There could be many correct answers, but most likely Hemingway was trying to elicit the emotion of loneliness. The main character feels isolated from most everyone. The townspeople say, "A basso gli ufficiali!" "Down with the officers!" The narrator also suggests that all men who have been to the front have symptoms of PTSD, indicated by the narrator saying, " We were all a little detached." And he personally is separated by the fact that he only won his medal because he was American. "I was not a hawk, although I might seem a hawk to those who had never hunted; they, the three, knew better and so we drifted apart."

The language barrier is another source of loneliness. At first the narrator is unaware of his poor grammar, but the major points out his flaws and begins to help him. Ironically, the narrator then becomes afraid to speak, "until I had the grammar straight in my mind." This suggests fear in talking to even a confidant.

Finally, the climax of the story is the revelation that the major's wife has just died. The major instructs the narrator never to marry. "If he is to lose everything, he should not place himself in a position to lose that." The message is that his pain is from his connection, and one is better off remaining alone. The story ends with the image of the major staring out the window by himself, underscoring the concept of loneliness.