A Farewell to Arms

It is the fall of 1917. Again, the narration focuses on the landscape, the bare trees, the brown fields, and the wet dead leaves on the road. Frederic notes: “It did not feel like a homecoming” (143).

The major greets him and then immediately tells him that it’s been a bad summer, and that Frederic was lucky to have been wounded. The major says that many are expecting an attack, although he doesn’t believe it because the rains have started, and the snow is on its way. The major tells him that tomorrow Frederic will go out to the Bainsizza plateau to relieve the drivers.

When Rinaldi arrives, he welcomes Frederic and inspects his knee to see how the doctors did with the surgery. He feels Frederic is not ready to be back at the front because he does not have enough articulation in his knee. Rinaldi tells him that he is very depressed over the war. They have drinks, even though Frederic is not supposed to since he just recovered from jaundice. Rinaldi says he kept Frederic’s toothbrush glass as a reminder of how Frederic used to brush away his bad nights with prostitutes.

Frederic realizes how much he missed Rinaldi since they knew each other so well from the past two years.