BARRON'S BOOK NOTES (tm)
For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
1940
ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
CONTENTS
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES..
THE NOVEL
The Plot
The Characters
Other Elements
Setting..
Historical Background
Themes
Style.
Point of View..
Form and Structure
THE STORY..
A STEP BEYOND
Tests and Answers
Term Paper Ideas and other Topics for Writing..
The Critics
Advisory Board
Bibliography..
AUTHOR_AND_HIS_TIMES
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES
In June 1937, Ernest Hemingway addressed the Second Congress of
American Writers at Carnegie Hall in New York City. His subject was
the Spanish Civil War, which had started in 1936 and which he had
observed first-hand for some months as a correspondent of the North
American Newspaper Alliance. In his speech, which was warmly
received by the audience, Hemingway spoke of his deep hatred for the
fascist forces trying to overthrow the Republican government in Spain,
particularly for the way they suppressed artists, notably writers.
'Really good writers are always rewarded under almost any existing
system of government that they can tolerate,' Hemingway said in his
speech. 'There is only one form of government that cannot produce good
writers, and that system is fascism. For fascism is a lie told by
bullies. A writer who will not lie cannot live and work under
fascism.'
Hemingway's apparent devotion to the Republican cause in this war
was greeted with cheers by liberals in the United States. Here was
Ernest Hemingway, a famous novelist, declaring his allegiance to their
cause! His pledge of support seemed particularly welcome, since he had
long resisted public political commitment of any kind and had been
criticized for his reluctance to become involved in the important
issues of the day. Now he had thrown himself into the midst of the
controversy.
Hemingway returned to Spain to watch the battle rage, and he
became increasingly frustrated by the failure of the Republicans to
hold their own against the fascist rebels. He was also sickened by the
corruption and ineptness of Republicans and Nationalists alike. He
called this situation 'the carnival of treachery and rottenness on
both sides,' and was especially critical of the military leaders.
Hemingway decided that he could best serve the Republican cause by
writing about the war as honestly as possible. 'The hell with war
for awhile,' he said, 'I want to write.' The result of his creative
urge was the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, which was published in
1940, the year after the Republicans had lost the war.
* * *
For someone who lived his adult years with bold, muscular strokes in
public view across three continents, Hemingway's early life was
relatively uneventful. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb
of Chicago, on July 21, 1899. His mother was artistic and cultured,
and might have followed a career as an opera singer. She tried to urge
Ernest to develop musical inclinations, but with no results. His great
love was the outdoors, the appreciation of which he learned from his
father, a physician, who relished fishing, hunting, and the lore of
the woods. Ernest acquired ideals of endurance, physical prowess,
and courage that later show up in his writing and his life.
When he was graduated from high school in 1917, Hemingway had no
desire to go to college. His interest was World War I, which had
been raging for three years. He wanted to participate before the
fighting ended, but he was met by disappointment. At first Hemingway's
father refused to let him enlist, and when his father finally
relented, the American armed forces rejected Hemingway for poor vision
in one eye.
Hemingway then worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star for six
months until he found a way to participate in the war- as an ambulance
driver with the American Red Cross. By June 1918 he was at the front
lines in Italy. During a furious Austrian shelling of Italian
troops, he carried a wounded soldier to safety, but was struck along
the way by pieces of mortar shrapnel.
The Italian government decorated Hemingway for his heroism,
newspapers printed glowing stories, and a hero's welcome awaited him
in Oak Park. But Hemingway was nonetheless plagued by rejection in
other areas: He had fallen in love with Agnes von Kurowsky, a nurse
who had cared for him in an Italian hospital, but in 1919 she broke
off their relationship. And his determination to be a writer was
dampened by rejection slips from one magazine after another.
Coloring almost everything was his disillusionment with the values
he had learned while growing up. His experience in the war overseas
had changed his outlook, and he became more and more estranged from
his parents. In Europe he encountered cynicism about the war, not
patriotism, and there was an overwhelming loss of hope and belief in
traditional values.
In September 1921, Hemingway married Hadley Richardson. The couple
moved to Paris, where Hemingway served as a correspondent for The
Toronto Star. Paris was a gathering place for American expatriates-
people who chose to live away from their homeland, mostly because they
were disillusioned or confused about their lives and their country.
One writer dubbed these rootless people 'the lost generation.'
Hemingway's desire to be a full-time writer of fiction was still
unfulfilled. Manuscript after manuscript was turned down by
publishers. Another devastating blow came in December 1923 when a
suitcase containing almost everything he had written was stolen and
never recovered.
But in 1924 a small collection of his short stories, in our time,
was published in Paris. In 1925, retitled with capitals, In Our Time
was published in the United States and ultimately received high
critical praise. His terse, direct style (developed in part by his
need to use as few words as possible as a foreign correspondent) and
his ability to articulate intense, complex emotions without flowery
excess, was greeted with warm welcome by many critics, who saw him
as helping initiate a departure from the verbal indulgences of many
writers of the 19th century. Hemingway further polished his style in
his first novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926). The book, a telling
depiction of life among American expatriates in Europe, was warmly
received by both critics and the reading public.
In 1927, Hemingway divorced Hadley and married Pauline Pfeiffer, a
writer for Vogue magazine. They moved to Key West, Florida, where he
worked on A Farewell to Arms (1929) and Pauline gave birth to the
first of their two sons. Just as he was completing the final draft
of A Farewell to Arms, which would bring him even more critical and
financial success, he learned that his father- despondent and ill with
diabetes- had shot himself to death. Hemingway considered suicide a
cowardly act, and never forgave his father for it. Yet the suicide
would ultimately have a grim echo in Hemingway's own life.
The 1930s brought Hemingway adventure and broad, bold experiences.
He indulged his love for deep-sea fishing off the coast of Florida and
hunting in the American West and Africa. Always seeking intense
physical experience, Hemingway spoke with awe about the thrill of
the 'clean kill.' He wrote many magazine articles that glorified these
brawny adventures, until the public generally identified him with
the image of the hearty and rugged outdoorsman. Hemingway wrote two
nonfiction books during this period, Death in the Afternoon (1932),
which honored the ritual of the bullfight, and Green Hills of Africa
(1935), detailing the glory of an African safari.
The Great Depression and other world problems helped develop a new
side of Hemingway. Because the heroes in Hemingway's novels had been
loners, independent and aloof from the problems of the masses, the
generally left-leaning writers of the time disdained him and his
outlook. That's one major reason why Hemingway was cheered so heartily
in his address in 1937 to the Congress of American Writers: this was a
new, politically committed Ernest Hemingway!
Hemingway's zeal for the Republican, or Loyalist, cause was revealed
in actions as well as words. He accompanied both regular Republican
army groups and guerrilla bands as a correspondent. He spent time in
the Spanish cities, in the countryside, in the mountains. He also
bought ambulances for the Loyalists, and helped prepare a pro-Loyalist
documentary film, The Spanish Earth.
There was another aspect of Hemingway that lured him to the scene of
battle- his love of conflict itself. It would be simplistic to say
that Hemingway glorified war, as some have charged. He was as sickened
by its cruelty and waste as anyone could be. Yet he was also excited
by what he saw as the more positive aspects of battle- courage,
camaraderie, loyalty, dedication to a cause. According to one
observer, Hemingway was 'attracted by danger, death, great deeds';
another said he was 'revived and rejuvenated' by seeing those who
refused to surrender, no matter what the odds. Hemingway was also
buoyed by what he called 'the pleasant, comforting stench of comrades'
fighting together for a common goal. Instincts similar to those that
drew him to a bullfight or to the stalking of wild game sharpened
his senses during the Spanish Civil War.
It is the conflicting impulses of attraction and repulsion that
create much of the tension in For Whom the Bell Tolls. The publication
of the novel was greeted with acclaim by some, but with disdain by
others. Some liberals and some conservatives were angered because they
felt Hemingway had betrayed them by not writing a novel that favored
their respective political outlook. But Hemingway responded, 'In
stories about the war I try to show all the different sides of it,
taking it slowly and honestly and examining it in many ways. So
never think one story represents my viewpoint because it is much too
complicated for that.'
For Whom the Bell Tolls was a great commercial success. Paramount
Pictures acquired the film rights for $150,000, an astronomical sum at
the time. Hemingway stipulated who the principal actors should be- the
very popular Gary Cooper would be Robert Jordan, the main figure in
the novel, and the rising star Ingrid Bergman would be Maria, the
guerrilla with whom Jordan falls in love.
In the later 1940s and 50s, the novel's critical standing declined
compared with some of Hemingway's other works. Readers noted
inaccuracies in the use of Spanish in For Whom the Bell Tolls. They
criticized details of the presentation of Spanish culture, such as the
scene where Agustin, a Spanish guerrilla, asks Jordan about Maria's
sexual performance. Such curiosity would violate a strict Spanish code
of decorum. Other readers said the relationship between Jordan and
Maria lacked credibility.
In more recent times the novel has regained critical stature. Some
regard it as Hemingway's finest achievement. And few doubt the
personal passion and experience he brought to its writing.
How objective a reporter was Hemingway? Can you read For Whom the
Bell Tolls as an accurate picture of Spain during the civil war?
Opinions vary. His war correspondence itself has received labels
that range from 'stirring accounts' to 'a kind of sub-fiction in which
he was the central character.'
In For Whom the Bell Tolls he was objective enough to point out
deficiencies of the Republican side and to write vividly of the
atrocities they committed. He could also show the enemy in a favorable
light. For instance, in the novel's final scene, the representative of
the Nationalists, Lieutenant Berrendo, is not an odious barbarian
but a richly human character for whom you may feel considerable
sympathy.
The famous British writer George Orwell, whose books include 1984
and Animal Farm, was another of the many leading writers who became
actively involved in the Spanish Civil War. He wrote Homage to
Catalonia (1938), a detailed recollection of experiences with one of
the Loyalist organizations. You might want to compare the fictional
details of For Whom the Bell Tolls with Orwell's account of the way he
saw the war. You will also learn about the war by reading Arthur
Koestler's Spanish Testament (1937), a vivid account of the writer's
imprisonment by Nationalist forces. Man's Hope (1938), by the noted
French intellectual Andre Malraux, is considered a masterly
depiction of early stages of the war. In addition, several
historical works on the Spanish Civil War contain a wealth of
material. Such studies include books by Gabriel Jackson (1965), Hugh
Thomas (1977), and Peter Wyden (1983).
Hemingway's second marriage ended in divorce in 1940, and he married
Martha Gellhorn, a writer and foreign correspondent during the Spanish
Civil War. For Whom the Bell Tolls is dedicated to her.
World War II (1939-45) captivated Hemingway. Both his finances and
his reputation were solid, and he needed neither the notoriety nor the
money from being a war correspondent. Nevertheless, he took a job as
chief of the European bureau of Collier's magazine. He accompanied the
British Royal Air Force on several bombing raids over occupied
France and crossed the English Channel with American troops on
D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was in the thick of fighting during the
liberation of Paris and the Battle of the Bulge, often seeming as much
a soldier as a correspondent, according to one source.
In 1945, at the age of 46, Hemingway divorced Martha Gellhorn and
married his last wife, Mary Welsh. The couple lived on a luxurious
estate outside Havana, Cuba, until the revolution begun in 1959 by
Fidel Castro forced them to leave.
Hemingway's novel Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) was
eagerly awaited. But when published it was scorned, receiving
biting, almost vicious, reviews. Critics accused Hemingway of
writing self-parody; another claimed to feel 'pity, embarrassment,
that so fine and honest a writer can make such a travesty of himself.'
It became fashionable to consider Hemingway washed up as a writer.
Returning to Africa to re-create some of the adventures of the
1930s, Hemingway was nearly killed in an airplane crash. But he
survived, and went on to write The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, the
last major work published while he was alive. (A Moveable Feast,
Islands in the Stream, By-line: Ernest Hemingway, and The Dangerous
Summer were published after his death.) The Old Man and the Sea
revived Hemingway's flagging career. He received a Pulitzer Prize
for the book, and it helped him win the prestigious Nobel Prize for
literature in 1954.
In subsequent years the hearty and death-defying Hemingway began
to lose his health. Nothing, including visits to the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota, was able to restore him to his previous vigor. His
illnesses (including a rare disease that affects the vital organs)
were compounded by severe states of depression.
Did he decide that, if he could not live as aggressively and
boldly as he once had, he would prefer not to live at all? Whatever
the reason, he took his own life at his home in Ketchum, Idaho, on
July 2, 1961. He shot himself with a silver-inlaid shotgun, choosing a
method used by his father years earlier. He thus duplicated an act
that he had denounced as cowardly.
Hemingway the artist left a rich legacy of work that has found a
permanent place in American literature. That he is likely to endure
can be attributed to many factors, but is perhaps best summed up in
his own words, spoken to the Writer's Congress in 1937: 'A writer's
problem is always how to write truly and having found out what is
true to project it in such a way that it becomes part of the
experience of the person who reads it.' Hemingway wrote truly, and
he becomes part of everyone who reads him.
THE_PLOT
THE NOVEL
THE PLOT (HFORPLOT)
For Whom the Bell Tolls tells the engrossing tale of Robert
Jordan, an American supporter of the Republican cause in the Spanish
Civil War (1936-39). Within a short span of some 68 hours, Jordan's
involvement with a band of guerrillas- notably a young woman named
Maria, with whom he falls in love- forces him to question his own
participation in a war that seems unwinnable and to realize that the
sacrifice of life for the sake of a political cause may be too high
a price to pay.
Jordan is a college teacher on a leave of absence in Spain, and as
For Whom the Bell Tolls opens, he's discussing the location of a
bridge with a local guide named Anselmo. But there's much more to
the situation than that. The Spain that Jordan loves is involved in
a civil war, and he has really come to help wage that war on behalf of
the side he believes in. At the moment his job is to blow up a
bridge behind enemy lines.
The assignment came to Jordan through General Golz, a Soviet officer
also in Spain to help fight the war. According to Golz, the demolition
of the bridge at precisely the right moment is a key part of a
large-scale offensive by the Republican forces.
Jordan needs help to do the job, so the peasant Anselmo has
brought him to a guerrilla band hiding in the mountains. From the
moment Jordan meets Pablo, their leader, Jordan suspects that the
guerrilla chief, who should be his chief ally in the operation, will
spell trouble.
Pablo has 'gone bad.' He's lost his drive, his purpose as a
guerrilla leader. He's content simply to stay hidden and survive,
rather than actively harass the enemy.
With the arrival of Jordan, the band of seven men and two women
are given a renewed sense of purpose. This prompts a showdown for
leadership of the band. Pilar, Pablo's mistress, publicly assumes
charge. Pablo's status is uncertain at this moment, and several of the
band would now be grateful if Jordan killed Pablo. But he doesn't.
Plans are made to enlist the help of a neighboring guerrilla band, led
by El Sordo, in the demolition of the bridge.
Robert Jordan finds more than the bridge to occupy his attention.
Among the guerrilla group is Maria, a young woman who was rescued by
the band during their last significant operation. They are almost
instantly attracted to each other and spend this first night making
love. It's not the first sexual experience for either of them.
Jordan has been with other women; Maria was once raped by a group of
enemy soldiers. But for each, it's the first experience that
combines sex with love.
On the second day, Jordan, Pilar, and Maria make their way to the
hideout of El Sordo to enlist his help in demolishing the bridge. El
Sordo promises support. On the return trip, Pilar deliberately
leaves Jordan and Maria by themselves for a while. Again they make
love, and Jordan begins to entertain serious doubts about whether this
war is the most important thing in his life after all.
The band now observes a heavy concentration of enemy soldiers riding
through the area but manages to avoid detection. El Sordo and his
men are not so fortunate. Nationalist soldiers- the enemy- trap them
on a hill and they are slaughtered. Jordan and the others hear the
sounds of the fighting but are helpless to come to El Sordo's aid.
It's an agonizing feeling.
Personal experiences have brought Jordan to doubt the value of
this war in general. Now the concentration of enemy soldiers and
planes in the area makes him doubt the practicality of blowing up
the bridge. Perhaps if Golz were aware of the enemy's numbers in the
immediate area, he would want the operation canceled.
He writes a dispatch to Golz. But the messenger is delayed time
and again- not by the presence of the enemy in the area, but by the
frustrating bumbling and petty bureaucracy of his own Republican
forces. Ultimately, he is arrested and the dispatch is confiscated,
again by his own people.
At the camp, Maria and Jordan dream about their future together, but
Jordan knows they are fooling themselves. Finally, Pilar brings Jordan
the news that Pablo has deserted and has taken the detonation devices.
The bridge operation wasn't easy to begin with; now Jordan will have
to improvise a makeshift exploder and detonators just to have a chance
at succeeding.
He spends the middle of the night devising a way- and holding Maria.
'We'll be killed but we'll blow the bridge,' he whispers to her as she
sleeps in his arms.
Early on the morning of this fourth day, as the band eat what
could be their last breakfast, Pablo returns. He apologizes for his
moment of weakness. To make up for it, he has brought several more men
from the area to join them. But the exploder and detonators are
gone; he has tossed them in the river.
Meanwhile, a Soviet journalist secures the release of the messenger,
and Jordan's dispatch finally reaches Golz, but it's too late. The
doomed attack has already been mounted and can't be stopped.
Without counterorders from Golz, Jordan's mission to blow up the
bridge proceeds. He feverishly rigs the improvised detonation
devices just in time. At the sound of the Loyalist attack (his cue),
the bridge is blown up. Jordan has accomplished what he came to do.
But he is a different man from what he was a short while ago; the
success gives him little satisfaction.
The band must now attempt a retreat. Pablo, the most familiar with
the area, has devised a workable plan. The group draws enemy fire
but no one is hit. They all have a chance to escape to a safe area-
except Robert Jordan.
His horse is hit and falls on him, breaking his thigh. For the
good of all, he is left behind. Everyone but Maria can see that
there is no other way. There is a painful good-bye. Maria protests
to the end and won't leave until she is forced to by Pilar and Pablo.
Robert Jordan struggles to remain conscious just long enough to kill
at least some of the enemy. He lies on the ground, awaiting the enemy.
THE_CHARACTERS
THE CHARACTERS (HFORCHAR)
MAJOR CHARACTERS
ROBERT JORDAN
Robert Jordan is a man of action. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, he
undertakes a dangerous mission, even welcomes it. Like other Hemingway
heroes, he seems to understand that dying well can be even more
important than living well.
But unlike other Hemingway heroes, Jordan believes in an abstract
ideal, an ideology, a cause. This cause is 'government by the
people' in the Spain that he loves. Jordan's liberal political views
have motivated him to leave the University of Montana where he teaches
Spanish, in order to fight with the Spanish Republicans, or Loyalists.
Whereas most liberal intellectuals were willing only to denounce in
words the rise of fascism in Spain, Jordan takes action in support
of his political beliefs.
Beyond that, Jordan is intelligent, clever, inventive, and decisive.
He can keep his composure in sticky situations. These qualities are
necessary for survival in his role in Spain of a demolition expert
behind enemy lines.
Jordan is unquestionably in charge, except in the arena of his own
mind. Here, he begins to question and reevaluate the very ideals
that brought him to Spain. This tormented individualist sways and
wavers, experiencing moments of painful honesty and moments of
self-deception. He sometimes feels caught between new values
emerging in his life and a duty he has committed himself to.
At the conclusion of Hemingway's story, dedication to an ideology is
not as important to Jordan as it was at the beginning. He begins to
see that his cause is tarnished, that perhaps every cause is
tarnished. He has changed from a believer in abstract ideas to a
believer in the importance of the individual person.
You might accept this change as both credible and authentic, or
you might question it on the grounds that it's motivated principally
by his rather swift and passionate love affair with Maria. You'll have
to decide whether Jordan is more genuine or less genuine at the
conclusion of the novel- or equally so, even though his principal
allegiance has changed.
PABLO
Pablo, the leader of the guerrilla band, is one of Hemingway's
richest characters. In one sense he is quite entertaining, not only
because he is frequently comically drunk but also because his behavior
is full of surprises.
At one time, there had been an entirely different Pablo, who, like
Jordan, believed strongly in the Loyalist cause. But unlike Jordan,
that Pablo was capable of immense cruelty.
Now the guerrilla leader is disillusioned. The cause means little to
him. He's content simply to survive, hidden in the mountains, doing
almost nothing to aid the Loyalist forces. Given his horses and his
wine, he appears happy.
On the surface, he seems to have degenerated into an ineffective
force. But he cannot be discounted. In fact, his bitter
disillusionment makes him dangerous. He's capable now of
deliberately sabotaging the very operations he formerly supported
and led.
