A Farewell to Arms Plot Table
Day / Ch / Main Plot Points1 / 1-5 / Ch 1= Landscape in Italy; dusty in summer/rains in autumn; war going badly
Ch 2= Captain makes fun of priest with “dirty jokes”; snow; men discuss narrator going on leave
Ch 3= Narrator back from leave—spent most time drunk; meet Rinaldi (who “loves” Catherine Barkley); priest sad he didn’t go to Abruzzi (his hometown)
Ch 4= Meet Barkley and Helen Ferguson; hear about fiancé who was killed in war
Ch 5= Narrator is identified as Mr. Henry; visits Barkley—going to kiss her and she slaps him; begin to get close—she says “Because we’re going to have a strange life” (27).
2 / 6-8 / Ch 6= Henry sees CB 3 days later—she is upset he didn’t call; they exchange loving words and Henry lies about loving her; CB says they are playing a “rotten game”—he doesn’t love her but it’s better than random women
Ch 7= Man with a rupture tries to avoid the front—Henry tells him to bump his head so he can go to the hospital; gets drunk before seeing CB, and Helen tells him that CB can’t see him that night—he feels empty/ lonely
Ch 8=Lt. Henry goes to place where they will attack—stops to say bye to CB, who gives him a St. Anthony charm—foreshadowing about injury, saying that he will lose it afterwards
3 / 9-10 / Ch 9=Lt. Henry and other drivers wait for the attack/ smoke/ discuss war—Passini says war continues because nobody will stop fighting; trench mortar kills Passini and wounds others—Henry hit in the legs, removed in ambulance, and man above him hemorrhages and dies
Ch 10= Wakes in hospital; Rinaldi visits—won battle, no fracture/operation went well; discuss medals and honors, and Henry downplays heroism by not saying he tried to save Passini; Rinaldi and Lt. Henry joke around some, and Rinaldi says that he will send Catherine Barkley to see him
4 / 11-14 / Ch 11= Priest visits, is tired, brings mosquito net, vermouth, papers; the two discuss war—priest hates it and would love to go home if he could love and serve God there—isn’t a dirty joke; discuss love vs lust (72); Henry thanks him for visiting and asks him to return
Ch 12= Lt. Henry finds he will be transferred to Milan; major and Rinaldi visit again, get him drunk; find out that Henry lives by sight drafts that his grandfather pays or goes to jail; Catherine is being transferred to Milan, too—48 hour trip to Milan/ end book 1
Ch 13= Arrive in Milan, carry Henry to elevator (painful), Mrs. Walker (elderly nurse) doesn’t know what to do with him; young nurse comes and bathes him; wants wine with meals but Miss Van Campen won’t allow it; nightmare
Ch 14=Miss Gage found alcohol and tells him to ask her for a glass; CB is there; barber thinks he’s Austrian and threatens him; CB shows up (beautiful)—he sees herlove; are intimate; didn’t want to fall in love; doctor on way
5 / 15-18 / Ch 15=Doctors’ opinions on leg—first captain says wait 6 mo before operation/ major (Valentini) says tomorrow and that Catherine will make him a fine son
Ch 16= CB getting H ready for surgery—he lies that he never told another girl he loved her—she’ll do whatever he wants so he won’t want other girls—she says there isn’t any “her” anymore—she’s “good” because she does what he wants
Ch 17=Surgery successful—Fergy says they’ll never marry—they’ll fight or die first—CB off night duty for 3 days; other soldiers (3 Americans) arrive at hospital
Ch 18=CB and H discuss marriage—waiting because they’d be separated and CB has already experienced waiting for marriage—CB says that H is her “religion” and foreshadows “dreadful things” (116).
