f escaping it. The mechanics explain to him the consequences of the war and the ugliness in which it conceives. Frederick is taught that the Bersaglieri were un aware that they were being sent on a suicide mission. Their mission, as immoral as it sounds, was only to take the focus off other soldiers, so they weren’t killed. Whoever was in the war was consequently in a trap. The mechanics told Fred that if you sought to leave the war they would kill your family, if they couldn’t get you. Frederick learns about this terrifying fact when hearing of the Granatieri who were executed for not carrying out their mission. Frederick witnesses the true malevolence of the world when he sees Passini dying after getting his legs blown off. As Passini screams, “Stop it! Shoot Me!”, he is literally meaning kill him now because the pain is intolerable. That is not how a man should die. Fred, also witnesses the self-destructiveness of Rinaldi. Rinaldi becomes a tool of the officers. His duty is merely to fix the injured soldiers who come to him only to be sent to the front again to die. Rinaldi realizes this can causes him to have a reckless attitude that, in return, makes him contract syphilis. Frederick must watch as his friend dies a slow suicide. The most striking evidence of malevolence in the universe is war. War, in Hemingway’s view, is hell. There is no honor. There is no glory. It is up to Frederick to free his mind of the childish views of war as a game. It is not a playground. He must learn that he is as vulnerable as anyone and that he can die very easily. He must realize that doing what he is told will only get him killed. The ones getting killed are just like him, young and too immature to recognize the true nature of this war. It is not until the fat colonel gets shot right in front of him that he figures it out.The ability to make a separate peace from the malevolence in the world was always there for Freder...
