When the narrator declares that they do not go to the war anymore, he expresses the isolation of the wounded soldiers.

This isolation is further suggested by the very next sentence: "It was cold in the fall in Milan and the dark came very early." Hemingway often symbolically suggests the state of being alone through the use of darkness, as in his story "A Clean Well-Lighted Place."

Further, the soldiers in the hospital in Milan share little in common but the fact that they have been wounded and they have received war medals. Even then, their wounds differ, as do the reasons why they have medals. For example, the soldier who narrates the story is actually alienated from the other soldiers:

I had been given the medals because I was an American. After that their manner changed a little toward me. . . .

The major is further alienated from the other soldiers when he learns that his young wife has died from pneumonia. After this happens, the major pays no attention to his therapy, simply looking out the window during his time on the rehabilitation machine, and there is no one who can sympathize with his agony and loss.

Ernest Hemingway's story is truly a narrative of the isolation of each man whose inward and outward wounds are unique to him. These private wounds place each man into the darkness of "another country," separate from others.