Little exposition is provided in the early chapters of the novel. Frederic’s own name is withheld until Chapter 13. As Hemingway said in a Paris Review interview: “I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it under water for every part that shows” (quoted in Michael Reynolds’s Hemingway’s First War). What is the effect of this minimalist style of writing?

Does Frederic love Catherine? Why is he drawn to her?

Explain the male bonds between Frederic and two contrasting people: Rinaldi and the priest. Why are these two especially important to Frederic?