P - 108 Assignment
Topic: For Whom The Bell Tolls Themes
Name: Nidhi Dave
Paper- The American Literature
Roll no- 16
Enrollment no- 4069206420210005
Email ID - davenidhi05@gmail.com
Batch-2021-23(MA Sem-2)
Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English. Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
👉Introduction:
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. Created by Ernest Hemingway in 1940, the book pictured a story of the Civil War. The title for this book was taken from the poem written by John Donne. The poet created the series of prayers and meditations, and a part of these verses was taken by Hemingway and placed in the text of the novel. This abstract stated that every single person is a part of the continent, a part of the whole world family. Everyone is a part of Mankind and the problems that appear, refer to everybody. The author wanted to show the importance of taking responsibility and never finding anybody else who would be able to complete the task. In this novel, Hemingway created a vivid picture of War. However, the theme of the war is not the only one that the author touches in his work. He was struggling to attract the audience’s attention to such delicate but important themes as mortality, love, courage and the list of others.
👉About Author
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| Ernest Hemingway |
Ernest Hemingway was born near Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. As a teenager, he worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. In 1918, during World War I, Hemingway volunteered to join the Italian army as an ambulance driver. When he was injured, he returned to the United States and stayed in Michigan, at his family's home.
Hemingway spent quite a bit of time searching for big adventures in the outdoors, hunting, fishing, and continuing to attend bullfights in Spain. He covered the Spanish Civil War as a foreign correspondent for the North American Newspaper Alliance in 1937 and met his third wife, journalist Martha Gellhorn, to whom he dedicated For Whom the Bell Tolls. His experience covering the war informed the novel a great deal, and his political leanings were in line with the Republicans. Martha divorced Hemingway after he became infatuated with yet another war correspondent, Mary Welsh, who became his fourth wife. For Whom the Bell Tolls was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1941. It was thought by many American critics to be his best book, and it further solidified his place in the American literary canon.In 1966, two years before the Spanish release of the novel, Republican general Enrique Lister wrote in his memoir of the war that Hemingway, though a great writer, did not have a deep understanding of the forces at work both during and after the civil war.
Accident-prone throughout his lifetime of adventures, Hemingway self-medicated and drank heavily. When Hemingway and Welsh moved to Ketchum, Idaho, after buying a house in 1959, his mental health disintegrated. On July 2, 1961, Hemingway committed suicide, a fate that fell upon several members of Hemingway's family over the years.
⭐For whom The Bell Tolls Themes:
- Death and Disillusionment in war
- Grace under pressure
- The Power of superstition
- Mood
- Courage and self sacrifice
- Horrors of war
- Love and friendship
- Mortality
Let's discuss themes of For whom The Bell Tolls
👉Death and Disillusionment in War
The novel, as many of Hemingway's other works, deals with war. Since death is inevitable in the war effort, many of those fighting for the cause become disillusioned. They realize that the war does not really benefit the common man, even though the leaders insist that the war is being fought to protect them. From the time the book opens, Pablo, the guerilla leader is disenchanted with the war. He simply wants to be left alone to enjoy life. As the book progresses, the readers see Jordan and Anselmo also becoming disillusioned by the death and destruction that surrounds them.
👉Grace Under Pressure
To be a hero, Hemingway believes that a man must display grace under pressure. Most of his characters put themselves into dangerous situations and then act with remarkable bravery in the face of danger. Robert Jordan is no exception. Even though he has become disillusioned with the war effort and disagrees with the methodology of destroying the bridge, he carries out the mission flawlessly. After he blows up the bridge and is riding away to a new life with Maria, he is shot by the fascists who pursue them. When his horse is shot, he is thrown and injures his leg. Unable to travel to safety, he faces death with bravery, firing his gun at the enemy to give the others time to get away.
👉The Power of Superstition
Throughout the novel, there are references to superstitions. In the very beginning, Robert Jordan sets the tone of the novel when he thinks it is a very bad sign that he has forgotten Anselmo's name. Although he claims several times in the book that he is not superstitious, his thoughts, words, and actions prove that he is always seeing "signs" about his fate. Although he is not openly superstitious like some of the Spaniards around him, he is influenced by the mystical.
👉MOOD
A gloomy pall hangs over the novel from the first pages. A war rages in the background, and death is all around. Jordan has been sent to blow up a bridge under the most dangerous of circumstances. In the first pages of the book, he admits that he does not have a good feeling about the mission. When he meets Pablo, the guerilla leader who is to help him, things grow worse. Pablo is a sullen and disillusioned man who no longer cares about the war effort. He immediately dislikes Jordan, seeing him as a threat, and later deserts him for a while. When Pilar reads Jordan's palm, she sees something negative that she is not willing to disclose. Then Jordan is forced to kill several men and, in turn, is injured himself. As the book ends, his death is imminent.
There are a few light moments in the novel when Jordan and Maria are together and plan for their future. They are also aware that there may not be a future for them because of the war. As a result, it seems that they are trying to live their entire lives in the little time that they have together. In the end, Jordan sends Maria away to safety as he is left to die alone.