Yet something of the old Pablo remains. He may have lost his
motivation and the firmness of his allegiance, but he hasn't lost
his cleverness and expertise as a guerrilla soldier.
During the course of the story, Pablo doesn't actually change, as
Robert Jordan does. He vacillates. He is now one Pablo, now another- a
frustrating figure to Jordan, and probably to you, also.
But most of the time Pablo suffers from what we might call
burnout, exhaustion and apathy resulting usually from working too hard
at something. What's responsible for this disintegration of Pablo from
a terror-wielding firebrand to an often drunken excuse for a soldier?
Several possibilities exist. One is his dependence on wine. You
may see that as a defect of character or as a disease. Or it could
be that the responsibility of leading his band during wartime has
simply worn him down. Perhaps through lack of willpower he has allowed
fear to transform him into a spineless character. Maybe he has
simply become soft and spoiled by the relative luxuries of his
recently sheltered situation.
A particularly intriguing line of thought is that Pablo suffers from
guilt over the atrocities he engineered at the beginning of the war,
which Pilar describes in Chapter 10. Guilt can produce severe
depression leading to inactivity and even virtual paralysis. At one
point Pablo does express a sorrow for having killed and a kinship with
his victims, but it's uncertain whether this is Pablo or his red
wine speaking.
PILAR
Pilar is Pablo's mistress and the real leader of the guerrilla band,
even though Pablo nominally holds the title at the beginning of the
novel. As with Pablo, there is more than one Pilar. But she is far
more predictable. In fact, you typically see only her tough side.
Whatever the situation, Pilar is always in charge.
She is duly respectful of Jordan's status with the movement and
his expertise as a demolition expert. But she is prepared to set him
straight when she feels it's needed.
She is a woman born into a male-oriented culture. Thus she is
domestic in many ways. She even trains Maria in some traditional
household and man-pleasing 'duties.' At the same time, she can carry
heavy equipment, fire a machine gun, and command a group of
seasoned, male guerrilla soldiers.
She is rough and hardened, capable of crude speech and outrageous
insults. She dispenses them freely, particularly to Pablo. Anyone
who strikes her as acting stupidly is a target for her acid tongue.
Though physically ugly- by her own admission- Pilar has not lacked
for lovers. She recalls her former lover Finito with a nostalgic
fondness. She is affectionate with Maria, for whom she has genuine
feelings. And her strength diminishes at times- the roar of plane
engines overhead sends her into a shudder of fear.
True to her complex character, when Pablo returns from his brief
desertion, she insults, forgives, then admires him nearly all in the
same breath.
Unlike Pablo, throughout most of the story Pilar professes to be a
fervent believer in the Republican movement as an ideal. In that
respect she is like the Robert Jordan we see at the beginning of the
story. You might question how genuine this is or at least what
motivates Pilar. You might see her as truly convinced of Republican
ideals, even though she could not articulate them in the
intellectual manner that Jordan would. Another interpretation is
that she has simply found her niche in this turbulent wartime
situation and receives sufficient psychological reward to keep her
going from her role as behind-the-scenes controller of what is
nominally Pablo's band. It might even be argued that both the above
compensate for her recent lack of romantic and sexual fulfillment with
Pablo.
There is also a mystical streak in Pilar. Although full of common
sense, she is attuned to mysteries of the universe. She reads Jordan's
palm and probably sees his imminent death. She also graphically
recounts the smell of death that clung to the ill-fated Kashkin,
Jordan's predecessor.
MARIA
Maria is a young Spanish woman who was rescued by Pablo's band
when they hijacked a Nationalist train. She has been with them
since. Maria is important in the story as a principal cause of
character development in Robert Jordan. But many readers feel that she
herself changes little and is a superficial character. One commentator
has said that even Jordan's fantasies of love affairs with screen
goddesses are more real than the portrait of Maria.
At their first meeting, she is strongly attracted to Jordan. She
exhibits an almost desperate need for the attentions of a man who will
care for her as a woman- but with respect and tenderness.
Crucial to this need is a nightmare of Maria's past: the brutal rape
she experienced at the hands of her Nationalist captors. Pilar has
afforded some healing with her philosophy that whatever Maria didn't
actually consent to did not, in a sense, happen- or at least did not
count. But Maria needs more than this.
You might question whether Maria's willingness to give herself so
quickly and completely to Jordan is believable in light of her
previous brutal treatment at the hands of men. After all, even
though Jordan fights for the Loyalists, as a person he's an unknown
quantity to her.
Finding Jordan both masculine and gentle, Maria becomes lovingly
subservient to a degree that some women readers find somewhat silly.
She talks almost in terms of worship. As you read the novel, you'll
have to decide whether Hemingway has portrayed Maria's relationship
with Jordan in believable terms.
At the close of the story, Maria and Jordan's relationship is, in
their own words, much deeper than simple attraction and need. Has
Maria herself changed- or been changed? Or has something good (a
sincere love affair) simply happened to her while she herself
remains much the same person?
SELECTED MINOR CHARACTERS
ANSELMO
Anselmo, the oldest member of the guerrilla band, never uses his age
as an excuse for shirking work for the Republican cause. There is
nothing half-hearted about his service. Above all, he exhibits
simplicity and integrity. Many readers feel that when Anselmo
speaks, it's worth listening to.
Anselmo is also a gentle, sensitive man who is able to see enemy
soldiers as men very much like himself. The killing involved in the
guerrilla band's operations causes him much pain. At heart he is a
deeply religious man.
Thus, even in a situation he did not devise or wish for, Anselmo
seems to be an example of an honest gentleman. His integrity
combined with the nominal atheism he must subscribe to on behalf of
the Republicans have gained him the epithet 'secular saint' in some
critiques.
Yet it's possible to see him in another light. Given the depth of
his religious and ethical convictions, which become particularly
evident at the end of the novel, why hasn't he simply stood up and
said 'I will not serve' a cause which exercises the killing and
brutality which he hates?
GENERAL GOLZ
Golz is a Soviet military strategist who is in Spain to help the
Republican forces. But it's difficult to determine his personal
involvement in the cause. He devotes himself to his job, and he's
upset (as Jordan will be) at the incompetent manner in which the
Loyalists wage the war. He is resentful that amateurish bumbling and
pettiness prevent his strategic plans from being carried out as he has
ordered.
This could be explained by a sincere belief in his communist
ideology and a desire to see justice and self-determination granted to
the common people of Spain. It could also stem from a love of
playing professional war games and a desire for a sparkling military
record. Golz, after all, will not answer to the people of Spain. He
answers to superiors who will determine his career as a Soviet
officer.
EL SORDO
El Sordo ('The Deaf One') is the leader of a neighboring guerrilla
band. He's an aggressive leader such as Pablo once was, although
perhaps without the cruelty. He's courageous, resourceful, and
dedicated to the Republic.
But he's also a realist: he has no illusions about the possibility
of Republican success in the civil war. In this respect, he can be
seen as the purest example of devotion to an ideal. He knows that
the cause for which he will die will fail. Yet he does more than he
has to on its behalf. He even gives Jordan (who is expected to
return to the luxury of the United States) a rare bottle of whiskey in
hospitable thanks for Jordan's aid toward the cause.
He can also be seen as a contradictory character. Although he does
not accept the collectivist slogans that promise victory or at least
glory through sustained effort, he fights with all his effort on
behalf of the force which generates them.
KARKOV
Karkov is a Soviet journalist covering the Spanish Civil War from
his headquarters in Madrid. He seems to give allegiance to the
ideology of the Republic. Consequently, the bumbling and
indifference that he observes in many of its higher echelons disgust
and infuriate him.
He's similar to Golz in that it's difficult to determine how
personally he's involved in the cause. While on the surface he seems
genuine, he doesn't hesitate to avail himself of the relatively
extravagant luxuries at Gaylord's Hotel, the Soviet headquarters in
Madrid. In this manner, he could easily symbolize many who have thrown
themselves into the cause of the common, impoverished people- but
without truly wanting to share their general lot in life.
JOAQUIN
Joaquin is a young, idealistic member of El Sordo's band. At the
time of the air attack on the guerrillas, Joaquin at first is a
vocal partisan of the communist cause. But as the attack begins and
the possibility of death looms, Joaquin returns to his Roman
Catholic roots and begins to pray fervently.
ANDRES
Andres is a member of Pablo's band. He is sent by Jordan to
deliver the message to General Golz that the planned Republican
offensive has been anticipated by the enemy.
SETTING
OTHER ELEMENTS
SETTING (HFORSETT)
-
Because For Whom the Bell Tolls is set during the Spanish Civil War,
it is important to know some of the elements of Spanish geography
incorporated in the book. If you look at the series of maps entitled
'The Course of the Spanish Civil War,' (see illustration)
you'll
notice the increase of Nationalist-held territory from July 1936 to
October 1937. (The novel takes place in May 1937.) By 1937 the
Republicans were steadily losing ground, and Robert Jordan's
mission- to blow up a bridge crucial to enemy Nationalist interests-
takes on added importance.
Almost in the center of Spain is Madrid, the capital, once a
Republican stronghold, but in May 1937 close to falling to the
enemy. To the north of Madrid (see map) is the Guadarrama
Range, where
Pablo's band is hiding and where the bridge is to be demolished. The
town of La Granja is where members of the band go for supplies and
news of the war. To the southwest of the Guadarrama mountains is the
Gredos Range, where Pablo intends to retreat after the bridge is blown
up. To the west of the Guadarrama Range is the city of Segovia, a
Nationalist stronghold the Republicans hope to capture in their
offensive.
Farther northwest of Segovia is Valladolid, where Maria was taken
prisoner. It was there she was transported by the train that Pablo's
band seized and blew up.
Notice, too, the region of Estremadura in the western part of Spain,
where Jordan was working before his current assignment.
Many readers have pointed out that one of Ernest Hemingway's major
goals in writing For Whom the Bell Tolls was to demonstrate that the
real victims of the Spanish Civil War were the Spanish people
themselves, torn by the savage self-interest of the competing
political ideologues. The tragic effects of a brutal war on the
peasants for whom it had become a daily reality are revealed in the
rebel camp where Jordan and the others are hiding. These simple,
earthy people have been transformed permanently by the war, and its
toll is immeasurable. Hemingway shows us the cost of war in a
variety of ways: Pilar's lengthy and vivid description of the
atrocities inflicted upon Nationalist enemies in her village;
Maria's suffering at the hands of the enemy; Pablo's erratic behavior;
Anselmo's pathetic conflict between loyalty to the cause and his
dislike of killing, to name the most obvious examples. Because the
fate of the Spanish people (mostly farmers) is so directly tied to the
land the war has ravaged, they act as an indivisible part of the
novel's setting.
By placing most of the action in the mountain retreat of the
guerrilla band, Hemingway has created a setting that is symbolic in
contrasting ways. On the one hand, the camp hidden in the Guadarrama
Range is a refuge that offers safety for many of the characters.
Here Pablo, Pilar, and the other guerrillas have come to find
temporary safety; here, too, Maria has come to heal physical and
psychic wounds after her imprisonment by the Nationalists. It is in
the mountains that Robert Jordan begins to question his motives as a
participant in this war: through his love for Maria and his
association with the peasants, Jordan is humanized and slowly comes to
realize the truth of the quotation from John Donne at the opening of
the novel: 'No man is an Iland.'
On the other hand, the mountain hideout also represents the plight
of the Republicans- there they are trapped, blocked by fascist
troops below them and enemy aircraft whizzing over their heads. The
snow of the mountains offers a similar two-sided symbol: beautiful
to look at, it suggests nature at its most peaceful, but the snow is
also deadly, since it reveals the whereabouts of the rebels once
they have walked in it.
BACKGROUND
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (HFORHIST)
Until the 1930s Spain had been a monarchy for centuries, except
for a brief experiment as a republic in 1873-74. We can begin the
background to the Spanish Civil War with Alfonso XIII, who came to the
Spanish throne in 1902. The general verdict of historians is that he
was incompetent. In 1921, for example, 20,000 Spanish troops died in
an ill-conceived, unsuccessful offensive that he ordered against
Moroccan tribes. He subsequently disbanded Parliament and selected
Miguel Primo de Rivera as a military dictator.
Rivera established a dictatorship with Alfonso as figurehead.
Although Rivera's government, which held power from 1923 to 1930,
initially proved efficient and was widely favored, its popularity
later declined and finally even the army withdrew its support.
Rivera fled in January 1930, leaving Alfonso with the huge problem
of trying to run Spain with little popular support.
In the hope of avoiding civil war, Alfonso went into exile,
attempting to do so with a touch of grace by not officially
abdicating. In 1931 the Second Republic, led by a coalition of
Socialists and middle-class liberals, was formed amid enthusiasm.
But the new government tried to do too much too quickly- and often
acted unwisely. This was especially the case in matters of educational
reform and in trying to reduce the immense power of both the church
and the army.
Consequently, opposition mounted. Monarchist plots arose on behalf
of Alfonso and even on behalf of the line of Don Carlos, the
19th-century claimant to the throne. By the end of 1935,
twenty-eight governments had been formed and had fallen. The country
was close to chaos, with frequent strikes and uprisings by
self-declared autonomous governments.
The election of February 1936 gave power to the Popular Front, a
shaky mixture of Republicans, Socialists, Communists, and
Anarchists. But widescale disorder and violence continued to rack
the country. Spain had finally gained a government 'of the people,'
but the Republic was weak and inefficient- and thus its own worst
enemy.
The situation begged for a force to bring order out of chaos and
hence was ripe for the formation and growth of fascist organizations
based on the premise of a strong central government. Principal among
the fascist groups was the Falange, begun by Jose Antonio Primo de
Rivera, the son of the previous dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera.
Many tradition-minded Spanish people, particularly the landowners
and conservative army officers, began to feel that their way of life
would be destroyed either by official government reforms or by the
general chaos of the country. They started planning to overthrow the
government.
The army made its move on July 17, 1936, charging that the
government could not keep order. It was certainly not the first
fighting in Spain. But it was the beginning of large-scale civil
war, with the lines clearly drawn.
The forces led by the army (with General Francisco Franco in charge)
were called the Nationalists or Rebels. Supporting the Nationalists
were monarchists, Carlists (monarchists who supported the claim of
descendants of Don Carlos, rather than the Bourbon line), the
wealthy upper classes, the Falange fascists, and elements of the Roman
Catholic Church.
The forces defending the Republican government were called Loyalists
or Republicans. This group included much of the working class and most
liberals, socialists, and communists.
The Spanish Civil War was a brutal conflict that included many
appalling acts of cruelty and terrorism. The Nationalist forces
often found themselves in the position of an alien invading army.
Popular sympathy was usually with the Republicans, but the support was
largely passive. One way the Nationalists tried to gain control of
people was through terror: torture, executions, and bloodletting of
all kinds. Loyalists responded with equally reprehensible
atrocities, like those described in Chapter 10 of For Whom the Bell
Tolls.
The Spanish Civil War was, in part, an international affair.
Historians have often commented that the war served as a training
ground, almost a dress rehearsal, for World War II.
Aiding the Nationalists were approximately 50,000 soldiers from
Fascist Italy, 20,000 from Portugal, and 10,000 from Nazi Germany.
These countries also provided modern war materials.
On the Republican side were Soviet soldiers, well trained and able
to assume positions of leadership, and an estimated 40,000
additional volunteers from around the globe, including the United
States. The volunteers were mostly professional soldiers for hire,
international adventurers, or persons who sympathized ideologically
with the Republicans. This last group included people like Robert
Jordan, the main character in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Some arms and equipment were sent to the Loyalists from such
countries as the Soviet Union, Mexico, and France, but this aid didn't
equal that provided to the Nationalists. Consequently, Nationalist
forces were nearly always better equipped.
The Nationalist rebels began by occupying the northwest and the
southern tip of Spain and gradually linked these two areas. From there
they executed a pincer movement: down from the north, up from the
south, and toward the Mediterranean coast in the east.
By the spring of 1937, when For Whom the Bell Tolls takes place, the
Nationalists were making serious inroads in Republican-controlled
territory. Madrid, the Spanish capital, was held by the Republicans
but was constantly under siege. The guerrilla camp depicted by
Hemingway in the novel was behind Nationalist lines, about sixty miles
from Madrid. It was also during this time, on April 26, that Nazi
German airplanes bombed the Basque town of Guernica, killing more than
1600 civilians. Guernica was without military importance, and the
bombing brought an international outcry of protest. The incident
also inspired one of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso's most vivid and
moving paintings, called Guernica, created out of his heartbreak and
rage.
Yet for all the Nationalist gains in 1937, the Republicans
remained hopeful they could win the war. Hemingway has called this
period of brave optimism 'the happiest period of our lives,' referring
to those sympathizers and journalists who were in Spain. But less than
two years later, in March 1939, Madrid was captured by the
Nationalists, and the war was over.
The toll in human lives was immense. Nearly 110,000 people died in
battles and air raids. Some 220,000 persons were murdered or executed.
About 200,000 Loyalist prisoners were shot or died of ill-treatment in
prison cells even after the Nationalist triumph. And more than 300,000
people sought exile abroad.
THEMES
THEMES (HFORTHEM)
The following are themes of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
MAJOR THEMES
1. RELATIONSHIP OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO MANKIND
Hemingway's choice of a John Donne poem as the source of the novel's
title and epigraph emphasizes a major theme of For Whom the Bell
Tolls: 'No man is an iland,' that is, no person can exist separate
from the lives of others, even others living in far-away countries.
The theme is demonstrated most clearly by the actions of Robert
Jordan. Throughout his participation in the Spanish Civil War, he
has fought actively for a cause- not the cause of communism, as he
says, but the cause of antifascism. As the novel progresses, his
involvement with the guerrilla band, and particularly his love for
Maria, teach him the value of the individual as he or she affects a
larger society. The abstractions of an ideology are lifeless without
the people they represent; concepts have no meaning except for the
ways in which they affect human beings.
For Jordan, Maria represents human love, the first he has ever
known. It is for her that he stays behind to allow the rest of the
band to escape, demonstrating his realization that others depend on
him as he has depended on them. His decision not to commit suicide
at the end of the novel represents his ultimate understanding that
he must fight for the people whose lives are affected by the cause,
not purely for the cause as a generalized ideology.
Both Pablo and Pilar represent minor variations of the theme of
interdependency. Pablo is full of greedy self-interest now that he
owns horses. His decision to betray the guerrilla band is due to his
need to survive and thrive. At the last minute, however, he seems to
understand how his actions will affect those whom he once led, and
he returns to help them. Pilar, on the other hand, is almost blindly
devoted to the cause. She will do whatever it takes to win for the
Republic. Yet she, too, comes to understand the severe toll the
guerrillas' mission is likely to take, and for the first time she
expresses doubt about the cause that prompted the demolition.
2. NATURE OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Who wants the Spanish Civil War? Is anyone likely to benefit from
it? Look for answers to these questions as you read For Whom the
Bell Tolls. There is much to suggest that the common people, on
whose behalf the war is supposedly being waged, are tired of the
war, uninterested in it, and unlikely to benefit from it. Readers have
pointed out that Hemingway was prompted in part to write For Whom
the Bell Tolls to show his disgust at the way in which the civil war
had betrayed the Spanish people, both through internal disputes
between the warring factions and through foreign intervention eager
for a testing ground for an upcoming war.
The war's effect on the Spanish is demonstrated in acts of great
courage and great cruelty. The challenges of the struggle created both
the bloodthirstiness and greed of Pablo, as well as the steadfast
courage of Pilar and Anselmo. The war may have exacted a terrible
price from its people, Hemingway seems to be saying, but it often
revealed them at their best.
Despite his pro-Republican leanings, Hemingway is careful to point
out that both sides are capable of savage behavior and that each
side is peopled with human beings with similar human needs. Through
Robert Jordan, Hemingway describes how a foreigner comes to view the
Spanish struggle. Jordan often states his belief in the 'power,
justice, and equality to the people' theory espoused by the
Republicans. But he soon sees the toll the war is taking on those
around him, and he realizes, too, that his own side has committed as
many outrages against human rights as the enemy has.
-
3. LOVE
Hemingway writes about several kinds of love in For Whom the Bell
Tolls. Romantic love is depicted in the relationship of Jordan and
Maria. Before Maria, Jordan had expressed himself sexually, but he had
not loved. Loving her transports him from his intellectual world of
ideology to the world of real-life relationships. Maria represents the
love that humanizes Jordan, making possible his transition from a
political partisan to one who recognizes the worth of the
individual. For Maria, Jordan's love is the healing touch she needs to
cure the psychic wounds inflicted upon her by her former captors.
