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Hemingway\'s portrait of military triumph is as understated as his portrait of failure: \"The next year there were many victories.\" The war has moved closer, but it still hasn\'t much affected life in the town, perhaps, the narrator suggests, because the Austrians hope to return to the pleasant spot when the war is over and so don\'t \"bombard it to destroy it but only a little in a military way.\" Life goes on. The first snowfall of winter signals the end of fighting until spring, when troops can again move through the mountains.
Your first view of the narrator comes when he\'s inside the brothel (there are two in the town: one for officers, one for enlisted men) looking out at the snowfall. He sees the priest from his company walk past. Another of the officers motions to the priest to come inside; he naturally refuses. Later in the mess the officers gang up on the priest and tease him. They show him no respect, baiting him about his celibacy as well as attacking church policies and theology. Talk turns to the narrator (Frederic Henry) and his approaching leave. Everybody has a suggestion as to where he should go--from tourist sites to unspoiled country to cultural centers to big cities. The scene winds up with the priest suggesting that Henry visit his home region of Abruzzi, where it\'s cold and clear and dry and where the hunting is good. At the close, the captain and Henry leave to \"go to the whorehouse before it shuts.\"
NOTE: DISILLUSIONMENT This chapter reveals Henry\'s apparently growing acquaintance with the destruction of peacetime values caused by the war. Taken for granted are sanctioned prostitution and the coarse baiting of a priest. Henry stands a little apart from this loss of values, but he\'s still affected by it. He feels sympathy for the priest but he doesn\'t call a halt to the officers\' baiting, and he leaves for the brothel with the captain.
Pay attention to the description of Abruzzi. It will appear again, expanded.
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