64 pages 2 hours read

Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1929

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Important Quotes

Quotation Mark Icon

“The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.” 


(Chapter 1, Page 3)

In the opening chapter, Hemingway describes how the marching soldiers create dust that rises and envelops the entire landscape. Everything is covered in dust, including the tree trunks. Hemingway uses the word “and” seven times in this one sentence. He refuses to use subordinate clauses, which would end up emphasizing certain details and de-emphasizing other details. Instead, his reliance on the word “and” flattens the language so that everything becomes equal. The dust on the trees is just as important as the soldiers marching onward, and one gets the sense that this dust will linger and last longer than some of the soldiers. In fact, it will not go away, and when the rains come, it will be transformed into mud. 

Quotation Mark Icon

“People lived on it and there were hospitals and cafes and artillery up side streets and two bawdy house, one for troops and one for officers, and with the end of the summer, the cool nights, the fighting in the mountains beyond the town, the shell-marked iron of the railway bridge, the smashed tunnel by the river where the fighting had been, the trees around the square and the long avenue of trees that led to the square; these with there being girls in the town, the King passing in his motor car, sometimes now seeing his face and little long necked body and gray beard like a goat’s chin tuft; all these with the sudden interiors of houses that had lost a wall through shelling, with plaster and rubble in their gardens and sometimes in the street, and the whole thing going well on the Carso made the fall very different from the last fall when we had been in the country.” 


(Chapter 2 , Page 5)

Chapter 2 takes place a year later, and the Italian victories against the Austrians have made this year much better than the dismal scene in Chapter 1, when 7,000 men died from cholera alone. However, despite the victories, the markings of war are everywhere, as architecture bears the scars of wars, such as the “shell-marked” bridge and the missing walls of homes, and the military has taken over the “very nice” town (Gorizia). Hemingway’s flattened

Related Titles

By Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

Ernest Hemingway

Plot Summary

logo

Across the River and into the Trees

Ernest Hemingway

Across the River and into the Trees

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

A Day's Wait

Ernest Hemingway

A Day's Wait

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

A Very Short Story

Ernest Hemingway

A Very Short Story

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Big Two-Hearted River

Ernest Hemingway

Big Two-Hearted River

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Cat in the Rain

Ernest Hemingway

Cat in the Rain

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

Plot Summary

logo

Green Hills of Africa

Ernest Hemingway

Green Hills of Africa

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

In Another Country

Ernest Hemingway

In Another Country

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Indian Camp

Ernest Hemingway

Indian Camp

Ernest Hemingway

Plot Summary

logo

In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway

In Our Time

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Old Man at the Bridge

Ernest Hemingway

Old Man at the Bridge

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Soldier's Home

Ernest Hemingway

Soldier's Home

Ernest Hemingway

Plot Summary

logo

Solider's Home

Ernest Hemingway

Solider's Home

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

Ten Indians

Ernest Hemingway

Ten Indians

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

The Garden of Eden

Ernest Hemingway

The Garden of Eden

Ernest Hemingway

Study Guide

logo

The Killers

Ernest Hemingway

The Killers

Ernest Hemingway

Plot Summary

logo

The Nick Adams Stories

Ernest Hemingway

The Nick Adams Stories

Ernest Hemingway