Other kinds of love also are discussed in the novel. Many of the
peasants in the guerrilla band demonstrate a fierce love of the land
that supports their involvement in this brutal war. Jordan's love of
liberty has brought him to Spain to fight for the Republican cause.
The anguish of Pablo's band as the guerrillas listen to the attack
on El Sordo's camp reflects the love among comrades. And Pilar's
concern for Maria's happiness and well-being is a kind of maternal
love that plays a part in Maria's healing process.
4. DEATH
In Hemingway's novels, heroes are often involved in activities
that risk death- in fact, they might be said to court death. Robert
Jordan is no exception, and from the beginning of For Whom the Bell
Tolls death is a palpable presence. Jordan's job as demolition
expert is filled with danger, and there are numerous foreshadowings of
his fate, such as the death of Kashkin, his predecessor, and the
troubling information Pilar reads in his palm (but won't divulge).
Death also is linked to the novel's major theme of
interdependency. The deaths that occur during the story as well as
Kashkin's, which occurs before the novel opens, affect the lives of
others. Kashkin's death, for example, affects Jordan and the members
of the guerrilla band. El Sordo's death has serious consequences for
the members of the camp. Jordan is haunted by the deaths of his father
and grandfather. And Jordan's decision to hold off his own death by
not committing suicide is made in order to save the lives of the
others who are trying to flee the enemy. Just as one man's life can
have a strong effect on those around him, so his death can have
similar consequences.
5. HYPOCRISY
Examples of hypocrisy abound in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Prime among
them are the Loyalist leaders themselves, many of whom are incompetent
and uncaring. They exploit their positions in order to attain a
level of comfort and self-indulgence in the midst of war.
Many of the leaders who were supposed to have sprung directly from
the Spanish peasantry at the beginning of the war are not really
genuine, and in fact some have been imported.
In his musings, Jordan admits that he doesn't really believe all the
things he says he believes in order to justify his involvement in
the war.
The communist slogans that Joaquin mouths as El Sordo's band is
being besieged provide further examples of a philosophy that does
not seem to work, yet is regarded by many as sacred.
The crowning touch is Andre Marty, the visiting French communist
leader. Although many regard him with awe, his incompetence
regularly sends men to their death- while career officers stand around
and do nothing about it. He embodies both tactical bungling and
self-centered hypocrisy.
MINOR THEMES
1. FATE AND MYSTICISM
From the beginning of the story, when Pilar 'reads' Robert
Jordan's hand, there are hints at an unseen, unavoidable force in
control of events. It would be easy for Jordan to dismiss what Pilar
sees as mere superstition. But he doesn't, even though he claims not
to believe in such things; what she may have seen of his future
concerns him a great deal.
2. THE CODE HERO
Hemingway did not coin the term code hero. It evolved from the
attempts of critics to describe the type of protagonist Hemingway
frequently placed in his novels.
'Code' here means a set of rules or guidelines for conduct. The
principal ideals in the code are honor, courage, and stoic endurance
through stress, misfortune, and pain. The hero's world is often
violent and disorderly; moreover, the violence and disorder seem to
prevail.
The code dictates that the hero act honorably even in the midst of
what will be a losing battle. In doing so, he finds fulfillment. He
achieves or proves his manhood and his worth. The term 'grace under
pressure' is often used to describe the conduct of the Hemingway
code hero. Robert Jordan fits this mold in many ways, although he is
more introspective, more thoughtful, and less physical than other
Hemingway heroes (such as Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises and
Harry Morgan in To Have and Have Not).
3. RELIGION
On the surface, religion does not come across favorably in the pages
of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Characters like Lieutenant Berrendo
order atrocities and utter prayers almost in the same breath. One
character, Joaquin, reveals the conflict that many of the characters
underwent as their own religious beliefs were forcibly replaced with
communist theories. He returns to his Roman Catholic prayers just as
he thinks death is near.
Some readers feel that Hemingway is criticizing religion as an
emotional 'band-aid.' But others say that his portrayal of religion
suggests that a relationship with God is built into the human
condition, and that neither evil nor official atheism can eradicate
it.
STYLE
STYLE (HFORSTYL)
-
Rarely have authors become so identified with a particular writing
style or with the word 'style' itself as Ernest Hemingway. Many
writers have attempted to 'write like Hemingway.' Few have succeeded.
To many readers, the essential characteristic of the Hemingway style
is simplicity and precision of word choice. That description, while
accurate, can be deceptive.
'Simplicity' is not the same thing as short, grammatically simple
sentences. 'Precision of word choice' does not mean an abundance of
unusual words in order to achieve precision. And Hemingway's style
cannot so easily be explained as in his own often quoted advice (which
needs to be taken with a grain of salt!) to write the story and then
remove the adjectives and adverbs.
At the conclusion of For Whom the Bell Tolls, you will have a
distinct picture of the places, the objects, the people in the
story. If you diagrammed or sketched them, they might be somewhat
different from another reader's mental picture. That's inevitable.
It's the distinctness- giving the reader the feeling of being there-
which is Hemingway's literary feat.
Beyond question this effect is achieved by a heavy use of nouns
and verbs. If there is an object in the scene he is relating,
Hemingway will mention it. If a character moves, Hemingway will
mention it.
It is true that Hemingway often leaves the adjectives and adverbs to
the reader. The resulting effect is all the more vivid and
memorable. An excellent example is the description of the sights and
smells both inside and outside the cave, at the opening of Chapter
5. At the same time, Hemingway does not avoid modifiers altogether.
A good example is the description of Joaquin when he is first
introduced at the beginning of Chapter 11.
Much has been made of Hemingway's dialogue, through which you get
the feeling of being at the scene. Yet when the dialogue is
transferred to the motion picture screen, directors have had to be
careful to keep it from sounding stilted and formal, because its
effectiveness does not depend on reproducing the exact words
(including the 'uh's' and 'er's') that people utter in real life.
Hemingway also doesn't often punctuate his dialogue with italics,
capital letters, ellipses (), and exclamation points to suggest
emphasis. The effectiveness lies in stating with utmost simplicity the
heart of what the characters mean.
In general, however, For Whom the Bell Tolls is often regarded as
somewhat of a stylistic departure from Hemingway's earlier novels,
such as The Sun Also Rises. Earlier works relied more heavily on
colloquial dialogue to communicate action and rarely included
lengthy descriptive passages. Some experts have suggested that in
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway was responding to criticisms of his
style. In this, his longest novel, he inserted lengthy lyric
passages that describe the countryside, portrayed the mind of Robert
Jordan with extended interior monologues, and replaced flowing
conversation with a sometimes stilted attempt to reproduce the Spanish
language. The leanness of the prose in his earlier novels- which
prompted critics to call him a major literary innovator- was thus
sacrificed for what some consider pretentiousness, but what others see
as brave and successful strides in experimentation. Those who disliked
his work in For Whom the Bell Tolls were pleased when he returned to a
simpler, terser style in works like The Old Man and the Sea.
* * *
-
Stylistic features peculiar to For Whom the Bell Tolls should be
noted. They concern Hemingway's deliberate attempt to reproduce in
English the flavor of the Spanish language.
Spanish (like other languages) preserves a special second-person
singular pronoun and related verb form such as English formerly had
(thou, thy, thee). This form is used in speaking to another person
in a familiar manner. Hemingway uses the antiquated English form to
better approximate the speech of his Spanish characters. Readers
differ in their reactions to this device. Some find it awkward and
distracting. Others find that it begins to sound natural after a
while. You'll recognize other English sentences that display strange
word order or style, such as 'That this thing of the bridge may
succeed.' This kind of construction is also an attempt to capture
the flavor of the Spanish language.
Both Hemingway's actual Spanish and his attempt to render the flavor
of Spanish in English have been criticized as frequently inaccurate by
people who know Spanish better than he did. An exiled Loyalist
commander, Gustavo Duran, read the manuscript of For Whom the Bell
Tolls before it was published and was critical of Hemingway's Spanish,
although impressed by the story. A more contemporary Spanish critic
has called the language abstract when it should be concrete (to
properly mirror real Spanish) and solemn when it should be simple.
Hemingway also tries to convey the extremely physical and earthy-
often crude- dialogue of Spanish peasants (particularly when they
are upset with each other). Today, when there is very little
censorship in the publishing industry, there would be no problem in
printing the exact English equivalent of what Hemingway wanted his
Spanish characters to say. But in 1940 there was a problem in using
obscenities.
One of Hemingway's solutions was simply to quote the original
Spanish word or phrase. It's then up to the reader to check with a
Spanish/English dictionary to learn how crudely someone has insulted
someone else.
A second method was to employ an all-purpose and acceptable
English word that at least suggests the original. Anselmo, in his
early tirade about Pablo's negative attitude, says: 'I this and that
in the this and that of thy father. I this and that and that in thy
this.' On several occasions one character advises another to 'Go
unprint thyself.'
VIEW
POINT OF VIEW (HFORVIEW)
There are many ways for a writer to tell a story. Point of view
depends in part on the author's decision concerning who tells the
story. Is it someone intimately involved with the action of the story?
Someone who was merely a minor participant? Someone who has an
omniscient view of everything and can see into the minds of one or all
of the characters?
Hemingway considered the first-person point-of-view (in which one of
the story's characters narrates the action) effective but limited.
He said that it took him a while to master the third-person omniscient
point-of-view used in For Whom the Bell Tolls, in which the narrator
knows everything and reports the inner thoughts and feelings of the
characters.
Most of the time, Robert Jordan is at the center of the scene, and
it is his thoughts that we listen in on. But there are exceptions.
Chapter 15, for example, spotlights Anselmo and his soul searching. In
Chapter 27, El Sordo reveals the thoughts that occupy his last
hours. These occasional departures from Jordan's consciousness serve
to create a fuller, more rounded picture of the world the novel
portrays.
FORM
FORM AND STRUCTURE (HFORFORM)
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a finely crafted novel that builds to a
powerful climax. The novel covers approximately sixty-eight hours,
outlined as follows:
first day late afternoon to midnight 6 to 8 hours
second day complete 24 hours
third day complete 24 hours
fourth day midnight to afternoon 15 to 17 hours
The technique of flashback is used sparingly but effectively. The
most notable example is in Chapter 10, where Pilar describes the
brutality that Pablo inflicted on the leading men of a Nationalist
town his band had taken. Strictly speaking, this is indirect
flashback, since it comes through Pilar's narration, rather than
through a directly presented scene.
Other significant flashbacks include Jordan's painful recollection
in Chapter 30 of his father's suicide and Maria's moving account in
Chapter 31 of her abuse at the hands of Nationalist soldiers.
Hemingway heightens the suspense in the final chapters (33 to 43) by
devoting alternating chapters to two strands of the story line. The
odd-numbered chapters are devoted to Jordan at the scene of the
demolition. The even-numbered chapters (with the exception of 38)
feature Andres on his mission to find Golz and deliver Jordan's
dispatch.
The bridge, described masterfully as 'solid flung metal grace' forms
the center of the novel. Few readers find the bridge itself to be
symbolic, but the entire action of the novel radiates from it- it is
the reason Jordan has come to the guerilla camp, it is important to
both sides at this point in the war, and the decision to blow it up is
a matter of intense controversy among the Republicans hiding in the
mountains. Virtually every movement in the novel is directed toward or
away from the bridge and is occasioned by the plan to blow it up.
THE_STORY
THE STORY (HFORSTOR)
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of
the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the
Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as
if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death
diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
-John Donne
Hemingway used this excerpt from the English poet John Donne
(1572-1631) as an epigraph to For Whom the Bell Tolls. Its
significance will become more apparent as you accompany Robert
Jordan through the next few days of his life.
CHAPTER_1
CHAPTER 1
It's a peaceful scene: a young man is lying on a pine-needled forest
floor. A gently flowing stream and a mill complete the placid, country
picture. An old man answers the young man's questions about the
countryside.
Think of a time when you were in a situation where the appearances
of the surroundings contrasted with what was really going on.
Perhaps something very serious was happening in your life on a bright,
apparently carefree day.
That seems to be the situation here. Hemingway first hints at the
seriousness of the scene by mentioning the young man's military map.
You can be sure this is no pleasure trip when Anselmo, an old
Spanish peasant who is Robert Jordan's guide behind enemy lines,
asks how many men will be needed and when Jordan seeks a place to hide
explosives.
Jordan considers it a bad sign that he has forgotten Anselmo's name.
It might mean simply that he's upset with himself for forgetting a
significant piece of information. But it could also mean that he's
uneasy about an invisible force at work in the situation. As you read,
look for other references to fate and signs.
While Jordan waits, Anselmo goes to inform 'the others' of
Jordan's arrival. Hemingway describes Jordan here as a man who 'did
not give any importance to what happened to himself.' This may mean
that he sees himself merely as a cog in the great wheel of some
cause or idea.
The importance of the individual is a major theme in For Whom the
Bell Tolls. Here you see Robert Jordan's original position in relation
to this idea. Watch for signs of change.
As he waits for Anselmo, Jordan's reflections explain why he's here.
He is to blow up a bridge in these mountains. He received the
mission from General Golz, whom he addresses, communist style, in a
flashback as 'Comrade General.' Jordan is capable of doing the job;
his experience at demolition is considerable. But it's absolutely
crucial that the bridge be blown up at the precise moment the
general attack that Golz is commanding has begun. Jordan will know
from an aerial bombardment that the attack has started.
Two things are now clear: Jordan is a partizan, a non-Spanish
volunteer doing guerrilla work behind enemy lines. Golz (a
pseudonym) is a Soviet career officer.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: FOREIGN INVOLVEMENT IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR The Spanish
Civil War was far from an exclusively Spanish affair. The Republican
cause attracted volunteers from some 50 nations, with the largest
number coming from France and Germany. Most of these volunteers were
recruited and organized into the International Brigades by European
Communist parties. More than 80 percent of the volunteers were (unlike
Robert Jordan) working class people. A major recruiting office was
in Paris where one of the staff members was Josip Broz- who after
World War II became President Tito of Yugoslavia. About one third of
the volunteers lost their lives in Spain.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Listening to Golz's comments, you may wonder why he's here in
Spain at all. If you've ever tried to help an individual or a group,
and your efforts were actually frustrated by the very people you
were trying to aid, you have an idea of how Golz seems to feel. 'You
know how those people are,' he complains to Jordan.
This won't be the first time you'll see uncomplimentary references
to 'those people,' the very ones Golz and Jordan have come to help. It
raises the question, Why do these two foreigners stay? Look for
clues that answer this question and show you how Jordan and Golz
really feel about the Spanish people.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Many of Hemingway's friends (and one notable enemy, Andre
Marty) appear in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Some bear their real
names, such as the Loyalist commander Gustavo Duran and Petra, a
chambermaid at the Hotel Florida where Hemingway stayed in Madrid.
Others formed the basis for characters with fictional names. General
Golz is closely based on the Polish general Karol Swierczewski. Karkov
is the fictional name of the Soviet journalist and correspondent for
the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia, Mikhail Koltsov. Hemingway
often talked with Koltsov while in Spain during the civil war.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Pablo, the leader of the guerrilla band, joins the two men. Jordan's
introduction to Pablo does not go pleasantly. Rather than welcoming
Jordan, Pablo treats him rudely and with suspicion. 'Here no one
commands but me,' he states sullenly.
So it's shocking when the 68-year-old Anselmo gives him a stiff
tongue-lashing full of earthy insults. Your first clue that Pablo is
not fully in charge has come early.
Pablo's objection to the bridge operation is that it will draw
attention to the presence of his people's camp, and they'll no
longer enjoy their relatively safe hideout. But Pablo finally gives
in, and the guerrillas agree to carry the dynamite. Jordan has
passed the first hurdle. Note that the hurdle was someone on his side:
one of the people he is in Spain to help.
Pablo is caught in an inner conflict. He has become less
interested in the cause the guerrillas are fighting for than in the
preservation of the horses he recently acquired. Now that he owns
property for the first time, Pablo is afraid that the mission to
blow up the bridge will endanger his possessions. For some people,
Hemingway seems to be saying, the desire to fight for a principle
lessens if the fight affects the person on a material level. Perhaps
you've been in a position similar to Pablo's. It's easy to voice
concern over an issue, less easy to sacrifice something you love for
it.
To Jordan, Pablo's sadness indicates that he is 'going bad'; that
is, showing signs of being a traitor. At this point, the reason is not
completely clear, but we sense Pablo can't be trusted. Jordan also
reminds himself to be cautious if Pablo suddenly becomes friendly.
That will mean he has made a decision. About what? Hemingway leaves
you in suspense here.
CHAPTER_2
CHAPTER 2
The three men arrive at the hideout. Rafael, a gypsy member of the
guerrilla band, is even less respectful of Pablo than is Anselmo.
But with Jordan, Rafael is friendly and good-natured, and Jordan
enlists his loyalty.
Jordan is the replacement for a previous demolition expert named
Kashkin, who died in a manner that Jordan knows but won't reveal.
Kashkin had been getting nervous about his work and speaking in a
way that was bad for morale. It makes you wonder if the tension-filled
job will eventually get to Jordan as well.
There are seven men and two women in the band Jordan will be working
with to blow up the bridge. One of the women is an attractive girl
named Maria, whom he meets as she serves the evening meal.
Throughout the meal, the girl and he stare at each other.
Previously, Jordan had told Golz that there was no time for girls when
one was working for the Republican cause. It looks as though Maria
could change his mind.
Is this section realistic? You could see it as evidence of how
firmly Jordan's relationship with Maria takes hold right from the
start. But some readers feel that Hemingway has painted Jordan too
much like a young man easily infatuated by a beautiful face and body.
Anselmo and Rafael prepare Jordan to meet the second woman in the
band, Pablo's mistress, Pilar. You learn from Anselmo and Rafael
that she is part gypsy, reads palms, has a vicious tongue, and is
generally crude- and also very protective of Maria. It was Pilar's
idea to take Maria with them when they left the scene of a Nationalist
train they had just dynamited. Maria had been a prisoner on the train.
Pilar lives up to her billing. In her first speech she uses some
salty language and gives the unmistakable impression of being in
charge. She hurls insults at both Rafael and Pablo.
She is neither pretty nor feminine, but, to Robert Jordan, she is
likable. Pilar exhibits qualities most people find admirable: she is
strong, honest, unpretentious. It is easy to know where she stands.
Pilar is anxious for Maria to be removed from the situation.
Pablo, she says, is beginning to desire the girl. But Jordan's
attraction to Maria, which Pilar has noticed, doesn't seem to stir any
resentment or misgivings in Pilar.
Pilar is definitely in charge of the guerrillas, in fact if not in
name. She and Jordan discuss the bridge operation. Although they're
counting on the assistance of El Sordo, a neighboring guerrilla
leader, additional good help may be hard to get. There will be no
money or loot from the bridge, as there was from the train they had
blown up. Instead, the operation will be dangerous and will make it
necessary to move from the mountain hideouts.
Pilar asks to look at Jordan's hand. Remember she is a gypsy; and
remember he has said he doesn't believe in the occult. Pilar sees
something in Jordan's hand that she obviously doesn't like. But she
won't tell what it is. And Jordan, the unbeliever who is 'only
curious,' is frustrated at not knowing.
Notice the foreshadowing of doom that Hemingway suggests for
Robert Jordan: Pilar's reluctance to tell him what his palm has told
her and the revelation that Kashkin, Jordan's predecessor, is dead.
Jordan refuses to pay attention to these signs, but you can look at
them as Hemingway's hints that all will not go well for Jordan.
CHAPTER_3
CHAPTER 3
Jordan and Anselmo go to inspect the bridge. But the details of
the bridge are not Hemingway's real concern in this chapter. Through
Jordan and Anselmo, the chapter offers a philosophical consideration
of the necessity and the morality of killing.
The conversation between Robert Jordan and Anselmo gives you a
good basis on which to develop your thoughts about the taking of
someone's life. Although the two men are on the same side politically,
their consciences are not the same. Jordan confesses a repugnance
for killing animals, yet claims he feels nothing when it is
necessary to kill a human being 'for the cause.' Anselmo has no
problem with hunting and killing animals, but to him it's a sin to
kill a man- 'even Fascists whom we must kill.'
Hemingway presents you with profound issues here early in the story.