👉Courage and Self-Sacrifice
The trait of courage is pictured in the novel as the necessary one for every single person. It is that important thing that everyone should have to live through all difficulties that he could meet in life. If one carefully discovers what Robert Jordan thinks about courage, one will find the specific definition of this personality trait. The courage by Robert Jordan means to do without thinking. To be courageous the person should exclude all emotions and coldly complete the needed missions. However, later the character discovered that courage is much more important and he was always tested on having this trait throughout a book. The great model of bravery is Anselmo. He was not forced to help Robert, but he wanted to, and this willingness to help even if the task is dangerous is definitely an excellent example of courage. Braveness is presented in guerrilla’s readiness to risk and give their lives in order to complete the ordered actions. To be ready to self-sacrifice is the greatest point of the courage that is shown in the novel. This is usual for the war condition, especially that pictured by Hemingway. Only one side has a significant advantage in this war, and they are Nationalists. They have all the resources to be perfectly organized and prepared. Republicans have no other choices as to rely on their other devices and consequently, they felt the lack of preparations. The people who went on the War sacrificed their happy life, their families, their comfort, and their health. But they continue to struggle as they still have courage.
👉Horrors of War
The horrors of War are felt on every page of the book and are vividly pictured by the author. There is no person in the world that would not be afraid of the war and its results. People do not want to sacrifice their comfort life, do not want to lose their families, and undergo other horrible consequences that the war has. The war does not bring anything good, and the only thing it is doing is destroying the lives of peaceful citizens. We can see any of the families that are pictured in the novel and try to imagine the feeling that they were forced to have. Maria was forced to see her close people died and in addition to this she herself was raped by the Nationalists. This example is not a single one as the war brings a huge list of such horrors that feel the world and do not let people breathe. Another example is the Fascist soldier who is killing people and after that, beheads them to be completely sure they are dead. Such behavior is dreadful and disrespectful, but for the people that complete these actions, it looks normal and accessible. Soldiers can shoot any of the peaceful citizens if they want to take their horses. They lose their feelings and do not realize how awful the results of their actions are. They are blind in their minds and do evil mechanically without even thinking. The war makes people forget about their feelings.
👉Love And Friendship
However, the feelings could not be fully exterminated; they can only be damped down. People could not live without relationships, and the connection between close people is hard to be completely destroyed. We can notice in the novel a great example of true love and friendship. Hemingway touches this theme, knowing that nobody could survive without love and friends that support him. This is a significant part of human life and one of the factors that make life complete. It does not matter what horrors of war appear everywhere, love always wins. No fear, injury, or death could make the love stop existing. The author proves its picturing the love of Maria and Robert Jordan. Maria is raped, and this fact had left a mark on her heart. She is afraid that nobody would want her and stay with her as she is damaged. It was Pilar who explained to her that true love is able to heal and help to forget the horrible past. Love is able to break the wall between two people who used to deadly hate each other. After throwing out the equipment for destroying the bridge, Pablo feels awfully lonely without Pilar even if he thought he hated her. He still feels that he strongly loves her and admits he was wrong. This love made him come back and repair the damage that he had done. The love forced him to do the things that his mind did not want to.
👉Mortality
One of the most common themes that are always presented together with the war is the theme of mortality. It is brightly pictured in the book, describing the people’s attitude to death. In usual life, people used to avoid talking on such topics, but in the times when war is everywhere, death is a part of everyday life. In such conditions, people spend their lives wondering when would be the last day of their life and they do not doubt that their end could come unexpectedly and quickly. The realization of this fact influenced their conscience and they often changed their attitude to death. It is hard to say that this attitude is the same in all people. Different people have different feelings towards death. Some of them experience horrible fear while others are suffering from despair. But there is something that death made with every single person: it taught them to overview their priorities. When the person sees the coming of his last day, he will not spend these days on things that find unimportant. Death reality helps to understand what is the most significant thing in life. On the novel’s pages, one can meet even such perfect soldiers that have no fear in front of death, and such examples include Robert Jordan. He is highly experienced and prepared, and this could be the reason for such a cold attitude towards death. However, the real reason is he has no cause to be alive and does not see why he should live further.
👉Conclusion:
Finally, there are other themes in Hemingway’s ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ ranging from the power of superstition and divination as in Pilar, suicide as in Jordon’s father, the Spanish War and its tragedy and hypocrisy and theme of solidarity as in Robert Jordon. Jordan laid down his life for a cause but the irony of the situation is that he couldn’t make a total commitment to his “cause” for the Fascists to be killed are human beings. “No man is an island”. Thus the novel takes a purely ironic stand in the context of the Spanish War.
Words: 2,212
Reference
https://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/discuss-main-themes-in-for-whom-the-bell-tolls-the-relevance-of-donne%E2%80%99s-quotation-to-the-main-theme/
http://pinkmonkey.com/booknotes/monkeynotes/pmForWhom07.asp
https://jgdb.com/essays/for-whom-the-bell-tolls-themes
https://www.coursehero.com/lit/For-Whom-the-Bell-Tolls/themes/
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