He is happy. Then World War II begins. He is taken prisoner. Every day is the same, though. Every meal is the same.
Nobody knows when the war is going to end.
People are fighting and dying all over Europe, but he is stuck in a P.O.W. camp, doomed to eat three bland meals a day and sun himself in the equatorial sun and write in his journal. A year passes, and Benuzzi feels himself going mad. He cannot sleep. He cannot eat. He begins making absurd noises and jumping up and down, just to assert some shred of individuality, no matter how inane.