For Whom The Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway)

 Thinking Activity:

For Whom The Bell Tolls 

This is a blog based on Thinking Activity assigned by Megha Mam and this I am going to give answers of  the given questions.

Question 1 : Robert Jordan as a Typical Hemingway Hero.

Response: Robert Jordan, as the protagonist character in "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway, is like a classic Hemingway hero.He's tough, brave, and always keeps him cool, even when things get really tough. Jordan's job as a dynamiter where he's good at blowing the bridge and he's really brave when it comes to dangerous missions behind the enemy crossing the bridge lines. He believes strongly in doing what's right, and he does not give importance to what happens to himself. Like other characters in Hemingway's stories, Jordan spends a lot of time thinking about life and why things happen. He often feels alone, like he doesn't quite fit in with others, and he sticks to his own rules about how to act. 

Hemingway’ writings because his heroes often fail in their struggle and get nothing in the end. Santiago in The Old man and the Sea, Romero in The Sun also Rises and Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls can be best quoted in this regard.

In addition to Jordan’s love for Spanish people and their language, Hemingway also shows his love for Spain and its sports especially bull-fighting in his another novel The Sun Also Rises. The Russian General Golz has full confidence in him and regards him as a very high dynamite. That’s why, he assigns him the toughest task of blowing up the bridge within a limited time. Jordan accepts it as a challenge by his open hearts. He carries out the task and justifies the faith placed in him. He is of the views that life is dear but dear than life is the need for the justification of his courage.

There is no doubt in saying that he becomes a new man after the arrival of Maria in his love and he starts living only for Maria’s sake but it does not mean that his sense of Dutifulness eclipses at any cost. His love for Maria and his risky mission of blowing up the bridge becomes one because fascists have now become his personal revenge for him as they rape his sweetheart. This very thinking of him leads him further to his fight for Republicans and Republic Spain and Maria becomes one for him.

At the end by concluding this dicussion on  Robert Jordan as a Typical Hemingway Hero. Even when things seem really bad, he faces them without giving up, just going with the flow and accepting whatever comes his way.

Question 2 :  your views on the very brave Character Pilar.

Response : The Leader of the guerilla group. Pilar is a completely self-assured character. She smokes where as She have a “deep voice”  and has a “booming laugh”. She is a “woman who does things that she has no right to do”  and she is able to “scare people with her voice”. Hemingway uses Pilar’s narrations to lead the other characters in the novel to deeper levels of understanding. The critic Robert Gadjusek explains in his essay, “Pilar’s Tale: The Myth and the Message,” that Jordan, “a projection of Hemingway within his own work,” is so “deeply moved by Pilar’s description” that “Pilar had made him see that town . . I wish I could write it . . . you had to know what they had been in the village” (For Whom the Bell Tolls)  Consequently,  Pilar’s storytelling skills, Hemingway is also able to join future and the past events to emphasize the feminine and cyclical nature of life.  Further, Hemingway’s attribution of masculine qualities to Pilar does not diminish her femininity. These attributions show that Pilar’s femininity can transform and enhance basic masculine qualities into more powerfully enduring ideals.

Pilar is also “loyal to” and deeply believes in the cause of the Spanish Republic. These traits allow Pilar to freely live with and then eventually lead the guerrillas in Pablo’s stead. Pilar is “Senora Commander”  who makes it clear to all that “Here I command”. Jordan’s concurrence with Pilar’s decision to usurp the leadership role of the guerillas from Pablo is seen when Jordan states: “I trust the woman absolutely . . . Without the woman there is no organization nor discipline here and with the woman it can be very good”.

Hemingway calls Pilar the “whore of whores” (For Whom the Bell Tolls)  because she is the character that he has specifically creates to manipulate the story, to drive the other characters, and to push the reader to understand the author’s world view. He fully exploits Pilar’s character causing her alternatively to be narrator, fortuneteller, storyteller, woman, leader, lover, and advisor to convey his many disparate ideas within the novel. Hemingway carefully constructs Pilar’s character to lead his readers on a philosophical journey describing the futility of war.

Pilar embodies the “New Woman of Spain,” and the old idea of Spanish womanhood, the gypsy and the analytical tactician, the bold lover and the victim, the eloquent storyteller and the sharp tongued critic. Pilar possess the ability to shift masculine qualities to female control  to lead and to advise the band, to show the cyclical nature of man’s struggle to bravely meet his destiny, and to show that man’s purpose is fulfilled, not wasted, when he gives his life for the betterment of others.

I hope my this blog based on the two brave Characters of Hemingways novel For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Thank you !