If something is necessary, can it be sinful- in other words, truly
wrong and therefore blameworthy? Or do you proceed from the other
end first: if something is truly sinful, can it possibly be truly
necessary? Your own religious background and ideas of morality will
certainly affect your analysis and opinion of this interchange between
Jordan and Anselmo.
Jordan's original position on the importance of the individual
compared to the cause is reinforced again. 'You are instruments to
do your duty,' he reflects, speaking of himself and others like him.
Certainly you can think of situations where individuals are part
of a team effort and times when doing one's duty is necessary to the
group's success and is a praiseworthy, honorable thing to do. Team
sports are an obvious example.
But how far does this value of 'duty' extend? How much sacrifice
of self is ever necessary? For Whom the Bell Tolls raises these
questions eloquently.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: RELIGION AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR The historical
relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the government of
Spain has been complex and stormy. Because a vast majority of the
Spanish people has long been Catholic, the Church has had great
power in the country. In the 1930s, as Spaniards began to divide
into various political groups that leaned to the right or to the left,
the Church aligned itself with the right. In the election of 1936
the left offered political amnesty to many anarchists and other
political prisoners known to be anti-Church. This, plus the strong
support of religious values by the right, prompted the Church to favor
the Nationalist cause. As a result, many churches were burned and many
clerics murdered by leftist fringe groups, and the Republican
government did little to stop them, an attitude that further widened
the gap between the Church and the left.
The victims of this schism mainly were the Spanish peasants. Marxist
theories that urged them to forget God and espouse atheism were
accepted by some, but many could not expel their religious beliefs
so easily. The concept of sin and a life hereafter as a reward for a
good life could not be ignored. Anselmo poignantly represents this
conflict.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
As they approach the camp, Jordan and Anselmo meet Agustin, one of
the guerrilla band. Agustin is guarding the entrance to the camp,
but he has forgotten the password- a clear indication that this is not
the best prepared of rebel groups. Watch for Agustin to be one of
the fiercest anti-Monarchist rebels, a man with little trust for
anyone. Here he warns Jordan to guard the dynamite-from Pablo.
CHAPTER_4
CHAPTER 4
In some ways, Chapter 4 is like the classic scene from a Western
movie where two men confront each other in a war of nerves that may
soon turn into a war of bullets.
The showdown between Pablo and Robert Jordan begins. It soon becomes
a matter of Pablo versus everyone else. At stake are two things:
demolition of the bridge and official leadership of the guerrilla
band. Hemingway builds the tension with mastery. Death for one of
the men looms as a real possibility.
In the end, Pablo loses on both accounts. After a moment so tense
that Jordan's hand is resting on his pistol, Pablo officially backs
down and relinquishes command to Pilar. The remaining guerrillas
endorse the demolition of the bridge, but only after Pilar approves of
it.
Notice that there is less than unanimous commitment among the
gypsies to the mission of destroying the bridge. Most would rather
blow up a train, which at least would result in material to loot.
One of them says that the bridge means nothing, that he is 'for the
mujer of Pablo,' and others agree. The somewhat indifferent
attitudes of these men emphasize one of Hemingway's themes: that the
Spanish Civil War was fought in large part for the leaders of Spain
and of foreign countries, not for the people of Spain, who had the
most to lose. Here, Hemingway shows you a band of rebels doing their
best to get along, although not sure why they're fighting.
Hemingway also dwells on the relationship of the individual to
mankind and mysticism, both through Pilar. Pilar shows a devotion to
the cause similar to Jordan's with her statement, 'I am for the
Republic, and the Republic is the bridge.' The personal consequences
of the demolition of the bridge, she claims, mean nothing to her.
Secondly she states, 'That which must pass, will pass.' And upon
remembering what she saw when she read Jordan's hand, she becomes at
first momentarily enraged- and then extremely sad. The chapter
leaves us wondering what Pilar knows that we don't.
CHAPTER_5
CHAPTER 5
At the opening of this chapter, in the sentence beginning, 'There
was no wind,' Hemingway gives us still another typical Hemingway
description: a single sentence almost 180 words long, detailing the
sights and smells of the cave and contrasting them with the sights and
smells of the night outside the cave. Notice again the preponderance
of nouns.
Jordan finds from Rafael that in the preceding tense scene the
band had both expected and wanted him to kill Pablo.
And then Pablo returns- full of friendliness and welcome! You may
remember that Jordan had warned himself at the end of Chapter 1 to
be wary if Pablo ever became friendly.
The chapter concludes with Pablo delivering a maudlin, drunken
soliloquy to one of the horses. This is a good opportunity for you
to examine your opinion of Pablo. Is he more to be despised or to be
pitied? Why?
CHAPTER_6
CHAPTER 6
Pilar and Robert Jordan develop instant rapport. She openly
encourages his appreciation of Maria's charm. Pilar quickly sees
that Jordan may be what Maria needs to heal the wounds left by her
captors.
Two more things emerge from this short chapter. Pilar does not see
danger in Pablo's weakness, as Jordan does. And Maria needs a man. She
cultivates Jordan's attention; in a low-keyed manner, she
practically flirts with him.
Jordan is upset when Pilar jokingly addresses him by the
aristocratic title 'Don.' It seems to offend his democratic
sensibilities. In the course of their conversation, Jordan asserts
that he is not a communist; he is simply an antifascist. In this
statement, Jordan may be reflecting Hemingway's own beliefs.
CHAPTER_7
CHAPTER 7
-
Chapter 7 marks the beginning of Jordan and Maria's love
relationship. Since this relationship will be one of the main
strands of the story, the chapter is particularly significant.
Robert Jordan is asleep in his robe beyond the mouth of the cave. He
is awakened by Maria. She protests a bit about getting into the robe
with him, but not much. After all, she came there of her own volition.
This is the first but not the last such episode of lovemaking for
these two. Maria reveals that she has been sexually used before-
'things were done to me'- by her Nationalist captors, but that was not
lovemaking. And she is not 'sick' (from a sexually transmitted
disease).
Today's novels are filled with graphic descriptions of sexual
encounters. Hemingway couldn't go that far in 1940. Whether he would
have, if it had been possible, is an unanswerable question. Most
readers feel that his version is poetic and tasteful. It focuses
more on the lovers' dialogue and feelings than on a clinical
description of lovemaking.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Some readers have pointed to this scene as wildly unrealistic.
Given the morals of the day and of the country, no single woman
would be so brazen as to give herself so openly to a relative
stranger. Others defend Hemingway's choice, saying that Maria's
behavior is necessary in order to accelerate the love affair between
them. Within the space of less than three days she must offer him a
love relationship that will help bring about a change in the way he
perceives the war and his role in it.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
CHAPTER_8
CHAPTER 8
This chapter contrasts sharply with Chapter 7. It's concerned
completely with the war and Jordan's assignment to demolish the
bridge.
As Jordan's second day begins, a huge number of enemy planes are
roaring overhead. He listens for the sound of bombs. By noting the
lapse of time between the planes flying overhead and the sound of
the bombs, he could then calculate where the lethal missiles were
being dropped.
But no bombs are dropped. The planes are not attacking. A terrible
possibility strikes him: a large force of planes are being assembled
because the Nationalists expect a Loyalist attack!
His premonition becomes more likely. Fernando, who was in La
Granja the previous night, reports rumors of a Loyalist attack
including the demolition of a bridge! La Granja is a Nationalist town-
how could there be such a drastic leak in security?
CHAPTER_9
CHAPTER 9
This is an important chapter that offers, principally through
dialogue, insights into Pilar, Pablo, and Jordan.
Pilar confesses a 'sadness' to Jordan. It's actually a despair she
feels: death is on the way for many. In previous times, she would have
shared this feeling with God. Now, as a communist, she cannot. Yet she
confesses that God probably still exists, 'although we have
abolished Him.'
Her conversation also reveals how much Pablo is hurting. He is
deeply wounded that the group sided against him. And he's afraid to
die. He clings to his one great moment of glory, the assault on the
train. You may find this revelation little more than the tearful
carrying-on of a man who has lost his courage. Or you may see it as
a pitiful cry for help from a man broken by inner torment and the
demands of war.
Agustin, one of Pablo's band, doesn't see Pablo as completely
broken, though. He's convinced they'll need Pablo's skills when they
retreat after the bridge is blown. Pablo may currently be a coward,
but he is nonetheless 'smart,' according to Agustin. Pilar- for all
her bravery, loyalty, decisiveness, intuition, and heart- is not
'smart.'
Exactly what he means by 'smart' is something of a mystery at this
point. Is he referring to Pablo's skills in conducting guerrilla
maneuvers, and, if so, will those skills really be needed later on?
This chapter contains brief references to the themes of hypocrisy
and mysticism. When Pilar asks Jordan if he has faith in the Republic,
he answers yes- and hopes his answer is true. Is his devotion to the
cause weakening? In that case, is he a hypocrite for answering yes?
And Jordan, the practical demolition expert, is still worried
about what Pilar saw in his hand. Pilar calls the palmreading
'nonsense.' But she doesn't really mean that. She says it because
telling what she saw might harm the Republic. Is she being a hypocrite
too, lying and denying reality (as she saw it) for the sake of this
supposedly glorious cause?
CHAPTER_10
CHAPTER 10
This chapter is notable for its gruesomely graphic account of a
Loyalist takeover of a Nationalist town, complete with barbaric ritual
executions. Pilar relates the incidents to Jordan and Maria as the
three of them make their way to El Sordo.
But Hemingway accomplishes two other purposes earlier in the
chapter, before Pilar's gory account begins.
With one exception (relaying her 'sadness' to Jordan) we've seen
Pilar only as a strong, practical leader who wants to get the business
of war done. But on the way to El Sordo, it's Pilar who wants to
stop and rest, take in the beauty of the surroundings, and bathe her
feet in a stream. So even Pilar, the strong, rough-hewn woman soldier,
has a side that wants to be an ordinary person, enjoying simple things
like the rush of cold water across bare feet.
Pilar is ugly- so much so that she cannot risk going to a Fascist
city. She's known to be a Loyalist, and her exceptional ugliness makes
her instantly noticeable. Her reflections of what it's like to be ugly
on the outside but to feel beautiful on the inside make a poignant
scene. In spite of her ugliness, Pilar has not lacked for lovers.
She recites the cycle of each relationship. At first, love blinds both
the man and herself to her unattractiveness. Then, 'for no reason,'
the man notices the ugliness. He leaves, no longer blind. And neither,
anymore, is the woman. She realizes all over again that she is ugly.
In Pilar's story of the Loyalist assault on a Nationalist town, we
see a completely different Pablo. He is energetic, decisive,
aggressive- and almost unbelievably cruel. Can you imagine these
qualities in the Pablo you've seen so far? If so, what is it that
you've noticed in the usually drunk and 'cowardly' Pablo that makes it
easy to believe he could have been aggressive and cruel?
With Pablo in charge, the Loyalists took over the Nationalist
barracks. The wounded were killed outright. Four soldiers remained. In
a stroke of irony, Pablo got instructions from one of them on how to
use the Mauser pistol he had taken from a dead officer. Then he made
them kneel and calmly killed each of them with it.
But Pablo wanted more than the slaughter in the barracks. He
wanted to taste revenge and blood, and to hear the screaming of the
town's Fascist sympathizers as they were savagely beaten before dying.
These prominent men of the town had been seized in their homes at
the same time the assault on the barracks had begun. Then they were
taken to the town hall and kept there.
Pablo organized the town square as if for a celebration. Citizens
were arranged in two lines leading from the door of the town hall to
the edge of a cliff. Each was given a flail.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: A flail is an old-fashioned tool for hand-threshing grain.
It consists of a long staff with another shorter and thicker pole
attached at the end of the staff by a hinge or a heavy cord so that it
can swing freely. The damage to a human body from a strongly wielded
flail would be considerable.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
One by one, the fascists were taken from the town hall and made to
run the gauntlet of the flailing lines. The citizens who had
instruments even more torturous and lethal than flails (such as
sickles and pitchforks) were put at the end of the gauntlet, by the
cliff. This was to prevent any of the fascists from being killed too
soon- before they made it through the entire line.
At first the peasants were uncertain; this was not their idea. But
as one man after another came from the town hall and went staggering
to his death, they became cruel. They began to enjoy it.
They were drinking, of course, but Pilar says they were overcome
by a drunkenness caused by something other than wine, a
'drunkenness' that comes from great ugliness.
Perhaps the ultimate in ugliness came with the execution of Don
Guillermo, a fascist storeowner. Pilar points out that he at least
should have been executed quickly and with dignity. He was a fascist
in name only, and his wife had remained a Catholic. Ironically, the
flails and other tools that the peasants were using came from his
store.
Yet, with his wife watching and screaming, Don Guillermo was
brutally killed before he even got to the edge of the lines and the
cliff.
And then the situation became even uglier. Impatient with waiting
for the men to be released one by one from the town hall, the mob
stormed the building and attacked the remaining fascist prisoners in a
slashing frenzy of sickles and pitchforks and reaping hooks.
Pablo sat calmly watching.
They had taken the town. But Pilar was disgusted with the brutality.
As for Pablo, he 'liked it all of it.'
This chapter has been described as assaulting the reader with its
explicit ugliness. Beyond question it's powerful. But it's also a
puzzle. The Spanish Civil War was filled with atrocities committed
by both sides. Yet in the one chapter that describes such a scene,
Hemingway chose to feature senseless, inhumane brutality committed
by the side he himself favored: the Republic.
He even crowns it with a pathetic yet ludicrous scene. A drunken
Loyalist pours wine over a dead body and tries to set it afire.
Failing, he finally gives up the attempt, drinks the remaining wine
instead, and sits in a stupor patting the dead body.
Why put your own side in such a bad light? Obviously, it shows us
a very different Pablo. Perhaps Hemingway wanted to show that his book
was objective despite his close ties to the Loyalists. Both sides
are capable of atrocities, not just the Nationalists.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Terrorism and atrocities occur in almost any war. There were
many during the Spanish Civil War, although reports were sometimes
sensationalized and exaggerated in the press. Republicans and
Nationalists were equally guilty, but each side tended to excuse its
behavior on grounds that atrocities committed by the other side were
worse. The incident recounted by Pilar in Chapter 10 is based on
actual events in the city of Ronda (near Malaga), where victims were
thrown over cliffs.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
CHAPTER_11
CHAPTER 11
This chapter is linked closely to Chapter 10 in questioning the
merits of war. The repulsively brutal picture presented in Chapter
10 is now followed by more intellectual considerations. Chapter 11
is significant because it begins another central strand in the
story: the change in Robert Jordan's attitude toward what he is
doing here in Spain.
At El Sordo's camp, Jordan, Pilar, and Maria are met by young
Joaquin, who was part of the train operation. Joaquin was also
there- crying and unwilling- when Pablo took over the town and
engineered the brutal executions. Joaquin's family themselves had been
executed by the fascists.
This knowledge and the effect of listening to Pilar's story bring
some reflections that you may find startling to be coming from
Robert Jordan:
The war isn't helping these people. Partizans such as himself come
into an area, perform their missions, and leave; then the people of
the area suffer reprisals- often death- as a result.
Although Jordan automatically speaks of the fascists and
Nationalists as 'barbarians,' his side commits atrocities too. He
has always recognized that fact in an intellectual way. Now, Pilar has
made him see it, feel it.
In spite of these realizations, Jordan postpones reconsidering his
judgments about the value of the war. He returns to his belief that
the war is all-important and reaffirms loyalty to his war-making
duties. Later, he tells himself, after the war is won, he'll sort it
out and make judgments based on his experience. But he's beginning
to wish there wasn't quite so much experience.
Stop for a moment here and reevaluate your picture of Robert Jordan.
Certainly he's not a fool. And certainly he has seen evidence that
this war is not helping anyone and is not likely to. But as soon as
these reflections begin to bother him, he returns to his position:
we must win this war or all is lost. In contrast with his reflections,
does the position seem simplistic? Is he backing away from the
truth, unable to face it? Is his 'Act now, think later' attitude an
example of intellectual cowardice?
That's a possible explanation. But if so, Jordan is doing
something we've all done at some time. Can you recall an occasion when
you doggedly clung to a position in spite of mounting evidence that it
was wrong or at least needed reevaluation?
Jordan's self-doubts are just the first of many he will have. Here
he is made uncomfortable by his feelings and therefore turns to a more
pleasant subject- Maria.
Was last night true or just a dream? Was it like the imaginary
lovemaking he had engaged in with Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow, the sex
goddesses of the movie world at that time?
This passage prompts various reactions. Some readers feel that
it's realistic and we're getting an authentic look into the complex
psyche of Robert Jordan. Others see the passage as juvenile and almost
embarrassing, coming in the midst of a serious novel. What is your
reaction as you read it?
Jordan finally gets to meet the partially deaf guerrilla leader that
he'll be relying on to help blow the bridge. El Sordo is strange but
hospitable. (His nickname means 'The Deaf One;' his real name is
Santiago.)
With offhand remarks, both El Sordo and Pilar add to the sense of
futility and approaching doom. El Sordo says that there are many
people in the hills now, but fewer and fewer who are reliable. When
Jordan suggests where Pilar and the guerrillas should go after the
operation, Pilar becomes furious and tells him to let them decide what
part of the hills to dies in. Again you see Jordan's uneasy position
as a foreigner come to help the Republicans in the war. On some
matters the Spanish just don't want outside assistance or advice.
CHAPTER_12
CHAPTER 12
This chapter sets the stage for the exceptionally significant
content of Chapter 13.
Jordan, Maria, and Pilar have secured the aid of El Sordo,
although he doesn't seem overly enthusiastic about giving it. On their
way back, Pilar stops to rest and reveals her affection for Maria,
even to the point of admitting that she herself is somewhat jealous of
Jordan.
But then she deliberately separates herself from the pair and
heads back to camp so that Jordan and Maria can be alone. Maria
seems extremely anxious for this moment.
CHAPTER_13
CHAPTER 13
You'll find a great deal to think about in Chapter 13. The
relationship of Jordan and Maria is intensified. Jordan entertains
even more serious doubts and recriminations about his activities in
Spain and begins to change his opinion of what is most important to
him. You also learn a good bit more about his background, which has
been presented sketchily so far.
Jordan and Maria's lovemaking was an intense experience- both say
they felt the earth move. Maria confesses that she 'died.' Robert
Jordan says he almost did.
Jordan now realizes how special Maria is to him. He admits that he
has made love before, but the earth did not move. There is magic in
her body, he says.
Shortly afterwards, as they're walking back to meet Pilar, he begins
planning the bridge operation. And suddenly he suffers from another
wave of guilt and uncertainty about what he's going to do. These
periods are coming more frequently now.
Jordan reflects ironically that he is about to do the kind of
thing he is supposed to be fighting against, trying to prevent: he
is about to use and at the same time destroy people. Why? He has to do
this to help his side win the war. And why does he want his side to
win? So that people don't get used and destroyed!
Yet, blowing up the bridge will not guarantee a successful end to
the war, and it will certainly not help the people. So 'should a man
carry out impossible orders knowing what they lead to'?
Jordan's answer is yes. Yes, you must, because you won't know
whether the orders are impossible (or harmful) until after you've
executed the mission. Is Robert Jordan indulging in another instance
of 'Act now, think later'?
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: PERSONAL INTEGRITY VS. FOLLOWING ORDERS Although Jordan's
orders come from General Golz, he wouldn't be court-martialed and
ruined if he didn't carry them out; he's a skilled foreign
volunteer, not a drafted recruit. But what do you think that someone
in military or government service should do who believes that the
orders from above are not only futile but harmful- perhaps even
monstrously inhumane?
Can a person escape moral responsibility simply by saying, 'I was
following orders'? Are the personal consequences of not following
orders (loss of job, ruination of career, imprisonment, perhaps even
death) a valid consideration? Many high-ranking Nazis used
'following orders' as a defense of their personal involvement in
horrendous crimes during World War II.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Thoughts involving several of the novel's themes occupy Robert
Jordan's mind now. He reflects that his presence brings danger to
the people of the region. They'll be hunted down because of him.
But, he rationalizes, if he weren't there, they'd be hunted down for
some other reason anyway. So the war is futile, but it's still
necessary to fight on.
He admits to himself that he has no particular politics now. This is
amazing. A short while ago, he was saying that if this war (for
people's rights) were lost, everything would be lost.
What's made the difference? Have his political views simply
vanished, leaving a complete void? Not quite. Maria has come to fill
the void.
He wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Consequently,
he's no longer quite so enthusiastic about dying a hero's death as did
the Greeks at Thermopylae, or holding out, like Horatius or the
Dutch boy of legend, against almost insurmountable odds. Instead, he
dreams of life with Maria as his wife back in the United States.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Thermopylae was the name of the narrow mountain pass where the
Greeks under the Spartan king Leonidas made a stand in 480 B.C.
against invading Persians.
Horatius was a legendary Roman hero celebrated for his defense of
a bridge across the Tiber against the Etruscans.
'The Dutch boy' is the hero of the tale that pictures him
undertaking a night-long ordeal of plugging a small hole in a dike
with his finger to prevent the hole from enlarging and causing the
eventual collapse of the dike.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
This section finally gives us answers to a few questions you've
probably had about the background of Robert Jordan. He's a professor
of Spanish at the University of Montana and has taken a leave of
absence in 1937. He had spent much time in Spain during previous
summers, doing civil engineering work, in the course of which he
learned the science of demolition.
Now Jordan's thoughts occur rapid-fire. He realizes that bringing
Maria home to the United States as his wife is a highly unlikely
eventuality. But what he does have is now.
Is he being cheated if all he has is now? He tries hard to
convince himself that a short time packed full of intense
experiences could be the equivalent of living out a long life. And
then he says that all such thoughts are nonsense.
Hemingway presents quite a picture of Robert Jordan: as a college
professor, as a trained guerrilla and demolition expert, as an avid
lover and as a man who is very confused about the meaning of
everything.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Many readers have criticized Robert Jordan for being
muddleheaded about his politics, saying that he hasn't learned
enough about the issues to warrant leaving his university life to join
the guerrilla band. According to these readers, he also makes many
contradictory statements concerning his political philosophy, at one
point saying he is merely an antifascist, at another point claiming to
have no politics. Some readers defend Jordan, however, indicating that
he is typical of many who supported the Republicans. Such people
displayed much courage but often did not have a clearheaded
intellectual understanding of the issues. As you read For Whom the
Bell Tolls you'll want to consider whether Jordan is a contradictory
person or whether his political beliefs are less important to his
makeup than his heartfelt zeal.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
-
Jordan and Maria find Pilar feigning sleep when they come back.
Pilar seems to find vicarious satisfaction in learning (through
insistent questioning) that the lovemaking was quite an experience for
both Jordan and Maria.
Looking at the sky, Pilar predicts snow, even though it's late
May. A snowfall could be disastrous for the guerrillas. Making a
safe retreat after blowing up the bridge would then probably be more
difficult than the demolition itself. If the snow-covered ground
betrays their retreating tracks
CHAPTER_14
CHAPTER 14
Chapter 14, though short, is important for plot development and
character revelation. Plans for blowing up the bridge receive a
setback, Pablo becomes more of a villain, Jordan does some more
philosophizing, and we learn quite a bit about Pilar's background.
It is late on the second day when Jordan, Pilar, and Maria return to
the hideout. And it's snowing. Jordan is furious. The job is difficult
enough without the extra burden of freakish weather. Pablo, on the
other hand, is positively enjoying the snow, or at least giving that
impression. Remember, he doesn't want the bridge blown up. It'll
ruin his security here in these hills. We can't tell whether he's
gleefully anticipating calling off the operation or just perversely
enjoying the bad luck of the people who are engineering the mission.
After fuming at the snow, Jordan returns to the composure and
philosophy expected of a Hemingway hero. What if there is snow? What
if the task is a little difficult? Calm down, stop complaining, and
get the job done.
A great deal of the latter part of the chapter is devoted to Pilar's
former lover, Finito. She reminisces about him, a relatively
mediocre bullfighter who gathered quite a following nonetheless by his
brave manner in the ring.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: BULLFIGHTING To many people bullfighting is almost synonymous
with Spanish culture. Beyond question, it is Spain's best-loved sport.
Spectacle is perhaps a better word than sport, for in bullfighting,
unlike conventional sports, there is little doubt of the outcome
between the combatants, the matador and the toro. It is an elaborately
staged drama comprising three acts, and the script calls for the
bull to die. Bullfighting has been compared to ballet, for the
bullfighter executes definite, stylized movements. An essential
attraction of the spectacle is the courage of the matador, who
places himself in a dangerous position from which he can emerge only
with much skill.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Why is all this time spent on Finito, a character who is long dead
when the story opens and who does not affect the plot in even a
minor way? Pilar tells us that Finito was always fearful before a
bullfight. Yet during the fight he did what he had to do and even
distinguished himself. What he got for all this was the respect of a
few people, a severely broken body, and a partly broken spirit.
He gave bullfighting his best effort and ended by publicly
coughing up blood as he stared in terror at the head of a bull.
What is Hemingway trying to tell us? Perhaps that even if defeat
is inevitable, a person should behave honorably. Keep Finito's story
in mind as Robert Jordan's story continues to unfold.
CHAPTER_15
CHAPTER 15
It's now the second night after Robert Jordan's arrival. Most of
this chapter features Anselmo at his post, noting the traffic on the
road as Jordan has instructed him. He does a good job of keeping
tabs on the number of vehicles, but doesn't distinguish the types of
cars, as Jordan would have. There are many luxury vehicles, indicating
a high concentration of top-level staff. You know from this fact
that something is brewing. But Anselmo doesn't realize it and
neither does Jordan.
Hemingway offers the reader this insight by a combination of
omniscient point of view and direct statement. He relates a fact and
then bluntly says, 'But Anselmo did not know this' and 'Robert
Jordan would have'
The main function of this chapter, however, is to collect the
strands of several themes. Anselmo seems the perfect choice of a
vehicle for the task. Throughout, Hemingway has emphasized Anselmo's
straightforwardness and integrity.
Across the road is the sawmill. In it are enemy soldiers. Evil enemy
soldiers? Not as Anselmo sees them. They are not even really fascists;
they are simply men who have been forced to serve in the Nationalist
army. Who are they then?
Individual men, just like himself: 'It is only orders that come
between us.' Anselmo's only grudge against them is that they are
warm and he is not. He hopes he won't have to repeat the killing and
the cruelty that he's been part of in the past (back in 'the great
days of Pablo'). And he sums it up simply and poignantly: 'I wish I
were in my own house again and that this war were over.'
Now Hemingway takes you into the sawmill itself, and we see the
men just as Anselmo had pictured them. They're ordinary people with
ordinary concerns, not monsters- although the war will no doubt make
them capable of such a transformation.
It's an amiable scene. The soldiers realize they have an easy detail
and wonder how long it will last. They're confident of the power of
the Nationalist air force.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Anselmo refers to the soldiers in the sawmill as Gallegos,
indicating that they are from Galicia, a region in the far northwest
of Spain. The climate there is generally wet, but snow is rare.
Anselmo wonders what they must think of snow- another facet of
seeing them as ordinary human beings.
Galicians speak a distinctive dialect similar to Portuguese. From
the men's speech, Anselmo could tell where they came from.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
After letting us see the Galician Nationalists as simple human
beings, Hemingway returns to Anselmo, who is doing still further
soul-searching. More and more he regrets that any killing has to be
done at all.
And here comes the moral paradox again: Anselmo says that the
killing, even though necessary, is a great sin. (Can a genuine sin
ever be necessary?) He decides there will be a need for penance
after the war is over. God has been abolished by the Republicans, so a
religious penance will be impossible. Perhaps a civil penance of
some sort will suffice. Even without God as a source and judge of
morality, Anselmo feels the reality of evil and just as strongly feels
the need to atone for it somehow.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: ATONEMENT/RESTITUTION You might use this section to check
your own feelings about atonement for wrongdoing. Do you think it's
enough if a person has an honest change of heart and sincerely
resolves not to repeat a wrong? Or must that be combined with
additional action to make up for what was done?
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Anselmo misses his prayers. He used to pray frequently but has not
done so since the beginning of the movement. His reasons have
nothing to do with a personal rejection of God. Ironically, they're
rooted in Anselmo's own simple integrity: he figures that praying
would be unfair and hypocritical. Under the Republic's official
atheism, none of the others on his side are saying prayers and he
doesn't want special treatment anyway!
What a strange and tragic conflict stirs within Anselmo, a deeply
religious man whose very integrity keeps him from practicing the
religion he misses so much!
The pangs of guilt over the killing will not leave him. He's further
tortured by the unresolvable dilemma of 'necessary evil' and returns
again to the concept of atoning for the sins of the war. He sees these
sins as things that need to be removed from a man's soul.
Anselmo has been called the novel's 'yardstick of humanity,'
suggesting that he is the ideal of moral stability by which the
other characters should be measured. Anselmo is thoughtful, brave,
loyal, and one of the few characters in the story concerned about
the penance they will have to do for the killing and destruction of
the war. As the eldest character, 68-year-old Anselmo may represent
Hemingway's view that wisdom comes with age. In any case, he is one of
the more admirable characters of For Whom the Bell Tolls and shows how
much Spain lost when it wasted the resource of its people.
Robert Jordan arrives to bring Anselmo back from his observation
post. Hemingway gives us a brief glimpse of the comradeship between
them. Jordan knows that he can count on Anselmo. And perhaps on
Fernando too. But that's not many, considering the task ahead.
CHAPTER_16
CHAPTER 16
Back at the cave, Pablo is drunk, and Maria is waiting on Robert
Jordan, trying to anticipate his every need.
El Sordo has come, leaving a bottle of whiskey as a present
specifically for Jordan; then he's gone to look for the horses they'll
need on the retreat after the bridge. The whiskey is a rare gift for
the time and situation, and Jordan is grateful.
Now Pablo begins to suffer severe guilt pangs. He regrets the
violence and killing he was responsible for when the movement began.
He wishes he could restore his victims to life. It's highly uncertain,
though, whether Pablo or Pablo's wine is delivering these repentant
sentiments.
The others make conversation with Jordan, partly out of
embarrassment for Pablo's drunkenness. They ask him questions about
the United States and learn that he taught Spanish there. They are
probably interested but also want to fill an embarrassing gap.
Pablo keeps entering the conversation. And he keeps insulting
Jordan, particularly with immature insults about the latter's
masculinity. Jordan begins to think that Pablo may not be as drunk
as he appears- or wants to appear. It's a repeat of an earlier
scene: an opportunity for Jordan to kill Pablo. Only now Jordan is
more aware of the situation and has more incentive. He realizes more
than before how dangerous Pablo could be to his operation.
And so he deliberately insults Pablo, hoping for some movement
from the former leader that will justify a fatal retaliation of some
sort, something that could be chalked up to self-defense. But Pablo
senses a trap (which he's convinced Pilar has engineered) and will not
walk into it.
Augustin takes the initiative with lurid insults and harsh slaps
across Pablo's face. Still Pablo will not fight back. Moreover, he
seems to know that he'll be needed during the retreat; he taunts
Jordan with the prospect of having to lead the band to safety.
Pablo also makes a significant comment about the value of this
ideological war and the merit of foreign involvement. He calls the
band 'a group of illusioned people' and refers to Jordan as 'a
foreigner who comes to destroy you.'
Clearly, Pablo no longer feels allegiance to the Republic. In
fact, such allegiance to the cause is precisely the illusion he's
talking about. As for Jordan being a destroyer, that may be a little
difficult to prove. He's about to destroy a bridge; we don't have
any direct evidence that he has ever destroyed lives. On the other
hand, it is difficult to see how he has saved or improved any lives.
Is Pablo right? Does this often drunken, superficially weak,
less-than-admirable man have the best grasp on reality? As Pablo
leaves to look after the horses, he needles Jordan again by pointing
out that the snow is still falling.
CHAPTER_17
CHAPTER 17
Prompted by Pilar, the guerrillas concur that Pablo is a danger
and should be killed. Jordan agrees to shoot him. A tense scene ensues
when Pablo suddenly reenters the cave. The planned assassination is
about to take place when Jordan realizes that he can't shoot inside
the cave- the dynamite is stored there.
But Pablo now shows a complete personality change. He maintains he's
no longer drunk and says he wants to be involved in the demolition
of the bridge. He even openly admits that he knows they have thought
of killing him but stresses that only he can lead them to safety in
the Gredos Range.
Pilar attributes the change in Pablo to his having overheard the
plans to kill him.
Do you recall Jordan's suspicions about Pablo at the end of
Chapter 1? Agustin's anger at the guerrillas for not killing Pablo
suggests that Pablo may still be a threat to them.
CHAPTER_18
CHAPTER 18
Most of this chapter contains Jordan's reflections about
Gaylord's, a hotel in Madrid occupied by Soviet communists who had
come to fight for the Republic. It's partly a story of the first
stages in Robert Jordan's disillusionment. At Gaylord's 'you learned
how it was all really done instead of how it was supposed to be done.'
At Gaylord's he had met the well-known 'peasant leaders' of the
Loyalist troops. Although they were originally simple peasants and
workers, more recently they had spent time at the military academy
in the Soviet Union and have Soviet interests at heart at least as
much as Spanish interests. Jordan consoles himself that perhaps this
manufactured peasant image isn't so bad because real peasant
leaders, lacking the necessary military training, might very likely be
more like Pablo.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: The three 'peasant leaders' Jordan refers to in particular
were Enrique Lister, a former stonemason; Juan Modesto, a former
cabinet-maker; and Valentin Gonzalez, known as El Campesino ('The
Peasant'). They were well trained, able military leaders.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
The second of Jordan's disillusionments is with the luxuries that
surrounded these communist leaders. (Communism was supposed to
eliminate economic distinctions and privileges of class.) For a while,
he had been able to accept this lifestyle on the part of his heroes
(at least while they were at Gaylord's) and to give up the idea that
champions of the common people should do without nice things. But
the purity of revolutionary feeling dies fast, Jordan now reflects-
for him within six months.
At Gaylord's, Jordan meets Karkov, a Soviet journalist who is more
than just a reporter, and who serves somewhat as Jordan's tutor in the
ways of this war.
Although Karkov is a minor character, he is compelling and
interesting. Karkov is a realist. He holds no grand ideas about the
qualities of the Loyalist forces. In a sense, he bares the reality
of the Republican cause to Jordan.
Particularly significant is a comment Jordan makes to Karkov at
one point: 'My mind is in suspension until we win the war.' You
might see this as evidence that Jordan had adopted an 'Act now,
think later' stance long before taking the bridge assignment and
meeting Maria.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: While covering the war in Spain, Hemingway stayed at the Hotel
Florida when in Madrid. But he frequently called at Gaylord's, the
Soviet center. He came and went freely there, although in many ways he
disliked the place. Jordan's reactions to Gaylord's are basically
Hemingway's: he felt it boasted too many luxuries, including gourmet
food and drink, while the common people (on whose behalf they were
supposed to be fighting) suffered. Nevertheless, he visited
Gaylord's often in hope of gaining information about the war. There he
frequently conversed with Mikhail Koltsov, a young Soviet journalist
who appears in the book as Karkov.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
CHAPTER_19
CHAPTER 19
This is one of the few chapters that deals almost exclusively with
only one theme. Here the theme is mysticism- knowledge gained by
extraordinary, subjective means. It's been hinted at several times
before, beginning with Pilar's reading of Jordan's palm.
The occasion of the theme is Kashkin, the demolition expert who
preceded Jordan. Pilar claims she could foresee his impending doom.
Jordan maintains that Kashkin simply lost his nerve and was afraid,
and that it showed on his face.
Pilar then goes beyond appearances and says her gypsy nature could
smell the death that was about to happen to Kashkin. Notice the
components that Pilar says make up the smell of death. Her list is
morbid and repugnant.
Jordan is distantly respectful of her lore. Comments from members of
the band, however, suggest that this is a bit too much for them to
accept, and Pilar seems to feel insulted.
There's nothing mystic about the danger to El Sordo, which Robert
Jordan notes at the end of this chapter. The snow has stopped. But
it's cold; the snow will stay on the ground. If El Sordo and his men
have been out stealing horses for the retreat, they'll be easy to
track down.
CHAPTER_20
CHAPTER 20
But Robert Jordan and Maria aren't even trying to cover their traces
on this second night since Jordan arrived at the scene of his
assignment. Maria simply leaves the cave and goes outside to
Jordan's robe-sleeping bag, even though the others are still awake.
Jordan has prepared a bed of pine boughs under the robe. Again
they make love.
It's not the same as it was that afternoon- no earthquakes, no
stirrings that shake the center of their beings. Yet Maria says she
loved it more. 'One does not need to die,' she tells Jordan. He
doesn't seem to have regrets either.
Is there something to learn here about the nature of human
experience? Is it that we need only one intense experience to give
meaning to all similar ones?
Jordan feels that Maria's body next to his is an alliance against
death. What is the significance of this phrase? How can they
together defeat death? Think in terms of the meaning, quality, and
value of experience as Hemingway sees it, regardless of the calendar
years (or even clock hours) a particular experience may comprise.
And yet, does this brave theory make Jordan any more willing to
relinquish Maria, because they've shared an intense, 'worth a
lifetime' experience? He holds her 'as though she were all of life and
it was being taken from him.' But he makes sure his pistol is handy.
CHAPTER_21
CHAPTER 21
This extremely brief chapter abruptly jolts Robert Jordan from his
lover/philosopher role and returns him to being a man of action.
His third day in the mountains begins early and dramatically.
While still in the sleeping robe with Maria, he hears a horseman
approaching. He waits. When the man comes into view, Jordan sees
from his uniform that he's an enemy soldier and fires at him.
The slain cavalryman is probably part of a random patrol, but this
means the enemy is in the area. Everyone is aroused instantly.
Now, perhaps predictably, the old Jordan takes over. Maria has 'no
place in his life now.' He is once again the trained, efficient,
deadly partizan, fighting for what? This is a good place for you to
attempt an answer. Answer first for yourself; then answer as Jordan
might have at this point in the story. But keep in mind that a few
hours ago Maria was 'all of life' to Robert Jordan, instead of
having no place in it. Now when she wants to be with him, he orders
her back. Robert Jordan is pure soldier at this point. He takes
charge, orders the submachine gun to be set up on the hill, and
gives instructions on its correct positioning and use. If the
cavalryman is missed and if others follow his horse tracks (there's
still enough snow on the ground), the guerrillas may have to make a
stand. If this happens, it will likely ruin the bridge operation
before it gets started. The enemy isn't supposed to know they're in
the area until after the bridge has been destroyed.
CHAPTER_22
CHAPTER 22
Chapter 22 resumes the action of the previous chapter without a
moment's lapse or even a slight change of location. Jordan, Primitivo,
and Augustin are installing the machine gun.
Into the midst of this situation comes a grinning Rafael, the gypsy,
who has just killed two rabbits. He's proud of his accomplishment.
That's not all bad: the band does need food, assuming they can
escape from this situation. The upsetting part is that the enemy
cavalryman came through the post Rafael was supposed to be watching.
And the enemy might have heard the gypsy's gun shot.
The incident has symbolic significance. Before Rafael followed and
killed them, the two rabbits were mating- 'making love,' if that
term can be applied to rabbits. A few moments afterwards, they are
dead. The foreshadowing is obvious if you remember that Jordan's
nickname for Maria is 'rabbit.'
Robert Jordan knows the pure mechanics of killing and instructs
his comrades. Shoot an officer first. Aim at the knees of a dismounted
man if he is below you. Aim at the belly of a man if he is on a horse.
Primitivo is ready for some real action. He wants a massacre of
the enemy. Jordan can't afford to condone Primitivo's bloodthirsty
urges at this point, for fear of jeopardizing the bridge operation. So
he appeases Primitivo with a simple message: Have patience we'll
have a massacre tomorrow at the sawmill and the roadmender's hut.
CHAPTER_23
CHAPTER 23
-
Primitivo is above, at the lookout point; Agustin is by Jordan's
side at the machine gun. Four enemy cavalrymen ride out of the timber,
perfect targets. It's a rare chance to kill them with no chance of
return fire- not from these four men anyway. Nevertheless, Jordan
restrains himself: 'But let it not happen.'
Why not? Is it purely a judgment that gunfire would be foolhardy
since others may be in the area? Or is his restraint mixed with some
other motive?
Whatever the reason, it's a good professional move. Twenty more
soldiers ride into and then out of view. If the first four had been
killed, the twenty would have had to be dealt with.
A mild, comic-relief dialogue takes place between Jordan and Anselmo
about the placement of their official papers. It's necessary to
carry official clearance papers for both sides when moving back and
forth through the lines. In case of capture, the wrong ones must be
swallowed.
To prevent a mixup, Jordan carries the Republican papers in his left
breast pocket and the fascist papers in his right breast pocket.
