Death and survival, are both very important issues in our life. And death is the eternal topic that we human beings can never avoid to talking about. Human are grumbling the momentary of life, the passage of time, and we are also actively thinking about what kind of attitude should be taken to face the death. In Hemingway's work, For Whom the Bell Tolls, the death is reflected extremely vividly. This article is going to try to analysis the existentialism death view and Hemingway's death philosophy, which takes Hemingway’s work as the basis.
Key word:
Death, Hemingway, value of life, war
Why did you choose this particular book?
1. The auther is very famous.
2. I haven’t read any novels in origin, this book will not be too difficult for me.
3. I have watched a movie which is an adaptation of the noval. And it is a property of matter to attract.
4. It was on a required reading list.
1. Brief Introduction of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American author and journalist. His distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement which made a great influence on the 20th-century fictions. Most of his works had been created between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s. And in 1954, he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature because of his masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea. The explanation of Hemingway's fiction was successful is that the characters from his fictions he presented exhibited authenticity. And that’s also the reason that lots of his works are classics of American literature. Duiring his career, he had published 7 novels, 6 short story collections, and 2 non-fiction works. And there were further 3 novels, 4 collections of short stories, and 3 non-fiction works after he passed away.
After divorcing with Hadley in 1927, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. But they divorced after Hemingway's back from the Spanish Civil War, the time which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940, but he left her for Mary Welsh after the WWII.
Shortly after Hemingway publicated The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, he went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in a plane crash that left him in pain for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he moved from Cuba to Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.
This novel is presented primarily through the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, Robert Jordan, which was inspired by Hemingway's own experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
There is a easant named Anselmo guideert Jordan to the guerrilla camp, which is hidden in a cave. Along the way, they encounter Pablo, the leader of the camp, who greets Robert Jordan with hostility and opposes the bridge operation because he believes it’s dangerous. Robertsuspects that Pablo may betray or sabotage the mission.
In the camp, Robert Jordan meets Pilar, Pablo's "woman", who seems to be the real leader of the band guerrilleros. In the evening, Robert meets six other residents of the camp. The camp shelters a young woman named Maria, one of the fascist band raped not long age. Robert Jordan and Maria immediately attracted to each other.
The next morning, Jordan is led through the forest by Pilar for consultation with El Sordo, the guerrilleros and the leader of another band on the bridge operation. Together they take Maria. El Sordo agreed to help the mission.
In the next morning, Robert Jordan wakes to see a Fascist cavalryman, and shoots him immediately. After finishing the breakfast, the group hears the sounds of a fight in the distance, which Robert Jordan believes that the Fascists are attacking El Sordo’s camp right now. Otheres want to give a hand to El Sordo, but Robert Jordan and Pilar know that is helpless and reject them.
The scene shifts to El Sordo’s hill, which a group of Fascists is fighting with them. El Sordo’s men play dead and manage to shoot one of the Fascist captains.
Time moves on, at the second morning, Pilar wakes Robert Jordan and tells him that Pablo has fled the camp with some of the explosives which are important to the blowing the bridge. Being furious angry at first, Robert Jordan controls his anger and plans to carry out the operation anyway. To Jordan’s surprised, Pablo suddenly backs before dawn, claiming that he left because of a moment of weakness. He says that he threw the explosives into the river and felt great loneliness after doing so. He has brought back five men with their horses from neighboring guerrilla bands to help the misssion.
As long as the dawn breaks, Robert Jordan and Anselmo descend on the bridge, shoot the Fascist sentries, and plant the explosives. Then Pilar comes to tell that Eladio has been killed and Fernando was fatally wounded, and they must be left behind. Then Robert Jordan detonates the explosives, which makes the bridge falls. But the shrapnels from the blast strikes Anselmo and kills him. Pablo emerges from below, with the news that all his five men are dead.
When the group crosses the road when they are retreating, a Fascist bullet hits Robert Jordan’s horse, which tramples on Robert’s left leg and break it. Relizaing that he must be left behind, Robert says goodbye to Maria and he will always be with her even if she goes.
Robert has thought about suiciding, instead, he decides to stay alive to hold off the Fascists. He is grateful for having lived, in his final few days just like a full lifetime. For the first time, he feels “integrated,” and he is in harmony with the world. As the Fascist lieutenant approaches, Robert Jordan takes aim, feeling his heart beating against the floor of the forest.
