separates the narrator from the protagonist: it is something which "I did not know then, although I learned it later. It is something the priest " had always known"and which Henry " was always able to forget. What henry refers to is still debated among scholars, but the most prominent(卓越的,显著的) opinion seems to be that the it refers to a questioning of faith The argument is that over the course of the novel Henry has developed a tragic vision of sorts-a knowledge that the world is indifferent (i.e. there is no God)and that life is ultimately meaningless. A few scholars have argued that the it"is the opposite-Henry has come to the realization that he has a soul and that death is not final. The interpretation of the novel presented here will favor the former, which is more consistent with the trends that run through Hemingway's other novels Whichever the case, at this point in the novel it is worth noting that there is already a seed of existentialism in Henry. When returning from leave, he notes that nothing seems to haveseparates the narrator from the protagonist: it is something which "I did not know then, although I learned it later." It is something the priest "had always known" and which Henry "was always able to forget." What Henry refers to is still debated among scholars, but the most prominent（卓越的，显著的） opinion seems to be that the "it" refers to a questioning of faith. The argument is that over the course of the novel Henry has developed a tragic vision of sorts-a knowledge that the world is indifferent (i.e. there is no God) and that life is ultimately meaningless. A few scholars have argued that the "it" is the opposite-Henry has come to the realization that he has a soul and that death is not final. The interpretation of the novel presented here will favor the former, which is more consistent with the trends that run through Hemingway's other novels. Whichever the case, at this point in the novel it is worth noting that there is already a seed of existentialism in Henry. When returning from leave, he notes that nothing seems to have