mps in it. Chapter 31 “the escape”A few minutes later after swimming for a while, Henry climbs out, cut the cloth star off his sleeves, and counts his money (three thousands…). He crosses the Venetian plain that day, then jumps aboard a military train that evening, hiding under a canvas with guns. While lying under the canvas, Henry thinks about the army, about the war, and about Catherine. He imagines Catherine and him going away to a safer place. Henri worries about Rinaldi who thought he had syphilis; he knows that he will probably never see him again.2. The first image of war, we get in this chapters is what the Major tells Henri. He tells him that “it’s been a bad summer” and that he believes that the year coming will be even worse. He thinks that the Austrians are going to attack after the winter because now the snow is too near. Rinaldi confirms what the Major said by saying he “worked all the time” all summer and fall, but now it has died down and he has less work. He says, “This war is terrible”. Then we learn that the priest thinks war will end soon but he agrees with the others saying that this summer was so terrifying and dreadful that you have to have been there, to believe how terrible it was. Even officers whom he thought would never realise what was war realised it this summer. He exposes us a religious view of the war, men shouldn’t be enemies because they’re all offspring of our Lord. Henri believes that none of the two parts will allow the other to “won” (if it could be said so…). The first visual contact with the damages caused by war is when they go to Bainsizza. The houses are badly smashed, the village was in ruins but things had been well organised. Life there doesn’t seem to be so awful now but it remains lots of grief from the past summer. Henri’s feelings about war has changed, first he was completely detached...