3. Main characters
Robert Jordan The protagonist of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Initially, he believed in the Republican cause with a near-religious faith. As the conflict drags on, he realizes that he does not really believe in the Republican cause but joined their side simply because they fought against Fascism. Because he fights for a side whose causes he does not necessarily support, Robert Jordan experiences a great deal of internal conflict and begins to wonder whether there is really any difference between the Fascist and Republican sides.
Robert Jordan’s interior monologues and actions indicate these internal conflicts that plague him. Although he is disillusioned with the Republican cause, he continues to fight for that cause. In public he announces that he is anti-Fascist rather than a Communist, but in private he thinks that he has no politics at all. He knows that his job requires that he kill people but also knows that he should not believe in killing in the abstract. Despite his newfound love for Maria, he feels that there cannot be a place for her in his life while he also has his military work. He claims not to be superstitious but cannot stop thinking about the world as giving him signs of things to come. These conflicts weigh heavily on Robert Jordan throughout the bulk of the novel.Robert Jordan resolves these tensions at the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls, in his final moments as he faces death. He accepts himself as a man of action rather than thought, as a man who believes in practicality rather than abstract theories. He understands that the war requires him to do some things that he does not believe in. He also realizes that, though he cannot forget the unsavory deeds he has done in the past, he must avoid dwelling on them for the sake of getting things done in the present. Ultimately, Robert Jordan is able to make room in his mind for both his love for Maria and his military mission. By the end of the novel, just before he dies, his internal conflicts and tensions are resolved and he feels “integrated” into the world.
Pablo The leader of the guerrilla camp. Pablo is an individualist who feels responsible only to himself. Hemingway often compares him to a bull, a boar, and other burly, stubborn, and unpleasant animals. Pablo used to be a great fighter and a great man but has now started drinking and has “gone bad,” as many characters remark. Tired of the war and attached to his horses, Pablo is ready to betray the Republican cause at the start of the novel.
Pilar Pablo’s part-gypsy “woman.” Pilar means “pillar” in Spanish, and indeed, the fiercely patriotic, stocky, and steadfast Pilar is—if not the absolute leader—the support center of the guerrilla group. Pilar keeps the hearth, fights in battle, mothers Robert Jordan, and bullies Pablo and Rafael. She has an intuitive, mystical connection to deeper truths about the working of the world.
Maria A young woman with Pablo’s band who falls in love with Robert Jordan. The victim of rape at the hands of Fascists who took over her town, Maria is frequently described by means of earth imagery. Hemingway compares her movements to a colt’s, and Robert Jordan affectionately calls her “Rabbit.”
Anselmo An old, trustworthy guerrilla fighter. For Robert Jordan, Anselmo represents all that is good about Spaniards. He lives close to the land, is loyal, follows directions, and stays where he is told. He likes to hunt but has not developed a taste for the kill and hates killing people. Anselmo has stopped praying ever since the Communists banned organized religion but admits that he misses it.
Agustin A trustworthy and high-spirited guerrilla fighter. Agustin, who mans the machine gun, curses frequently and is secretly in love with Maria.
Fernando A guerrilla fighter in his mid-thirties. Short and with a lazy eye, Fernando is dignified and literal-minded, embraces bureaucracy, and is easily offended by vulgarities. These factors, combined with his lack of a sense of humor, make Fernando the frequent target of Pilar’s jokes.
Primitivo An elderly guerrilla fighter. Despite his gray hair and broken nose, Primitivo has not learned the cynicism needed for survival in the war. His name, which means “primitive,” evokes his idealism as well as the basic, earthy lifestyle of all the guerrilleros.
Rafael A gypsy member of the guerrilla band. Frequently described as well-meaning but “worthless,” Rafael proves his worthlessness by leaving his lookout post at a crucial moment. He is a foil for the trustworthy Anselmo, who does not leave his post on the previous night despite the cold and the snow. Rafael has few loyalties and does not believe in political causes.
Andres One of the guerrilla fighters, in his late twenties. Andres comes into conflict with the Republican leaders’ bureaucracy in his attempt to deliver Robert Jordan’s dispatch to the Republican command.
