64 pages • 2 hours read
Ernest HemingwayA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Before You Read Beta
Summary
Book 1, Chapters 1-3
Book 1, Chapters 4-6
Book 1, Chapters 7-9
Book 1, Chapters 10-12
Book 2, Chapters 13-15
Book 2, Chapters 16-18
Book 2, Chapters 19-21
Book 2, Chapters 22-24
Book 3, Chapters 25-27
Book 3, Chapters 28-30
Book 3, Chapters 31-32
Book 4, Chapters 33-35
Book 4, Chapters 36-37
Book 5, Chapters 38-41
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
The novel begins in northern Italy during World War I: “In the late summer of the year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains” (3). Although it is not clear until subsequent chapters, the “we” refers to the Italian Army, and the narrator is Frederic Henry, an American serving as an officer in the Italian Second Army. Frederic is in the town of Gradisca at the start of the novel. None of those specifics are given in this brief chapter. Instead, the focus is on the landscape: the river full of rocks, the trees with their falling leaves, the low-lying plains contrasted against the mountains in the distance. Juxtaposed against this natural imagery are images of war: camouflaged troops marching along the road, huge weapons covered in branches, and artillery firing in the mountains. The soldiers are heading for the front.
The season shifts into fall, and the summer dust raised by the army troops has now changed into mud from the autumn rains. Against this dismal scene of slow plodding troops and trucks, cars speed by full of officers and “if the car went especially fast it was probably the King.
By Ernest Hemingway
American Literature
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Banned Books Week
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Historical Fiction
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Memorial Day Reads
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Military Reads
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Modernism
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Nobel Laureates in Literature
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Romance
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Summer Reading
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The Lost Generation
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