A Farewell to Arms Language and Communication Quotes

In the reality of Frederic’s memory, conversations are being conducted in a variety of languages, what we get in English is often "translated" from another language. Maybe Hemingway was thinking in Italian when he wrote some of the novel.

Part of why the priest wants to leave is because, at points in the conversation, the confessor-confesee relationship was reversed and the priest was confessing to Frederic. He feels guilty and doesn’t want it to go on. Priests have to confess to other priests. In those moments of reversal, Frederic is priestly.

We’ve all felt this way. We can’t communicate. We can’t understand what’s going on. We feel like failures and we start to cry.