Agustin, still a radical revolutionary (or still 'illusioned,' to
use Pablo's viewpoint), complains that the Republic moves more to
the 'right' all the time. As evidence, he cites the fact that many
Republicans are reinstating 'Senor' and 'Senora' to replace the
equalizing term, 'Comrade.'
Agustin, Anselmo, and Robert Jordan present us with a variety of
attitudes toward killing.
Agustin positively relishes the idea. He can't wait to get to it.
Anselmo, as we've seen, has killed because it was 'necessary,' but
he regrets his actions. He openly opposes Agustin and maintains that
none of the enemy should be shot. They should be reformed by work
but not killed. He gives his position a philosophical backing: 'Thus
we will never have a Republic.' By this expression, he seems to mean
that killing simply for the satisfaction of wiping out the enemy
will violate the very principles of individual human worth that the
Republicans are supposed to stand for.
Jordan, by his own admission, is more like Agustin than Anselmo.
He reflects, 'We do it coldly but they do not,' meaning that the
partizans kill methodically, without emotion, but the Spanish have
inherited their hot blood for killing. When they accepted
Christianity, this urge was only suppressed, not wiped out. He even
describes it as their 'extra sacrament.'
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: In Roman Catholic theology, a sacrament is an action or
event in which a believer encounters God. Baptism is the prime
example. In this meeting, the believer's life is changed, enriched,
made more meaningful. Hemingway's description of killing as 'their
extra sacrament' (the Catholic faith observes seven) is both
eloquent and (to a Spanish Catholic) sacrilegious.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Then Jordan admits to himself that he likes to kill. Hemingway
raises an important issue when he has Jordan say 'admit that you
have liked to kill as all who are soldiers by choice have enjoyed it
at some time whether they lie about it or not.' Many readers point
to such statements as proof that Hemingway endorsed warfare by talking
of the 'enjoyment' of it. Others contend that he is simply being frank
about a reaction to war that has been well documented. How do you feel
about Jordan's thoughts? Does Hemingway make war attractive in any way
in For Whom the Bell Tolls? Or is it a frightening picture, made all
the more terrible by the leading character admitting that there is
pleasure to be had in taking the life of another?
Jordan cautions himself not to think of Anselmo as a typical
Spaniard because Anselmo is a Christian, 'something very rare in
Catholic countries.' This is a slight and/or sly jab at religion and
particularly at Catholicism in Spain.
Again Hemingway is criticizing something he himself belonged to or
supported. Previously, you've seen him present the Republic
unfavorably in several instances. Now he does the same with the
Catholic faith of which he was at least technically a member.
(Hemingway was baptized a Catholic in Italy after sustaining such
severe wounds in World War I that it seemed he might not survive. He
remained nominally Catholic throughout his life and was buried in a
Catholic ceremony at Ketchum, Idaho.)
CHAPTER_24
CHAPTER 24
The enemy soldiers have gone; they didn't even know they were
being watched. Now the band is having breakfast. There's a cheerful,
lighthearted atmosphere, and the meal features such unlikely breakfast
foods as wine and onions.
The breakfast scene at the guerrilla hideout seems like the scene at
the campaign headquarters of a candidate who knows he or she is likely
to lose. The defeat hasn't officially occurred yet, so the
participants decide to make the best of their situation.
Then from a distance comes the sound of automatic rifle fire. They
all realize what this means. El Sordo and his men have been detected
and are defending themselves. Agustin wants to go to their aid
immediately. Jordan says no: 'We stay here.'
CHAPTER_25
CHAPTER 25
In Chapter 25, Hemingway hints even more strongly- through the
characters themselves- at the probability of death for the band.
Primitivo can curse. That's nothing new to you by now. Most of the
characters in this novel are blessed with very earthy, colorful
tongues. But Primitivo's present cursing is not the nonchalant foul
mouth of a man who disagrees with somebody.
His cursing is deliberate, serious, directed at the enemy. The group
can hear the battle sounds of El Sordo's band being massacred. And
so Primitivo curses and cries. Pilar is more hardened. She talks to
Primitivo with contempt for such feelings and for wanting to go to
El Sordo's aid. And then she says that Primitivo will die soon
enough here with his own band- why make an unnecessary trip to die
with others?
But Pilar comes down from her pedestal when an enemy plane roars
overhead. Fearfully, she refers to it as the 'bad luck bird.' 'For
each one there is something,' she says. 'For me it is those.' Do you
also have a weak spot- a sight or a sound that automatically brings
a pang of fear or at least uneasiness?
It's time to prepare the noon meal. The hares would taste better
if they were cooked tomorrow or the next day, but Pilar says they
might as well eat them today. And Jordan agrees. It's clear that
they are aware of the possibility that none of them will still be
around tomorrow.
CHAPTER_26
CHAPTER 26
This chapter opens with a powerful consideration of the theme of
killing and in so doing illustrates Robert Jordan's change in
attitude.
That morning, Jordan had killed a young Nationalist cavalryman, an
insignificant incident in military terms, and to Jordan, involving
simply another one of the enemy.
But now Jordan is looking through the young man's papers. There's
a letter from his sister, with news of his parents and his village.
A second letter is from the soldier's fiance, frantic with worry about
his safety.
Suddenly Robert Jordan doesn't want to read any more of the man's
letters. They're painful proof that this was not just another one of
the faceless 'them.' This was a man- with a mother, a father, a
sister, and a girl he loved.
Jordan reflects, in a line characteristic of Hemingway's irony, that
you never kill anyone you want to kill in a war.
The dead soldier's letters lead Jordan into a lengthy interior
monologue. Does he have a right to kill? Of course not. But he 'must'-
'necessary evil' again.
He has killed more than twenty people so far. Only two of them
were fascists, so far as he knows. Thus, he concludes, he has actually
been killing the very people he likes and wants to help: ordinary
Spanish citizens.
But they oppose the cause. The cause is right. So he must kill in
order to prevent something worse from happening. That bit of theory
doesn't relieve his mounting guilt either. He tells himself to stop
this train of thought. It's going to keep him from being a coldly
efficient soldier.
What does Robert Jordan believe in? Not all the things he claims
to believe, so that he can justify being here in this war, killing
people. He finally admits this to himself.
Is Robert Jordan, the idealistic liberal and highly educated
American partizan, really Robert Jordan, the hypocrite? Not too long
ago, he reflected that secretly he enjoyed killing.
Then he says that above all else, love is the most important thing
to a human being, whether it lasts for a long life or for just a
day. Does he really believe that- or is he trying to make himself feel
better about the next twenty-four hours?
CHAPTER_27
CHAPTER 27
Up to this point scenes in which Robert Jordan is present have
dominated the novel. The few exceptions include the scene in which
Pablo talks to his horses at the end of Chapter 5 and the chapter in
which Anselmo reflects on the enemy soldiers in the mill followed by a
brief look inside the mill itself to listen to them. But Chapter 27
belongs completely to El Sordo.
This other guerrilla leader, so unlike Pablo, went to steal horses
for the retreat after the bridge is blown up. The snow enabled the
Nationalists to follow the guerrillas, and now they've been forced
to make a defense on a hill.
There are five men left on the hilltop. Four are wounded,
including El Sordo himself. They're in pain, and El Sordo ironically
refers to death as an aspirin. He has shot to death one of the wounded
horses and used the body to plug the gap between two rocks so that
he can fire over it at the enemy.
Joaquin, the youngest in the group and the only remaining
idealist, parrots the Communist slogan: 'Hold out and fortify and
you will win.' The slogan evokes an expletive from one of his less
'illusioned' comrades.
Joaquin tries another, 'It is better to die on your feet than to
live on your knees,' but gets the same response.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: LA PASIONARIA Joaquin is quoting Dolores Ibarruri, a
Communist heroine known as La Pasionaria. Always dressed in black, she
made passionate pro-Republic speeches in Madrid, urging the people
to resist Nationalist attempts to capture the city. 'It is better to
die' began one of her most famous exhortations. She was greatly
admired by the Loyalists. Yet the theme of hypocrisy emerges here when
one of the guerrillas maintains that her own son is safely away in the
Soviet Union.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
El Sordo's men have killed some of the Nationalists who foolishly
tried to storm the hill, but the guerrillas are doomed and know it.
They can hold out for a while; however, the enemy needs only to
bring a trench mortar (a short cannon for firing shells at a high
angle) or send planes, and the battle will be over quickly.
Hemingway gives us an earthy image of the hill on which El Sordo and
his men have been forced to make a defense. To El Sordo it looks
like a chancre (an ulcer caused by syphilis) with themselves as the
pus.
Dying is easy to El Sordo. He does not fear it. He can accept it.
But he hates it. He has no glorious sacrificial view of death. Perhaps
such a view can come only from those engaged in the theory of
revolution- not from those engaged in the devastating details of
waging such a war.
El Sordo tricks the enemy into thinking the men on the hill have
committed suicide. The Nationalist soldiers try to determine if this
is the case by baiting them with increasingly gross insults. Their
captain (Hemingway lets us know he is not quite rational) stands
atop a boulder in the open and dares someone to kill him.
No response.
The captain then strides up the hill. El Sordo is sad that only
one enemy soldier will be killed by his ploy, but at least it's a
major officer. Referring to his enemy as Comrade Voyager (on the
journey to death), El Sordo shoots him. The Nationalists resume firing
on the hill. But now the planes come too, and El Sordo begins his last
stand. Hemingway's description makes it one of the most powerful
episodes in the novel. Along with the rest of this chapter, it
overflows with the themes of For Whom the Bell Tolls.
The droning of the planes has weakened the young Joaquin's
idealistic bravado, but he still recites the slogans of La Pasionaria-
until the planes get close.
Then Joaquin, the officially atheistic Communist, switches to the
Hail Mary! When the planes are actually overhead, he interrupts his
Hail Mary and begins the Act of Contrition, a prayer expressing sorrow
for sin.
But the machine gun is roaring over his head and the enemy planes
are roaring over the hill and Joaquin cannot remember the Act of
Contrition. All he can remember is the final phrase of the Hail
Mary: 'and at the hour of our death.' Many readers see Joaquin's
plight as one of the most moving in the entire novel. He is a
classic victim of the Spanish Civil War, loyal to the Republican cause
but still tied to his Catholic roots.
The planes do their job well. Very quickly there is no one left
alive on the hill except an unconscious Joaquin. With the captain
dead, Lieutenant Berrendo is in charge of the Nationalist troops on
the hill. Within a few paragraphs, Berrendo displays a conflicting
spectrum of conduct ranging from decency to butchery.
Finding Joaquin still alive, Berrendo makes the sign of the cross
and 'gently' shoots him. This may be seen as a humane act by the
Lieutenant. But then he orders his men to cut the heads from the
dead bodies and put them in a poncho to bring back for purposes of
'proof and identification.'
He prays for the soul of one of his own soldiers before leaving
the scene because he doesn't want to see the beheading he himself
has ordered.
CHAPTER_28
CHAPTER 28
This short chapter stands as an epilogue to the previous one. It's
the aftermath of El Sordo's doomed stand. Hemingway gives you a chance
to think about it.
The Nationalist cavalry pass in front of Robert Jordan's eyes again.
Jordan sees a long poncho 'bulging as a pod bulges with peas.' We know
what's in there although Jordan doesn't yet.
Hemingway gives us another insight into the complex character of
Lieutenant Berrendo. He feels distaste for what's just happened, yet
he basically enjoys military maneuvers. He says a prayer to the Virgin
Mary for his dead friend Julian.
Anselmo, returning from his duty of tallying vehicle movement,
passes the hill where El Sordo made his final stand and sees the
headless bodies. And now Anselmo prays, for the first time since the
start of the movement; it is the same prayer Lieutenant Berrendo
just said!
CHAPTER_29
CHAPTER 29
This chapter introduces one of the final strands in the latter
part of the novel: the mission of Andres to deliver Jordan's letter to
Golz.
Jordan and Pablo are sitting across a table from each other.
Jordan is making notes; Pablo is getting drunk. It looks like business
as usual.
But these aren't ordinary notes. Jordan is writing to Golz to inform
him that the fascists know of the upcoming offensive. He feels it will
not succeed or will not be worth the price. But he doesn't want to
lose face. Golz must know that Jordan's reservations about the
attack do not come from cowardice or timidity. We realize again that
Jordan himself doesn't know what the overall plan is- and that it's
possible the plan isn't even meant to succeed.
Andres is selected to carry Jordan's communication across enemy
lines to the Republican headquarters.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: The Military Information Service, represented by the S.I.M.
seal that Jordan puts on his letter, was not a particularly
admirable arm of the Republic. Organized to investigate deserters
and opponents of the Republic, it became controlled by communists. Its
success relied greatly on secret prisons and torture chambers.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
CHAPTER_30
CHAPTER 30
-
The buildup to the final action is interrupted in Chapter 30,
which is devoted primarily to Robert Jordan's personal history.
Andres has been gone three hours. Now we learn why Jordan has sent
the message to Golz: Anselmo had brought information about a massive
buildup of enemy equipment that was not supposed to be in the area
at all.
Jordan greatly admires his grandfather, an excellent soldier who had
fought in the U.S. Civil War. In fact, the grandfather is his
masculine 'father image.' His own father committed suicide with the
officer's pistol that belonged to Jordan's grandfather. Thus the
weapon went, in Jordan's opinion, from noble to cowardly use.
Afterwards, Jordan dropped it in a deep lake.
Jordan sees his father as a coward, first for being henpecked by
Jordan's mother, but primarily for having committed suicide. In his
thoughts he refers to his father as 'that one' and 'that other one
that misused the gun.'
Remember that Hemingway's own father committed suicide with a
firearm. His father was suffering from both physical and financial
problems, and at the time Hemingway did not display any condemnation
or disgust at his father's action (although later he spoke of his
father's 'cowardice' as 'the worst luck any man could have').
In an earthy reflection that might have come from one of the Spanish
peasants he's working with, Jordan speculates that 'the good juice'
came through to him only after passing through his father. Then he
cautions himself to count on good juice only if he's proved it by
the end of tomorrow.
Even Jordan can see some irony in his situation. He admires his
grandfather, who was so conservative that he never associated with
Democrats- yet Jordan himself has been offered a chance to study at
the Lenin Institute in Moscow!
CHAPTER_31
CHAPTER 31
On this third night, Maria is unable to make love. She feels pain,
which she attributes to 'the things [that] were done' by her
Nationalist captors. Instead of making love, they make plans to go
to Madrid. They spin elaborately whimsical dreams of how they'll spend
a month in a hotel room.
Many people have done what Maria and Robert Jordan are doing:
planning things that will never happen. Can you remember a time when
you've done the same thing- talked with somebody about a future that
was either impossible or very unlikely?
At first Jordan enjoys the fantasizing. Then he realizes he's simply
lying. He continues for Maria's sake, but it's no longer enjoyable.
Pilar has been fantasizing too, whether for her own sake or Maria's,
by preparing Maria for her marriage role when she and Jordan return to
the United States to live.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: MALE/FEMALE ROLES Are men dominant in For Whom the Bell
Tolls? Some readers argue that Pilar disproves this. Others feel
that she is only a rare exception. She leads only because Pablo has
relinquished his natural dominance by drunkenness and cowardice. Yet
this same strong, unmistakably-in-charge Pilar instructs Maria in
wifely duties that many readers find subservient.
Although Jordan generally does not act in an excessively
male-dominant manner, at times he is certainly condescending and talks
down to Maria as though she were a child.
How does Jordan's behavior strike you? If you're female, does such
behavior by a man bother you or do you accept it as simply part of the
culture and the times? If you're male, do you find yourself wishing
that man-woman relationships were like Jordan and Maria's- with the
man dominant- or is it better when both partners are more equal?
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Maria's father had been a Republican and the mayor of their village.
Maria describes the execution of her parents by the Nationalists and
her subsequent capture and rape. The story angers Jordan, and he's
glad they'll be killing tomorrow.
And then he indulges in strange reasoning: when the Nationalists,
the 'flowers of Spanish chivalry,' raped Maria, they knew better but
acted deliberately and on purpose. His side has done very bad things
too but out of ignorance (or so he claims).
Is this the thinking of a mature college professor or of a little
child? ('I couldn't help it, but he did it on purpose!') Is Robert
Jordan a mixture of both?
Then he decides that being killed tomorrow doesn't matter as long as
the bridge gets blown properly. Maybe he has experienced all of his
life in these last three days.
CHAPTER_
CHAPTER 32
For the second time, Hemingway presents a complete chapter without
Robert Jordan. The scene is Gaylord's, the Madrid hotel occupied by
communist partizans and people of similar beliefs. These are the
people who preach a classless society with no special advantages to
any privileged group. They've come to Spain to help bring power and
complete equality to the common people. Do they look and act like
austere, dedicated freedom fighters? Not exactly. They eat well, drink
well, and do not lack for sexual diversion. Living in the midst of a
besieged capital city, they're enjoying parties. The contrast with the
situation of people like Jordan and Maria is striking.
News of their Loyalist offensive scheduled for the following morning
has spread throughout the area. The reaction at Gaylord's to this
inexcusable, potentially fatal leak in security is laughter!
Once again we have to wonder why Hemingway painted his own side so
bleakly. Remember that he was writing after the war had been lost by
the Republicans, whom he favored. Perhaps he wanted to show that a
noble cause died at the hands of less-than-noble leaders. In any case,
here he describes one of the Republican inner circles as a group of
overstuffed, self-important oafs who throw parties in a time of
peril and use unfounded rumors to buoy their confidence.
An exception is the Soviet journalist Karkov, who may represent
Hemingway's own feelings. After talking with a few people at this
pre-attack celebration, he retires to his room at Gaylord's,
disgusted.
CHAPTER_33
CHAPTER 33
It's 2:00 A.M., the middle of Jordan's third night. Pilar wakes
him with bad news. Pablo has gone, deserted. That in itself isn't so
bad; maybe they'll be better off without him. But Pablo took the
detonation devices that Jordan needs to blow up the bridge. That is
disastrous. Pilar is apologetic and guilt-ridden. She feels she has
failed Jordan and the Republic miserably.
You learn something about Pilar here. Pablo may have discarded
illusions about the cause long ago. And Jordan may be swiftly moving
in the direction of losing his. But to Pilar, the ideal of the
Republic is still very real. At first Jordan is upset with her. Then
he realizes that he cannot afford 'the luxury of being bitter.' He
says he'll find other ways to detonate the explosives. 'It is
nothing.'
He has to improvise the detonation of a major demolition with
makeshift materials, and he has to come up with the ideas for it
within a few hours. Considering the situation, Jordan's remarkably
calm.
CHAPTER_34
CHAPTER 34
Suspense builds in this chapter as Jordan prepares to carry off
his mission with improvised explosive devices and Andres moves to warn
General Golz.
On his way to deliver Jordan's message to Golz, Andres looks at
haystacks in a field, there since the beginning of the fighting. The
hay is worthless now. Are the stacks symbolic of normal life in
Spain right now, left to rot by the fighting? Being a true Republican,
of course, Andres blames it on the Nationalists with the ingrained
slogan: 'What barbarians they are!'
A partridge whirring at his feet prompts thoughts of what life could
be like if there were no war: he could get the eggs and hatch
partridges. His brother Eladio and he could gather crayfish. Life
could be good without the war.
His pastoral musings turn more philosophical. Why is he on this side
in the war? Because his father was. If his father's political views
had been different, he and Eladio would be fascists!
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: INHERITED LOYALTIES VS. INDEPENDENT THINKING Have you
inherited any loyalties? For example, do you favor one political party
or another basically because your parents did? Unthinking acceptance
of anything and everything simply because Mom or Dad said so is not
the hallmark of an independent adult. But should parents
deliberately not try to transmit values they consider important?
That hardly seems right either. The reflections of Andres can help
us think about this ever-present dilemma. How far should parents go in
trying to instill values in children?
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
CHAPTER_35
CHAPTER 35
Maria is asleep. Jordan is furious with himself for not
remembering to be on guard when he saw Pablo's friendliness, the
sign of imminent betrayal. The exploder and the detonators will be
hard to replace with improvised materials. In fact, the whole
operation may now be impossible. Jordan flies into a rage in which
he attacks everything, particularly Spain and Spaniards.
But after realizing he is being unjust, his anger fades. He says
to a still-sleeping Maria that he's figured out how to improvise the
detonation. And then he echoes Pilar by saying, 'We'll be killed but
we'll blow the bridge.' He considers Maria as his wife, and his
wedding present is that she has been able to sleep this night
without worrying.
The chapter ends with Robert Jordan the soldier counting the minutes
until the offensive begins, while Robert Jordan the lover holds
Maria close to him.