Eladio Andres’s older brother and another of the guerrilla fighters. The jumpy Eladio plays a relatively minor role in the novel. His most noticeable feature is that Robert Jordan repeatedly forgets his name. His death at the end of the novel attracts little notice.
El Sordo (Santiago) The leader of a guerrilla band that operates near Pablo’s. Like Robert Jordan, he is excited by a successful kill and is sad to die.
General Golz The Russian general, allied with the Republicans, who assigns Robert the bridge-blowing mission. Robert says that Golz is the best general he has served under, but the Republican military bureaucracy impedes all of Golz’s operations. Golz believes that thinking is useless because it breaks down resolve and impedes action.
Robert Jordan’s father A weak, religious man who could not stand up to his aggressive wife and eventually committed suicide. His father’s weakness is a constant source of embarrassment to Robert Jordan.
Robert Jordan’s grandfather A veteran of the American Civil War and a member of the Republican National Committee. Robert Jordan feels more closely related to his grandfather than to his father.
4. comment
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Motherland is the less.
As well as if a promontory was.
As well as if a manner of thins own
Or of thins friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
------------John Donne
The phrase “for whom the bell tolls” comes from a short essay by the seventeenth-century British poet and religious writer John Donne. Hemingway excerpts a portion of the essay in the epigraph to his novel. In Donne’s essay, “For whom does the bell toll?” is the imaginary question of a man who hears a funeral bell and asks about the person who has died. Donne’s answer to this question is that, because none of us stands alone in the world, each human death affects all of us. Every funeral bell, therefore, “tolls for thee.”
Death and survival, are both very important issues in our life. And death is the eternal topic that we human beings can never avoid to talking about. Human are grumbling the momentary of life, the passage of time, and we are also actively thinking about what kind of attitude should be taken to face the death. In Hemingway's work the death is reflected most vividly.
Many characters die during the course of the novel, and we see characters repeatedly question what can possibly justify killing another human being. Anselmo and Pablo represent two extremes with regard to this question. Anselmo hates killing people in all circumstances, although he will do so if he must. Pablo, on the other hand, accepts killing as a part of his life and ultimately demonstrates that he is willing to kill his own men just to take their horses. Robert Jordan’s position about killing falls somewhere between Anselmo’s and Pablo’s positions. Although Robert Jordan doesn’t like to think about killing, he has killed many people in the line of duty. His personal struggle with this question ends on a note of compromise. Although war can’t fully absolve him of guilt, and he has “no right to forget any of it,” Robert Jordan knows both that he must kill people as part of his duties in the war, and that dwelling on his guilt during wartime is not productive.
The question of when it is justifiable to kill a person becomes complicated when we read that several characters, including Andrés, Agustín, Rafael, and even Robert Jordan, admit to experiencing a rush of excitement while killing. Hemingway does not take a clear moral stance regarding when it is acceptable to take another person’s life. At times he even implies that killing can be exhilarating, which makes the morality of the war in For Whom the Bell Tolls even murkier.
The main topic of the novel is death. When Robert Jordan is given the mission to blow up the bridge, he knows that he will not survive it. Pablo, upon hearing of the mission, also knows immediately that it will lead to their deaths. Sordo sees that inevitability also. Almost all of the main characters in the book contemplate their own deaths, and it is their reaction to the prospect of death, and what meaning they attach to death, especially in relation to the cause of the Republic, that defines them.
A related theme is intense comradeship in the prospect of death, the giving up of the own self for the sake of the cause, for the sake of the People. Robert Jordan, Anselmo and the others are ready to do it "as all good men should", the often repeated gesture of embracing or patting on one another's shoulder reinforces the impression of close companionship. One of the best examples is Joaquín. After having been told about the execution of his family, the others are embracing him and comfort him by saying they were his family now. Surrounding this love for the comrades, there is the love for the Spanish soil, and surrounding this a love of place and the senses, of life itself, represented by the pine needle forest floor both at the beginning and the end of the novel. Most poignantly, at the book's end, Robert Jordan awaits his death feeling "his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest."
5. Conclusion:
From birth to death, death means the real foundation there is nothing. So ultimately the significance of the existence is kind of a tragedy which became very apparent. Ernest Hemingway clearly demonstrated this kind of tragic, and tragic hero is the main object of his creation.
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