So far in the book, we are thrusted into the setting of WW1 in Italy and met Frederick Henry and Miss Barkley. We don’t see a lot of jumping back and forth between settings but more focused on the characters and their thoughts/feelings. For the past few chapters, we see a slowly building relationship between Frederick Henry and Miss Barkley, and are curious to see if their relationship will continue to grow as the war surrounds them. We already see that Henry gets wounded from enemy fire and gets injuries on his legs, knee and head.
I argue that the relationship between Miss Barkley and Frederick Henry will happen in the future because the war is on their minds, well, Miss Barkley’s mind at least. Miss Barkley is afraid of giving her heart to Henry since she lost a dear friend not long before she met the solider. Henry, on the other hand, wants to marry Miss Barkley but she doesn’t want it happening anytime soon because of the raging war going on.
Great American Novels 2020 