6 / 19-21 / Ch 19= Henry walks with cane now/ CB can’t go out with him; Meet Mr and Mrs Meyers—odd couple, he was supposedly released from jail to die, and she calls soldiers her “dear boys”; meet EttoreMoretti, a prideful war hero, and Ralph Simmons, a singer; H loves CB; CB tells H she is afraid of the rain because she sees them dead in it
Ch 20=H, CB, Fergy, and Crowell (wounded soldier) go to horse races; Mr. Meyers knows which to bet on; horse races are corrupt; CB wants to be alone with H, so they have a drink by themselves during race—she is lonely when with others and not just H
Ch 21= Fall; talks with British major about futility of war (we’re all cooked); has silhouette done for free—keeps hat on; papers to read from America are “dull”; CB tells him she’s pregnant—discuss bravery—the brave die? Or cowards die a thousand deaths and the brave only one? (p 139-140); CB wants to be brave; Henry doesn’t want alcohol but drinks it when CB tells him to have a drink—CB wants son to be a lieutenant commander
7 / 22-24 / Ch 22= Van Campen finds Henry’s alcohol after he gets jaundice, and tells the doctor, who sends him back to the front for self-inflicted injury to avoid duty (it’s raining)
Ch 23= Henry leaves for the front on a train at midnight—before, he meets with Catherine and they get a hotel to spend time together and eat before he has to leave—she will send letters every day he is gone and will be together soon
Ch 24=Raining when they leave the hotel; Catherine says goodbye at station; porter and machine-gunner tried to save a seat but Henry gives his up to demanding captain; the train is crowded with men going to the front
8 / 25-26 / Ch 25=Back at GoriziaLandscape is wet/dead/bare; major looks older/drier; war is going badly—the fighting is over but many are sick/hurt; Rinaldi checks out knee and says articulation is incomplete and he shouldn’t be back yet—R says he doesn’t think, he operates; R feels badly; H says he’s in love with CB (she is a sacred subject); R says people never learn anything new; mess hall is quiet; R says to hell with the priest/ the whole business (174)
Ch 26=Priest thinks war will end soon because everyone is gentler; Henry no longer believes in victory or defeat, only in sleep Henry is cynical about the war and religion, and only sees sleep as reality (which could symbolize death)
9 / 27-28 / Ch 27= Henry is taken through Bainsizza where there is heavy fighting—Gino talks about dying “in vain,” and Henry narrates that words like sacred, glory, sacrifice, and honor are obscene/meaningless compared to numbers, dates, and place names; Rain intensifies and the Italians retreat after several bombardments by the enemy
Ch 28= Retreat moves slowly due to rain and stalling vehicles; Aymo picks up local sisters who are scared of the soldiers; Henry talks to Catherine and promises not to leave her (in dream); Men decide to take a side road to avoid traffic of main retreat road; sergeants of engineers want to hit the road and are somewhat rude as the men eat breakfast at an abandoned farmhouse; all of them (including girls) set off on side road for further retreat
10 / 29-30 / Ch 29= Aymo’s car gets stuck in the mud, and Henry orders the sergeants to help push it out, but they refuse and walk off; Henry shoots one, and then Bonello “finishes him off” because he always wanted to kill a sergeant; Henry and the drivers ditch the car and the girls and start on foot
Ch 30=The men come to a bridge, see Germans crossing, and wonder why the Italians didn’t blow it up; they sneak down the river embankment and Aymo is shot and killed by the Italian rear guard; Bonello and Piani find an abandoned farmhouse and Bonello leaves, so that he would be a POW rather than being shot by own army; Henry and Piani leave to rejoin retreat; Italian military police are questioning officers for treachery in retreating/giving up Italian land to enemy; Henry is captured & about to be questioned/killed when he dives into the river and escapes
11 / 31-34 / Ch 31=Henry pulls himself from the river, wrings out his clothes and removes his officer stars, and sneaks onto a train to hide with guns
Ch 32= Henry tries to avoid thinking about Catherine; decides that he isn’t angry about war, but he has no more obligation and it’s not his business—all he wants to do is “eat and drink and sleep with Catherine” (233)
Ch 33=Henry gets off train in Milan, gets some grappa from wine shop owner who offers him a place to stay; Goes to hospital and porter tells him CB is in Stresa; goes to Simmons’ house, where he gets clothes to hide
Ch 34=Henry takes train to Stresa in civilian clothes; he’s made “a separate peace” (243) with war; sees CB and Fergy in their hotel, but Fergy is angry and accuses Henry of being a snake “sneaking” and wants them to be married; they return to hotel room where they reunite and don’t feel lonely; world kills those it doesn’t break (249);discuss escaping to Switzerland
12 / 35-36 / Ch 35= Henry plays billiards with Count Greffi, who says that he thought he would grow more religiously devout as he aged, but he hadn’t; also claims you don’t grow wiser simply with age; love is a religious feeling
Ch 36= Emilio (barman) warns Henry that they will arrest him the next morning; Henry and CB escape in Emilio’s boat, heading toward Switzerland
13 / 37
14 / 38-40
15 / 41