CHAPTER_36
CHAPTER 36
Andres is having his problems- but not with the enemy. He made it
through their lines with ease. His problem is with Republican soldiers
at their checkpoint.
He can't convince them that he's on their side and that he's
carrying an important message for General Golz. Of course, they
can't be blamed for being skeptical, for enforcing a sensible degree
of security. But that's not what they're really doing. One soldier
suggests tossing a bomb at him as 'the soundest way to deal with the
whole thing.'
Andres has encountered some of the radical anarchists fighting for
the Republic. In a sense they're little boys playing at war. As long
as they destroy something or somebody (it makes little difference
what), they feel they've accomplished something.
By mouthing some anarchist slogans, Andres manages to get to them
without being shot. The bomb advocate then becomes maudlin, embraces
Andres, and says he's 'very content' that nothing happened to his
'brother.'
After more bumbling scrutiny, the officer agrees to lead the way
to the commander. After Andres has been walking behind him in the dark
for several minutes, the officer belatedly decides it might be a
good idea to take the gun from Andres, whom he still doesn't
completely trust. With such soldiers on the side of the Republic, no
wonder Jordan is depressed.
CHAPTER_37
CHAPTER 37
In Chapter 37, Jordan and Maria share an episode of lovemaking
that touches each of them to the center of their being.
Examine the paragraph that begins, 'Then they were together' Some
readers think it tries to parallel the rise and fall of intensity
during lovemaking itself. Beyond question, it lyrically enforces
Hemingway's idea of the meaning and value of the present moment.
Jordan displays a humility you may find surprising. He thanks Maria,
not just for their lovemaking but for having taught him so much.
Jordan, the college professor, admits that he really didn't know
much about life until he came here. Now at least he has learned a
few things.
CHAPTER_38
CHAPTER 38
This chapter offers several surprises. We see Jordan in an unusual
mood, and the expedition to blow up the bridge gets a strange boost
from- of all people Pablo.
It's 2:50 A.M. on his fourth day when Robert Jordan enters the cave.
Pilar is attending to breakfast, and the men are generally
irritable. Jordan is too, now that the time has come. Looking over his
resources, he doesn't think the operation can work. There aren't
enough men to take both the posts at the bridge. He's angry with
many things, including himself for having spent the night with Maria
instead of scouring the countryside for additional volunteers.
Pilar tries to reassure him that all will go well, and adds, 'It
is for this that we are born.' Joaquin, you will remember, was
saying similar things up until his last moments.
Then Pablo enters the cave. His explanation for leaving? He had
had a moment of weakness but couldn't stand the loneliness of being
a deserter. With him he's brought five volunteers and their horses.
Unfortunately, he hasn't brought the exploder and the detonators. He
threw them into the river during his moment of weakness.
Pilar alternately welcomes him and compares him to Judas. As for
Pablo, he doesn't grovel; he doesn't even ask for forgiveness. He
does, of course, ask for a drink.
They're ready to begin the operation.
CHAPTER_39
CHAPTER 39
The band is on its way. Pablo seems worried about two things: the
horses needed for the retreat and the fact that the men he's recruited
think he is in charge. Jordan humors him on both counts.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: Jordan makes two religious allusions (to conversion and
canonizing) in reference to Pablo's return. He compares it to the
conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). (Hemingway
incorrectly cites Tarsus, Paul's birthplace, as the destination when
the conversion occurred.) Canonization is the process in the Roman
Catholic church by which a deceased person is declared a saint.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
On the way to the bridge, Jordan muses on the idea that he himself
is nothing, death is nothing. On the other hand, he has now learned
that he plus another person could be everything.
But that's the exception, he tells himself. And even though the
exception has happened, he can't afford to think about it now. The
qualities of Jordan the lover- gentleness and sentimentality, for
instance- apparently will not serve the needs of Jordan the soldier.
CHAPTER_40
CHAPTER 40
This chapter is another installment in the story of Andres as he
is hampered by his own people. You will remember he had made swift
progress through enemy territory. It's his own people who still
continue to slow him down.
Again, if one of Hemingway's goals in For Whom the Bell Tolls was to
show that a noble cause died at the hands of self-interested
leaders, this chapter is one of his most successful, devastating
efforts. The scene is populated by selfish and short-sighted
military men.
First there's the pompous, suspicious company commander who
escorts Andres to battalion headquarters. Then there's the
self-important Gomez, a former barber now a battalion commander, who
insists on personally driving Andres to brigade headquarters. Finally,
there's Lieutenant-Colonel Miranda, whose only ambition is to finish
the war with the same rank. He is supported in this vital role by
whiskey, sodium bicarbonate, cigarettes, and a pregnant mistress.
Miranda issues official clearance papers for Andres and asks Gomez
to take Andres on his motorcycle to General Golz.
CHAPTER_41
CHAPTER 41
The operation begins in the dark of early morning. The band has
arrived at the bridge and is about to break up into various details.
As they shake hands in parting, Pablo's hand feels strangely good to
Jordan, as though he were a real comrade.
With Pilar, Jordan trades some genial insults.
With Maria, the good-bye is awkward. As Jordan bends to give her a
final kiss, his pack filled with war materials bumps the back of his
head and makes his forehead bump hers. Other than that, their farewell
is pared to the bone: 'Good-bye, rabbit.' 'Good-bye, my Roberto.'
Pablo and his five men have assumed the job El Sordo's band would
have done. They leave to take care of the post on the other side of
the bridge. As Jordan, Agustin and Anselmo start down the hill, they
review their plans. Anselmo will go to the other side of the bridge to
set the detonation assembly there. Jordan will shoot the sentry at
this end of the bridge. Anselmo is then to do the same at his end.
Agustin is to cover them both. Jordan again gives Anselmo instructions
at what part of the man's body to aim, depending upon the man's
position.
To remove some of Anselmo's guilt about killing, Jordan makes it
clear that he is ordering it. Thus Anselmo can say to himself that
he was only following orders. The orders came from a leader of the
cause; the cause is right and good. Therefore, Anselmo did not do a
bad thing; at least he cannot be held responsible. Jordan's
sensitivity to the old man's plight is a further indication that his
understanding of those around him has increased considerably in the
course of the novel.
CHAPTER_42
CHAPTER 42
This second-to-last chapter drives home the incompetence and
futility that have characterized the cause for which Robert Jordan
is risking his life and his newly discovered future with Maria.
The Republican offensive is moving through the night in one
direction as Gomez carries Andres on his motorcycle in the other
direction toward headquarters. Hemingway paints a scene like a
slapstick sequence from an old silent movie. One truck rams into the
rear of another at a control point, creating a massive bottleneck.
Truck after truck in the convoy pulls up and stops so close to the one
in front of it that none can move, and the smashed vehicle in the
original accident can't be removed from the road. An officer tries
to run to the end of the line to tell the last truck to back up- but
trucks keep arriving faster than he can run, and the end of the line
moves farther away from him.
The mighty Republican army is on the move, so to speak. Its big
top-secret offensive is getting in gear!
But Andres rides past this ridiculous confusion in childlike hero
worship. 'Look at the army that has been builded!' he thinks
exultantly to himself.
Finally, after some more delays, they arrive at headquarters. Just
then a staff car pulls up and out of it steps a man whom Gomez
recognizes: the famous Andre Marty! This legendary leader will
certainly get the message through to Golz without any more red tape.
So Gomez thinks as Marty reads the dispatch.
Instead, Marty has them arrested.
What Gomez doesn't know is that the great Comrade Marty has become
an incompetent shell of a leader. He is inclined to execute people
he thinks are traitors. Even the corporal refers to Andre Marty as
'the crazy.'
Hemingway gives us a brilliant picture of the tortured reasoning
in what's left of Andre Marty's mind. Marty decides from their story
that Golz is a traitor and that this is really a fascist
communication.
We learn later that Marty often doesn't even understand the war maps
he 'studies.' He simply points a finger and gives directions. His
puppets agree and dispatch troops to their death carrying out his
militarily absurd orders.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: ANDRE MARTY Marty was a real historical character, a French
communist who commanded the International Brigades in the Spanish
Civil War. Hemingway felt contempt for him in real life and paints him
as uncomplimentarily as possible in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Many people agreed with Hemingway's opinion of Marty. But not all.
After For Whom the Bell Tolls was published, an open letter to
Hemingway bearing several signatures accused him of libeling Marty
(and La Pasionaria). It didn't, of course, change Hemingway's opinion.
He wrote a particularly bitter reply to one of the signers saying,
'You have your Marty [Andre Marty] and I've married my Marty [Martha
Gellhorn, his third wife and a noted writer] and we'll see who does
the most for the world in the end.'
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
Karkov, the Soviet journalist, shows up (through the efforts of
the corporal) to save Gomez and Andre. There's a dramatic battle of
words (and relative status) between Karkov and Marty, but the Soviet
is one of the few people not intimidated by the supposedly legendary
figure.
Karkov wins. Gomez and Andres are released. It's nearing daybreak
now.
Jordan's dispatch goes to Duval, Golz's chief of staff, but he
doesn't have sufficient authority or information to cancel the attack.
However, he doesn't want to send men to their death if the offensive
is expected by the enemy. Finally, he is able to contact Golz and
transmit Jordan's message. Now you learn the truth. The attack is
not a holding action. It's the real thing.
But the huge offensive the Republic has mounted will find no
targets. The enemy won't be where they were supposed to be. They've
heard. They've gone from the slopes and the ridges. Instead they'll be
waiting for the attackers.
But nothing can stop the orders. There will be tragedy and many
dead Loyalist soldiers.
Golz, in the very moment he receives the news, looks up at his
planes beginning the unstoppable, futile, destined-to-be disastrous
attack. He sees his thundering, silvery-gleaming power streaking
across the sky, and he's proud of how it could and should have been.
Hemingway has spent a great deal of time leading up to the
following, final chapter. In it, Robert Jordan and a makeshift band of
peasant volunteers will attempt to blow up a bridge behind enemy
lines.
Before you read or reread this final chapter, think of how Hemingway
has prepared you for it. How is it different from the climax of
other war and/or adventure stories you have read? What's at stake in
this story besides the victory in a test of military expertise?
Are you resentful that Jordan has to do this at all? Do you wish you
could call out to him and say, 'Stop! It isn't worth it!'? Are you
angry that Jordan is still doggedly pursuing his 'duty,' even though
it now seems a waste? Or do you feel that he put himself in the
situation, so it's his problem and he must accept whatever happens? In
either case, do you see his actions as noble and honorable?
CHAPTER_43
CHAPTER 43
The final, lengthy chapter of For Whom the Bell Tolls is devoted
almost exclusively to action. Hemingway has completed his
philosophizing. He now leaves it to you to gather the thematic threads
and weave them into the story's final scenes as you learn the fate
of the bridge, of the guerrilla band, and of Robert Jordan.
As Jordan sets out to blow up the bridge, he knows that the
Republican offensive is unlikely to be successful. Subconsciously,
he's known that for quite some time, and he now admits it. He admits
that victory for the cause is several years away. It can't be expected
with this bridge, this offensive. It'll take better equipment for
one thing. Portable short-wave radios would have helped in this
particular operation, he muses. But he's going to give this
operation his all anyway, since what will happen in the future can
depend on what is done today. How do you feel about his attitude?
You might compare your feelings going into an activity that you were
virtually positive would not be successful. Did you try your best to
succeed despite the odds? Or did you simply try to avoid getting
hurt or totally disgraced- and then wait for 'next time?'
Jordan watches the changing of the sentries at each end of the
bridge. He sees the new sentry at his end, sleepy and rolling a
cigarette. Jordan decides he won't look at him again.
Even here, Hemingway raises the theme of the individual person.
Why won't Jordan look again at the sentry? Maybe he doesn't care to
see the man as a man like himself, not simply as 'one of them.' That
would be extremely uncomfortable. It might make him hesitate. At
this point, Jordan the soldier cannot afford to hesitate.
He hears the bombs- the signal for him to begin.
The sentry hears them too, stands up, and comes out of his sentry
box. It's the last thing he does; Jordan is a very good shot. Anselmo,
at the other end of the bridge, has done his job too, although not
quite as coldly. The big difference, when they meet at the center,
is that Anselmo has tears for what he's done. Jordan doesn't, but
notices Anselmo's tears and remarks to himself, 'Goddam good face.'
The old man is left to comfort himself very briefly with, 'We have
to kill them.'
It's time for Jordan the demolition expert to prove his stuff. And
he does. Remember he has to improvise, because Pablo threw out the
detonation devices.
But what does he think of while he's hanging on the bridge,
improvising a way to blow it up and bring victory to the great
cause? His mind leaps from one subject to the next- Anselmo's
killing of the enemy soldier, a trout in the water below, the colors
of the hillside. He even plays word games as he associates his name
with that of the Jordan River and the old hymn, 'Roll, Jordan roll.'
He cautions himself to 'pull yourself together.' Hemingway captures
very well the intense pressure Jordan must be undergoing as he waits
for whatever will happen next.
In the meantime, two of the band will not see the hillside turn
completely green. Eladio has been shot in the head. Fernando is
lying fatally wounded on the hillside. Hemingway paints a moving
picture of Fernando's loyalty and willingness to serve even to the
death.
Pilar is becoming impatient with Jordan's slowness in bringing about
the actual demolition. Jordan himself isn't too happy with its
progress and wishes there were more time. He's playing out more wire
toward the opposite end of the bridge when he hears firing from that
end.
He wishes it were Pablo, but it isn't. It's the Nationalists. Jordan
is desperate for time now. He needs only a few more seconds. He
hears the truck coming; then he sees it; then he shouts to Anselmo,
'Blow her!'
'and then it commenced to rain pieces of steel.'
The aftermath: the center section of the bridge is gone. So is
Anselmo, killed by a piece of steel from the blast. Fernando on the
nearby hillside is unconscious, with little life left.
Pilar congratulates Jordan, but he is in no mood for
congratulations. Hemingway has an explanation for this: 'In him,
too, was despair from the sorrow that soldiers turn to hatred in order
that they may continue to be soldiers.' Sorrow to despair to hatred
so that the cycle can continue.
Then the scene shifts to Maria, as she holds the horses for the
retreat. She follows the pattern of Joaquin and Anselmo: when danger
is imminent (in this case, as she sees it, more to Jordan than to
herself), she prays- 'automatically,' Hemingway tells us.
It's the type of prayer sometimes called a bartering with God. She
promises (in this case the Virgin Mary) she'll do 'anything thou
sayest ever' as long as Jordan returns safe from the bridge.
And then the bridge explodes.
Pilar shouts to her that her 'Ingles' is all right.
Watching the planes in the sky, Jordan knows that things are going
wrong, and he feels a sense of unreality. Four days ago everything was
okay. He was the American partizan, here to do a demolition for the
sake of the Republicans just as he had done several times before.
Now he almost can't comprehend what he's become involved in.
Look at the line 'It was as though you had thrown a stone and the
stone made a ripple and the ripple returned roaring and toppling as
a tidal wave.' This image, and those that immediately follow- the
echo, the striking of one man- emphasize Hemingway's theme of
interdependency. Just as one act on Jordan's part has resulted in a
number of other acts that affect all those around him, so the
actions of everyone affect many other people. What may seem minor
can have a monumental impact.
Pablo reappears, scrambling across the bridgeless gorge. There
will be plenty of horses now, he announces. All of his recently
recruited volunteers are dead. He has killed them for their horses
so that his original band of guerrillas can escape. His
justification for shooting? 'They were not of our band.'
Jordan and Maria share a limited but intense reunion at the scene of
the horses Maria had been watching.
It's time for the escape. Pablo has the plan: they will ride down
the slope to the road and cross it one at a time. Crossing the road
will be dangerous because they'll be within range of the enemy tank up
by the bridge. But it's the only way. After they have crossed the road
and ridden up into the timber of the opposite slope, they can head for
the Gredos Mountains and safety.
Pablo and the others, including Maria, make the crossing. They
draw fire but make it safely. Jordan makes it across the road too.
Then, as his horse is laboring up the slope, there's 'a banging
acrid smelling clang like a boiler being ripped apart.'
The enemy tank has had a lucky shot. Aiming into the timber, it
has found a target- but not Robert Jordan. His horse has been hit
and has fallen on him. In the fall, Jordan's thigh is so badly
broken that the leg swivels in all directions like a piece of loose
string. The broken edge of the bone is nearly through the skin.
Primitivo and Agustin drag him further up to safety. Pilar assures
him that they can bind up the injury and he can ride one of the pack
horses. But Pablo shakes his head- meaning it won't work. Jordan can't
ride the horse and make it. Jordan nods agreement.
Pablo is a realist now. Has he, in fact, been the realist all along?
In spite of his weakness for wine, horses, and a relatively
comfortable life at the hideout, has he seen some things more
clearly than the other people have?
Jordan and Pablo converse briefly. Both are aware of the crucial
shortage of time. Both know that Jordan and Maria must say a final
good-bye. But Maria will not want to leave her man behind. Jordan
instructs Pablo on how to handle her.
'We will not be going to Madrid,' he tells Maria.
Of course they won't. But how long have you known or suspected
that Jordan and Maria's 'storybook' romance would not be a 'lived
happily ever after' tale of a college professor and his lovely Spanish
wife?
Maria will not leave until he commands her to do so. He explains
that he will live on in her, that he will go on to Madrid in her:
'Thou art all there will be of me.'
Pilar and Pablo take her away. A final time, just before she
disappears from sight, she begs to stay, and again he repeats, 'I am
with thee We are both there.'
The last of the band to say good-bye is Agustin. Even this hardened,
foul-mouthed peasant is crying. He asks if Jordan wants to be shot.
Jordan declines. He will stay there on the hillside with the one small
machine gun and try to be useful.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: As he lies there, Jordan's mind wanders through a variety of
subjects: the past three days, his life in general, his grandfather,
the fate of his comrades now fleeing to another retreat. As he tries
to endure the increasing pain, he even allows a bit of humor to
enter his thoughts, as he wishes briefly that he had brought a spare
leg.
Throughout the interior monologue, the central theme that emerges is
'No man is an island.' Jordan has chosen to stay behind and serve as a
temporary obstacle to the approaching enemy in order to help the
others, especially Maria. At one point he says to himself, 'You can do
nothing for yourself, but perhaps you can do something for another.'
In that simple statement, Jordan reveals that he has moved from
thinking mainly about the Republican cause to thinking about the
well-being of another individual.
The cause is still important, to be sure, but it now shares a
place in his heart and his consciousness with the realization that
human beings are equally as important. The fate of one man is
interlocked with the fate of others.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
With immense effort, Jordan manages to turn his body over and around
so that he's lying on his belly, facing downhill, in a position to
be 'useful' with his machine gun when the enemy appears on the road
below.
The broken leg, which had been almost numb at first, now begins to
pain Jordan terribly and brings the prospect of suicide to mind. He
weighs the reasons for and against it. Basically, it seems cowardly
and reminds him of his father.
But several times he feels himself losing consciousness from the
pain. If enemy soldiers find him unconscious, they will revive him and
probably torture him to gain information. That possibility seems to
make suicide the lesser of two evils.
Again and again he changes his mind. Suicide would be
acceptable then, no it wouldn't- not as long as there's something
left that you can do.
He keeps hanging on and hoping the enemy will come soon. And they
do. Hemingway says that Robert Jordan's luck held very good. The
Nationalist soldiers are on the trail of Pablo and his band. Holding
them up or causing confusion by killing the officer is one final thing
Jordan can do. But this time it's not so much to aid the Republic.
It's to buy time for Maria and the others.
The officer comes into view. In a final piece of irony, it's
Lieutenant Berrendo- the man who didn't climb El Sordo's hill
because he was positive someone was alive up there. He will pass
within twenty yards of Robert Jordan.
Robert Jordan lies, just as he did in the opening scene of the
story, on the pine-needled forest floor of the Spanish mountains.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
NOTE: At first, Hemingway was somewhat dissatisfied with the
ending of the book at Chapter 43, and wrote an epilogue of two short
chapters. One featured a meeting between Karkov and Golz in which they
discussed, among other things, Jordan's blowing up the bridge and
his disappearance. The other described Andres returning to the
former hideout of Pablo's band, where he gazes down at the wrecked
bridge. Later Hemingway decided these chapters were unnecessary.
