henry gets a good night’s sleep.

Chapter 28 “Beginning of a sluggish retreat”

They moved out slowly through the town, in an endless line of soldiers and vehicles. Henry takes a turn sleeping, and shortly after he wakes, the column halts again at the fall of night. He finds that Bonello has given two engineer sergeants that were left to bomb a bridge, a ride. Aymo has two Italian girls completely petrified of terror in his car. Exhausted, Henry falls asleep again, and dreams of Catherine (&talks loudly while sleeping). In the night, many peasants join the retreating army. In the early morning Henry and his men stop briefly at a farmhouse and enjoyed a copious breakfast. Soon, they continue slowly on their way.

Chapter 29 “the first rebellions, mutiny is nearer”

At noon Aymo’s car gets stuck in the squishy ground; at about 10 kilometres from Udine. The men are forced to dig out the wheels but the car was decided to be impossible to move and was left there. Henry orders the two engineer sergeants riding with Bonello to help; afraid of being overtaken by the enemy, they refuse, and try to leave. Henry draws his gun and one of them is wounded but the other escapes. Bonello takes Henry’s pistol and finishes the job. Henry gives some money to the two girls travelling with Aymo and tells them to go down to a nearby village, Aymo gets in Henry’s vehicle, and they set out, now cut off from the main column.

Chapter 30 “what leads to desertion”

While crossing a bridge (suspected to be mined), Henry sees a nearby German staff car crossing the upper bridge. As they travel, they begin to notice more and more signs of German occupation, and they worry that they have been completely cut off from Italian-controlled land. While walking they’re victim of a sudden attack, Aymo is killed. They realize he was shot by the Italian rear guard–the Italians are ahead, but because they are completely terrified and have lost their self-control, they are almost as dangerous as the Germans. After seeing Aymo being killed by Italians, Bonello leaves in hopes of being taken prisoner. The men hide in a barn that night (nothing happened, they waited all night), and in the morning they rejoin the Italians. They were crossing a bridge in an absolute silence; the carabinieri were waiting at the far end of the bridge. They arrested some of the men. Suddenly, two men of the battle police seize hold of Henry. They seize Henry because he is a foreigner, and in the chaos of the retreat they intend to shoot him for a German officer disguised. Henri understanding that he’s going to be killed decide to escape through the river and jumps in it.

Chapter 31 “the escape”

A few minutes later after swimming for a while, Henry climbs out, cut the cloth star off his sleeves, and counts his money (three thousands…). He crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns. While lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and about Catherine. He imagines Catherine and him going away to a safer place. Henri worries about Rinaldi who thought he had syphilis; he knows that he will probably never see him again.

2. The first image of war, we get in this chapters is what the Major tells Henri. He tells him that “it’s been a bad summer” and that he believes that the year coming will be even worse. He thinks that the Austrians are going to attack after the winter because now the snow is too near. Rinaldi confirms what the Major said by saying he “worked all the time” all summer and fall, but now it has died down and he has less work. He says, “This war is terrible”. Then we learn that the priest thinks war will end soon but he agrees with the others saying that this summer was so terrifying and dreadful that you have to have been there, to believe how terrible it was. Even officers whom he thought would never realise what was war realised it this summer. He exposes us a religious view of the war, men shouldn’t be enemies because they’re all offspring of our Lord. Henri believes that none of the two parts will allow the other to “won” (if it could be said so…). The first visual contact with the damages caused by war is when they go to Bainsizza. The houses are badly smashed, the village was in ruins but things had been well organised. Life there doesn’t seem to be so awful now but it remains lots of grief from the past summer. Henri’s feelings about war has changed, first he was completely detached from it but now he’s concerned, he has opinions about it. He believes that street numbers and the names of villages have more meaning than abstract words such as “sacred, glorious, and sacrifice.” The violence and inhumanity of the war have dislocated belief in abstract concepts and general values; only concrete details such as place names, and personal qualities like competence, retain their meaning, especially for him whom with Catherine have lived at the antipodes of all ethics and morals. In chapter 27, the war evolves but it is distant and only the actions are reported. Even when the retreat is decided war is far, only a feeling of fear and urgency reminds us of it. (The soldiers with Henri stop to sleep…). The retreat is orderly to begin with, but everyone has a sense of hurry–the fear struck into the Italians by the proximity of the German army adds a sense of desperate urgency to their flight. This scene is agonizing slow, tense, and terrifying. Rapidly the soldiers begin to break down the rules by giving a ride to the sergeants and to the two girls.

3. The unstopping rain, the muddy and squishy ground, make an agonising and muggy atmosphere. The sense o hurry of the men and the feeling of proximity of the Germans create a tension among the men. The action is monotonous and tiresome because of its slow and cadenced rhythm. “We moved slowly but steadily in the rain”. There are chains of reaction, which help to create this tempo, first the truck ahead stopped, then the second, and the third… The columns of peasants marching alongside the soldiers also heighten the tension, the population is escaping, and the Germans are not far. The constructed military world of the Italian army falls apart. Revolt is coming. The engineer sergeant’s insubordination in Chapter 29 causes Henry’s contained tension to explode; as he impulsively draws the pistol opens fire on them. Bonello’s desire to help him to kill the sergeants shows that the chaos is not solely within Henry: the whole world has gone wrong. Bonello is so afraid to be killed that he prefers to escape alone, hoping to be taken prisoner. Italians fear of Germans is clearly showed by the accidental death of Aymo, killed by an Italian who was shooting at anything that moved, terrified of being attacked by Germans. As the soldiers reach the others, mutiny is not far, anarchy is coming, the soldiers are very close to revolt. The world is going completely mad, peasants are escaping, soldiers revolting or terrified to death, officers are arresting their own soldiers, while soldiers are shooting at other Italians…