Structure

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Beginning

The story begins by establishing the setting, and by providing a backstory on Nick Adams:

That night we lay on the floor in the room and I listened to the silk-worms eating. (…) I myself did not want to sleep because I had been living for a long time with the knowledge that if I ever shut my eyes in the dark and let myself go, my soul would go out of my body. I had been that way for a long time, ever since I had been…

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Middle

The  rising action, mostly consists of a dialogue between Nick and another soldier who is in the room with him.

Nick provides a brief backstory on the soldier: “He had lived ten years in Chicago. They had taken him for a soldier in nineteen fourteen when he had come back to visit his family, and they had given him me for an orderly because he spoke English” (p. 279, ll. 18-21). This also contri…

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Ending

In the falling action, the main character goes on to briefly describe some of the events following his discussion with John. John left the service before Nick, and the two men met again after Nick was wounded: “(…) his class was removed from active service before the October offensive (…) He came to the hospital in Milan to see me after and was very disappointed that I had not yet married.” (p. 282, ll. 5-8)

While the story seems to lack a resolution, at the beginning of the story we notic…