For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

 


For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

This novel takes place during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, and follows an American explosives technician, Robert Jordan, as he joins a Republican guerrilla unit to repel the fascist units out in the mountains.

All I knew about Hemingway before picking up this book was that he’s known for a very straightforward writing style. And even still, I was intrigued at just how curtly everything was presented here. Rather than detailing or elaborating on an idea to emphasize it, Hemingway has a habit of just repeating it over and over. It was a challenge to acclimate to this as well as the dialogue, because the characters' words are dictated as more-or-less direct translations from the Spanish they were speaking. This had the effect of formalizing every exchange - not to mention almost all of the harsher language was literally substituted for the word “obscenity”.

Style aside, I found myself surprisingly captivated with the story, considering my general distaste for military-themed books and media. And I think I can attribute that mainly to the tense situations, like the impromptu pre-battle stakeout, the loss of Robert Jordan’s equipment from treachery within his own ranks, and the snow-storm threatening to dismantle the entire operation. Several of the characters were particularly engaging as well - namely Pablo, the untrustworthy leader of the guerilla unit, his wife Pilar, the sage rock of the Spanish contingent, and Anselmo, the old Republican soldier with an incongruous hatred for killing. However - I found the protagonist, Robert Jordan, a bit nebulous. To Hemingway’s credit, though, this renders the principal character as somewhat of an “everyman” blank slate for the reader to inhabit.

And the aspects of Robert Jordan that do, in fact, have a more fleshed-out presentation, give the novel it the greatest depth. These are mainly the conflicting thoughts that cloud Jordan’s mind as he engages in an assignment over which failure looms. He ponders whether someone can live a full life in only a few days, subject to the impending doom of his operation. And he plays out this fancy by engaging wholeheartedly in the short-lived relationship he finds with Maria, a former prisoner of the fascists who was rescued by Pablo’s band. Hemingway presents this relationship as a spontaneous, deep, lasting connection, but it felt more like Jordan and Maria’s blind attempt to turn lust into something more meaningful in order to stave off the fear of failure in battle. Jordan also reflects on his motivations as a soldier, which have little to do with any sort of fervor for the cause. Rather, he seems to lean most heavily on his duty to follow orders and a will to prove himself as a man of merit like his veteran grandfather. He’s compelled to redeem himself, in a way, from the weakness he saw in his father’s suicide - a sentiment that comes full-circle in the end where he feels that same pull and strains to overcome it through a sense of duty to his new, short-lived family (the Spanish guerilla unit and Maria).

To Whom the Bell Tolls, in spite of its stoic presentation, is a weighty depiction of the horrors and emptiness of war, and the mental struggles that accompany its combatants. It leaves me with a heightened distaste for military conflict, and an even greater respect for the soldiers that have had to live through it.

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