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CHAPTER 2
SUMMARY
Move to Gorizia
There were many victories in the next year and as the mountain and the plain and beyond it the plateaus had been captured, the narrator crossed the river in August and came to live in Gorizia. And the fighting was in the next mountain hardly a mile away.
Life in Gorizia
Gorizia was a very nice town and the narrator lived in a nice house too. There were two brothers in the town. One for the troops and the other for the officers. This presence of girls and the sighting of the king as he passed by in his motor car made this fall different from the previous fall. Suddenly winter set in and everything was concerned with flow Further up. the river the mountain has not been captured and none of the mountains beyond the river had been taken. All that was left for the next year.
The Priest
One day, as the narrator sat in the officer’s brothel, drinking wine the priest happened to pass by. The narrator’s friend signaled him to come inside, but he denied it. This led to a lot of teasing at dinner time. In fact, the priest was often targeted by the officers, especially the captain as the butt of their jokes. For instance, the captain used to charge the priest of liking girls and spending time with them. Another officer called him an atheist. But he merely shook his head and smiled.
On Leave
As the advent of winter had put an end to the fighting, for the time being, the major suggests that the narrator should go on leave. Everybody, then wants him to visit their home town. Even the priest wants him to go to Abruzzi his hometown.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The War
Some victories have been won by the side to which the narrator belongs. Again time follows the same pattern as in the first chapter. They come into the town at the beginning of summer. As the fighting rages on autumn comes and at the advent of winter, the fighting stops and the chapters draw on to its end. Not much light has been set on who fighting armies are or who the narrator is but it becomes clear that one party to the war is Austria and the other in Italy.
Somber Mood Lightens
Humour is brought in towards the end of the chapter, in the form of the officers teasing the priest. The mood lightens as the officers flew from their duty, for the time being, enjoy some innocent fun at the expense of the priest. There is even the notion that the narrator shall be away on a trip of pleasure. The chapter ends with everybody hurrying away to the brothel another instance of the leisurely mood.