-------- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------ ---
TESTS_AND_ANSWERS
A STEP BEYOND
TESTS AND ANSWERS (HFORTEST)
-
TESTS
TEST 1
_____ 1. Robert Jordan became involved in the Spanish Civil War
because of his
A. inborn sense of adventure
B. philosophical and political views
C. need to find meaning in a superficial lifestyle
_____ 2. One of the powerful themes of For Whom the Bell Tolls is
A. the importance of the individual
B. the triumph of fascism
C. readiness is all
_____ 3. In Robert Jordan's opinion, the most trustworthy of
Pablo's band was
A. Rafael
B. Primitivo
C. Anselmo
_____ 4. Robert Jordan's growth and character change stem from
A. his interaction with people
B. different philosophical viewpoints he encounters
C. disappointment with his previous life
_____ 5. Robert Jordan feels
A. admiration for the Spanish people
B. disgust for the Spanish people
C. at different times, each of the above
_____ 6. The reactions of Joaquin, Anselmo, and Maria, when
confronted with the strong possibility of death, show that
-
A. they are superficial, hypocritical people
B. the atheism of the Republicans has not really destroyed
their faith
C. they believe that sincere religion will win the war for
the Republic
_____ 7. At the beginning of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan
sees blowing up the bridge as
A. simply another operation to be accomplished
B. the crowning glory of his career with the Republicans
C. an omen of bad things to come
_____ 8. Which of the following relationships began with distrust
but ended with mutual confidence?
A. Jordan and General Golz
B. Jordan and Maria
C. Jordan and Pablo
-
9. How is Robert Jordan's relationship with Maria different from the
relationships he has had with other women?
-
10. Sketch the change in Robert Jordan's views about the Republicans
and fighting for them.
-
11. Is Pablos a villain or hero in For Whom the Bell Tolls?
TEST 2
_____ 1. The attempt of Andres to deliver Jordan's letter to Golz
brings out the
-
A. dedication of the Loyalist peasants
B. unfeeling cruelty of both sides in the war
C. incompetence of the Republican military
_____ 2. The character associated with mysticism and fatalism is
A. Pilar
B. Maria
C. Pablo
_____ 3. Which of the following is a key moral issue in For Whom
the Bell Tolls?
A. How can something be necessary and evil at the same
time?
B. Is it possible to love one's enemies?
C. Should love of a single person be stronger than love of
all people?
_____ 4. The Republican attempt to take Segovia fails mainly
because
A. Jordan's bridge demolition was badly timed
B. key supplies did not reach the forces in time
C. Nationalist forces had learned of the planned attack
-
_____ 5. El Sordo and his band were killed
A. because they tried to take the bridge demolition into
their own hands
B. in an attempt to help Jordan and Pablo's band
C. through the deceit and treachery of Pablo
_____ 6. At one point, Pablo's band decide he should be killed
because
A. they could not tolerate his cruel dictatorship
B. his current emotional state was dangerous to the band's
operations
C. it was obvious he was about to sell out to the enemy
_____ 7. Jordan tries to reconcile Maria to their final parting by
A. promising to meet her in Madrid
B. deliberately being cold and unfeeling so she will
resent rather than miss him
C. telling her that he will live on in her and her life
_____ 8. At the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan is
A. bitter about the way his life is about to end
B. relatively content with how things have turned out
C. so confused he does not know what to think
9. Is For Whom the Bell Tolls an antiwar novel?
10. Cite instances of irony in For Whom the Bell Tolls.
11. Explain the significance of the novel's title.
ANSWERS
TEST 1
1. B 2. A 3. C 4. A 5. C 6. B 7. A 8. C
9. It's obvious that Robert Jordan's relationship with Maria is more
meaningful to him than relationships he's had with other women. But
this extends beyond his enjoyment of sex or even small talk. We're
given only a shallow description- just a line or two- of his
previous relationships. Perhaps that indicates they were
insignificant.
Maria, however, is very special. She makes him think; she helps
him grow. Maria causes him to see people, not just ideas, politics,
and ideology. We get the impression that previous women in his life
were more like objects that he didn't always have time for in spite of
their attractiveness. But he appreciates Maria as a person, not merely
as an object. Consequently, he is able to see himself as a person- not
merely as a warrior on behalf of a political idea.
10. It's possible to defend two different but not completely
opposite positions on this matter. On the one hand, Jordan has
admitted by his own words that he no longer completely believes in the
theories that originally brought him to the war- and hasn't for some
time. Toward the end he says that love is all that really counts. He
seems to discredit what he previously knew in favor of what he's
learned. Thus he seems to have done a complete turnaround.
But you may find some passages, even toward the end, which don't
support the complete turnaround idea. For example, if he had truly
abandoned his loyalty to the Republic in favor of loyalty to Maria,
wouldn't he have found a safe way to leave and take her with him? Long
after Maria and others have made an impression on him, he's
concerned about being the kind of soldier that would make his
grandfather proud. Thus it could be argued that he has changed his
priorities intellectually, but in practice he's not ready to abandon
everything he previously championed.
11. Pablo is perhaps the most complex character in For Whom the Bell
Tolls, so you can make a case for either hero or villain. Perhaps your
choice will depend upon how you see him at the end.
Certainly his brief desertion caused harm. Jordan says that
Anselmo would still be alive if the makeshift exploders hadn't
required him to be so close to the bridge. Throughout the operation,
Pablo's instability is a constant source of tension and worry. He's
frequently drunk or nearly so. Even before he 'went bad,' one of his
glories was the engineering of an incredibly brutal mass execution.
Yet, Pablo did return after leaving with the detonator and the
exploders. For many people, this would not have been easy. He worked
out an escape plan and seems to be in charge again as the group
leave Jordan on the hillside. Many readers feel that under Pablo's
renewed leadership the band will make it to safety. (Of course, they
have enough horses to do so because Pablo murdered his five newly
recruited peasant volunteers.)
TEST 2
1. C 2. A 3. A 4. C 5. B 6. B 7. C 8. B
9. Beyond question, Hemingway presents one human tragedy after
another in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Think of all the things that could
be described as a waste. The loss of life, including Jordan's, is
wasted in the sense that the deaths do nothing to advance the cause.
Even the demolition of the bridge, the central event of the story,
turns out to be wasted effort. The common people, on whose behalf
the war is supposed to be waged, do not really want it and seem
unlikely to benefit from it. You should have no trouble finding things
that are wasted as a result of the war.
Yet these things concern a particular war, so you may find it
questionable that the book is an attack on war in general.
Furthermore, it could be argued that some good things do come from it.
The war brings Jordan and Maria together. The war brings Jordan in
contact with all the people who change his life and foster his
growth as a person.
10. Skimming through the story should provide you with many
instances of irony, which is a situation or an outcome of events
opposite to what might logically be expected. It's ironic in a general
sense that the 'good guys' (the Loyalist forces) in the conflict are
also often incompetent fools. Also, the most competent Loyalist
leaders in this 'civil' war are foreigners.
The prayers of Anselmo, Joaquin, and Maria are ironic against the
background of the movement's official atheism. Anselmo and
Lieutenant Berrendo's uttering of the very same prayer is a telling
example. The horse that was Jordan's means of escape prevents his
escape when it falls on him. And the war itself, which ultimately
killed Robert Jordan, was also the occasion of his truly
appreciating life and other people.
11. The title is taken from John Donne's well-known poem,
published in 1624, which begins, 'No man is an Iland.' The poem
itself makes the point that all human life is interconnected, and
whatever happens to even one person affects all humanity. Thus with
each individual's death, a little bit of every other person 'dies.'
When you hear the tolling of the church bell, therefore, don't send to
ask for whom the bell tolls- it tolls for thee.
You may or may not agree with this idea, but look for examples of it
in the novel. Certainly Jordan's parting words to Maria- that he
will live on in her- are a direct illustration. And certainly a part
of her will die because of Jordan's death and their separation.
El Sordo refers to the Nationalist captain he kills as Comrade
Voyager. Each will have caused the other's death, either directly or
indirectly, and they are journeying to death together.
Still another example comes from Anselmo's reflections that the
fascist soldiers they 'have to' kill are individual men just like
himself. A little bit of his own principles is destroyed each time
he kills.
TERM_PAPER_IDEAS
TERM PAPER IDEAS AND OTHER TOPICS FOR WRITING (HFORTERM)
ROBERT JORDAN
1. Does Jordan's death- shortly after he's discovered so much to
live for- make him a genuinely tragic figure? Has he in some way
contributed to his own death?
2. 'Jordan's involvement in the war is due merely to his infatuation
with an ideology.' Tell why you agree or disagree with that statement.
3. How is Robert Jordan a genuinely better person as a result of his
rather brief experience with the resistance band?
OTHER CHARACTERS
-
1. Pablo is sometimes called the most complex of the characters in
the novel. What supports this view?
-
2. Some readers feel that Maria is not a developed character in
the novel but a cardboard figure or a symbol of women in general. True
or false?
3. Which character does Hemingway portray the most
sympathetically? which the most unsympathetically?
4. Does Pilar herself believe in palm reading? Is she completely
honest when she says she reads palms just to get attention? Do her
actions give evidence for one interpretation more than the other?
WAR
-
1. Is war by itself wrong? When is it justified?
2. Do foreign countries have the right to aid one side or another in
a civil war? Is there any similarity between the situation of the
Spanish Civil War and the situation in Indochina after 1954?
IDEALISM
1. What were the ideals of the Spanish Republic, and were these
ideals sufficient to justify a terrible war?
2. Is idealism always naive? Try to cite some examples where
'pure' idealism has been immensely practical- or try to show that this
is seldom or never the case.
INTEGRITY/HYPOCRISY
1. Did Jordan's political idealism cause him to compromise his
honesty and self-respect? Which of his actions, if any, could be
called hypocritical?
2. Anselmo kills against his will and feels tremendous guilt. Does
this make him a hypocrite? How is he, in spite of that, an example
of integrity?
RELIGION
1. Were there any truly atheistic characters in the book? Which
ones?
-
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls has been called 'a mockery of faith and
religion.' Write in support of, or against, this viewpoint.
CRITICS
THE CRITICS (HFORCRIT)
A NEGATIVE VIEW
Hemingway's novel is Tolstoyan in scope but rarely in achievement.
But it has many merits, and even its defects are generally
interesting Yet the novel falls considerably short of greatness. To
some extent, Hemingway's failure in his longest, most densely
populated novel is stylistic, but far more serious are his distortions
of the experience he describes. Together these technical and
thematic flaws confuse and mislead the reader and, at last, diminish
the novel.
-Arthur Waldhorn, A Reader's Guide
to Hemingway, 1972
A POSITIVE VIEW
The result is a novel that is complex, meaningful, and as close to
aesthetic perfection as Hemingway could make it. For Whom the Bell
Tolls stands somewhat in relation to Hemingway's other works as
Moby Dick does to the rest of Melville's work. And, like Moby Dick, it
is true enough to stand continued reinterpretation.
The skill with which this novel was for the most part written
demonstrated that Hemingway's talent was once again intact and
formidable. None of his books had evoked more richly the life of the
senses, had shown a truer sense of plotting, or provided more fully
living secondary characters, or livelier dialog.
-Delbert E. Wylder, Hemingway's Heroes, 1969
ON THE BRIDGE IN FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
The brilliance of execution becomes apparent when the reader
stands in imagination on the flooring of the bridge and looks in any
direction. He will see his horizons lifting by degrees towards a
circumference far beyond the Guadarrama mountains. For the guerrillas'
central task, the blowing of the bridge, is only one phase of a larger
operation which Hemingway once called 'the greatest holding action
in history.' Since the battle strategy which requires the bridge to be
destroyed is early made available to the reader, he has no
difficulty in seeing its relation to the next circle outside, where
a republican division under General Golz prepares for an attack. The
general's attack, in turn, is enough to suggest the outlines of the
whole civil war, while the Heinkel bombers and Fiat pursuit planes
which cut across the circle- foreign shadows over the Spanish earth-
extend our grasp one more circle outwards to the trans-European aspect
of the struggle. The outermost ring of the circle is nothing less than
the great globe itself. Once the Spanish holding operation is over,
the wheel of fire will encompass the earth. The bridge, therefore-
such is the structural achievement of this novel- becomes the hub on
which the 'future of the human race can turn.'
-Carlos Baker, Hemingway: The Writer as Artist, 1963
ON SEX AND LOVE IN THE NOVEL
It is not surprising that sex becomes more dominant the deeper one
gets beneath the outer political surface of the novel, since it is the
sexual experience with Maria that is the basis of Jordan's mystical
experience.
-Delbert E. Wylder, Hemingway's Heroes, 1969
The nadir [of For Whom the Bell Tolls] is the love scenes.
Possibly it is these that set up initial hostility to the book in some
critics. These scenes fail because Hemingway not only breaks but
reverses a principle that served him so well in earlier works: to
undercut anything to do with romantic love so sharply that even the
possibility of sentimentality is extinguished.
-Wirt Williams, The Tragic Art
of Ernest Hemingway, 1981
ON THE NOVEL AND THE SPANISH PEOPLE
Devoted to the Loyalist cause, Hemingway remains sufficiently the
objective artist to delineate the human faults of what the left-wing
propagandists wished to see presented as an incorrupt and shining
chivalry. For Whom the Bell Tolls is not propaganda but art, and
like all art it promotes a complex, even ambivalent, attachment to its
subject. The book taught thousands to love or hate Spain, but it could
not leave them indifferent to the land, its people, its history.
-Anthony Burgess, Ernest Hemingway and His World, 1978
I myself was fascinated by the book and felt it to be honest in so
far as it renders Hemingway's real vision. And yet I find myself
awkwardly alone in the conviction that, as a novel about Spaniards and
their war, it is unreal and, in the last analysis, deeply untruthful.
-Arturo Barea (Spanish novelist) in Horizon, 1941
ADVISORY_BOARD
ADVISORY BOARD (HFORADVB)
We wish to thank the following educators who helped us focus our
Book Notes series to meet student needs and critiqued our
manuscripts to provide quality materials.
Sandra Dunn, English Teacher
Hempstead High School, Hempstead, New York
Lawrence J. Epstein, Associate Professor of English
Suffolk County Community College, Selden, New York
Leonard Gardner, Lecturer, English Department
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Beverly A. Haley, Member, Advisory Committee
National Council of Teachers of English Student Guide Series
Fort Morgan, Colorado
Elaine C. Johnson, English Teacher
Tamalpais Union High School District
Mill Valley, California
Marvin J. LaHood, Professor of English
State University of New York College at Buffalo
Robert Lecker, Associate Professor of English
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
David E. Manly, Professor of Educational Studies
State University of New York College at Geneseo
Bruce Miller, Associate Professor of Education
State University of New York at Buffalo
Frank O'Hare, Professor of English and Director of Writing
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Faith Z. Schullstrom, Member of Executive Committee
National Council of Teachers of English
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
Guilderland Central School District, New York
Mattie C. Williams, Director, Bureau of Language Arts
Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, Illinois
-
THE END OF BARRON'S BOOK NOTES
ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
BIBLIOGRAPHY (HFORBIBL)
FOR_WHOM_THE_BELL_TOLLS
FURTHER READING
-
CRITICAL WORKS
Astro, Richard, and Jackson Benson. Hemingway in Our Time.
Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1974.
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner's,
1969. Generally considered the definitive biography of Hemingway.
_____. Hemingway: The Writer as Artist. 3d ed. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1963.
Burgess, Anthony. Ernest Hemingway and His World. New York:
Scribner's, 1978.
Griffin, Peter. Along With Youth: Hemingway, the Early Years. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Biography; also includes five
previously unpublished early short stories by Hemingway.
Hotchner, A. E. Papa Hemingway: The Ecstasy and Sorrow. New York:
William Morrow, 1983.
Laurence, Frank M. Hemingway and the Movies. Jackson: University
Press of Mississippi, 1981.
Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row,
1985.
_____. Hemingway: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, 1982.
Nagel, James, ed. Ernest Hemingway: The Writer in Context.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
Noble, Donald R., ed. Hemingway: A Revaluation. Troy, N.Y.:
Whitson Publishing Company, 1983.
Rao, E. Nageswara. Ernest Hemingway: A Study of His Rhetoric.
Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, 1983.
Rovit, Earl. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Twayne, 1963.
Weeks, Robert P., ed. Hemingway: A Collection of Critical Essays.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972.
Williams, Wirt. The Tragic Art of Ernest Hemingway. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1981.
Wylder, Delbert E. Hemingway's Heroes. Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press, 1969.
AUTHOR'S OTHER MAJOR WORKS
1925 In Our Time
1926 The Torrents of Spring
1926 The Sun Also Rises
1927 Men Without Women
1929 A Farewell to Arms
1932 Death in the Afternoon
1933 Winner Take Nothing
1935 Green Hills of Africa
1937 To Have and Have Not
1938 The Fifth Column, and The First Forty-Nine Stories
1942 Men at War
1950 Across the River and Into the Trees
1952 The Old Man and the Sea
1962 A Moveable Feast
1972 Islands in the Stream
1972 The Nick Adams Stories
1985 The Dangerous Summer
THE END OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR BARRON'S BOOK NOTES
ERNEST HEMINGWAY'S FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
800 BC
HOMER'S
THE ILIAD
by George Loutro
SERIES EDITOR
Michael Spring, Editor
Literary Cavalcade, Scholastic Inc.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the many painstaking hours of work
Holly Hughes and Thomas F. Hirsch have devoted to making the
Book Notes series a success.
CONTENTS
CONTENTS
SECTION.. SEARCH ON
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES.. HILIAUTH
THE POEM
A Comparison of Translations. HILITRAN
The Plot HILIPLOT
The Characters HILICHAR
Other Elements
Setting.. HILISETT
Themes HILITHEM
Style and Structure.. HILISTYL
THE STORY.. HILISTOR
A STEP BEYOND
Tests and Answers HILITEST
Term Paper Ideas. HILITERM
Glossary HILIGLOS
The Critics HILICRIT
Advisory Board HILIADVB
Bibliography.. HILIBIBL
AUTHOR_AND_HIS_TIMES
THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES (HILIAUTH)
Homer's Iliad originated at the beginnings of Western
civilization. Its power is so timeless that it has been read
continuously for more than 2500 years. Yet its origin lies shrouded in
mystery, tangled in mythology, religion, and ancient tribal history.
Aside from these elements, the real excitement of the Iliad lies in
its brilliant poetry, which is sustained for more than 15,000 lines,
bringing an age of heroes and their exploits to life with clarity,
complexity, and depth of feeling.
Homer has been known since classical Greek times as the author of
the Odyssey and the Iliad- and that is about all that can be said
for certain about him. The ancients regarded him as practically a god,
equal to the muses (who were the divine inspiration for all arts).
Facts about Homer the man have long been the subject of hot debate
among scholars. Perhaps Homer also wrote a group of long poems,
still called the Homeric Hymns. Perhaps Homer didn't actually write
the two great epic poems but merely pieced together small sections
written by many different poets over centuries. Perhaps there was no
Homer at all, and the poems were a kind of oral history, written and
recited by numerous poets and much later collected into the books we
now know. Each of these theories has been offered as true, and each
remains unproven.
What is certain is that the ancient Greek scholars and
commentators were convinced that Homer was real and lived in the 9th
or 8th century B.C. Modern scholars generally agree that the Iliad was
composed around 725 B.C. (the earliest written versions we have are
hundreds of years later than that, so there's plenty of room for
conjecture). But though we don't have the earliest texts, the
ancient Greeks did, and Homer was written about, discussed, and
analyzed throughout the classical Greek period.
One of the key controversies among Homeric critics is whether
Homer composed his poems orally or whether he actually wrote them
down. We do know that Homer's poems were recited in later days, at
festivals and ceremonial occasions, by professional singers called
rhapsodes, who beat out the measure with rhythm staffs. (There is a
similar poet/singer in the Odyssey who sings a poem about the Trojan
War. He is an old man, and blind; that may be the source behind the
legend that Homer himself was blind.) Whether or not Homer actually
wrote down his poems, it now seems certain that the Iliad and the
Odyssey are part of an ancient literary tradition of oral composition.
The stories on which they are based had probably been sung aloud for
hundreds of years, and recited and memorized by one generation of
poets after another before Homer took them in hand. After all, in
Homer's time, writing was used mostly for inventories and business
transactions. Recitation was the accepted means of relating myth and
history.
The Iliad was part of a group of ancient poems known as the Epic
Cycle, which dealt with the history of the Trojan War and the events
surrounding it. Homer probably had at his fingertips most of these
stories and characters, ready-made. His genius lay in choosing to
focus on the story of Achilleus and in bringing a tragic depth to
the story of the battle for Troy. Homer was writing about events
that took place four or five hundred years before his own time, events
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