The entry of the Germans is a turning point in the narrative. Lieutenant Henry tells us, "The word Germans was something to be frightened of. We did not want to have anything to do with the Germans."
The mountains-plains dichotomy is further developed, as Henry tells the driver named Gino that he does not believe a war can be fought and won in the mountains. Thus the mountains emerge here not only as a place of purity versus the corruption of the plains, but as a place of refuge, as well. This will be important later in the story.
"What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain," Gino tells Henry. He refers to the fighting, but the statement has a double meaning for the reader, applying to the love shared by Henry and Catherine Barkley, as well.
One long paragraph in this chapter summarizes Henry's character and a theme of the novel: "I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain," Henry tells us. "Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates." The words Henry mentions, which he might have used himself at the story's beginning, now ring hollow as a result of his actual wartime experience.
