For Whom the Bell Tolls

“‘I would rather not know,’ Robert Jordan said. ‘Good,’ said Golz. ‘It is less of baggage to carry with you on the other side, yes?’ ‘I would always rather not know. Then, no matter what can happen, it was not me that talked.’”

The narrative reveals The Brutality of War obliquely in the earliest chapters. The reason Republicans and guerrilla fighters have to worry about being captured is because they know fascists torture their captives to gain information about their enemies.

“[Y]ou do know that he is going bad fast and without hiding it. When he starts to hide it he will have made a decision. Remember that, he told himself. The first friendly thing he does, he will have made a decision.”

Hemingway foreshadows that Pablo will betray Robert and the other guerrilleros. Hemingway will call back to this moment when Pablo does so, having Robert kick himself for not recognize the moment of friendliness that he warns himself here to look out for.

“If there were God, never would He have permitted what I have seen with my eyes. Let them have God.”

Anselmo’s faith becomes a source of conflict for him in the novel. He claims not to believe, but he holds on to the belief that he and others will have to earn absolution somehow for their actions in the war. He holds on to the latter belief, but he has seen too much brutality to believe still that God exists.

“‘I would make them work each day as we have worked in the fields and as we work in the mountains with the timber, all of the rest of their lives. So they would see what man is born to. That they should sleep where we sleep. That they should eat as we eat. But above all that they should work. Thus they would learn […] To kill them teaches nothing,’ Anselmo said. ‘You cannot exterminate them because from their seed comes more with greater hatred. Prison is nothing. Prison only makes hatred. That all our enemies should learn.’”

Anselmo plays the voice of reason in the novel, arguing for empathy over hatred and further killing. His suggestions here reveal how thoughtful he is and how forgiving; he would rather reform oppressors and killers instead of killing in return and creating a cycle of hatred.

“[H]e resented Golz’s orders, and the necessity for them. He resented them for what they could do to him and for what they could do to this old man. They were bad orders all right for those who would have to carry them out.”

Robert insists for much of the novel that he is loyal to the Republic and willing to give his life for the cause. Moments like this, however, reveal his doubts about some of the methods used and the terrible results, adding greater dimension to his character.

“Here no one commands but me.” 

This is Pilar’s moment of taking power for herself. She and the others have recognized Pablo’s weakness, and she steps in proudly, earning the respect of all the men, even as a woman in a time where misogyny prevailed.

“But things were done to me […] Now you will not love me.”

Maria reveals her trauma and insecurities to Robert in this moment. One brutality often committed in war is that of rape. Like many sexual assault survivors, she feels as if what was done to her has made her unworthy of love.

“She said that nothing is done to oneself that one does not accept and that if I loved some one it would take it all away. I wished to die, you see.” 

The instant connection to Robert feels like a balm to the soul for Maria—and an opportunity. Pilar’s assertion, which Maria shares with Robert here, reminds Maria of her own power and agency. Pilar’s words urge Maria to take charge of her life and recovery.

“I, myself, felt hollow and not well and I was full of shame and a sense of wrongdoing and I had a great feeling of oppression and of bad to come, as this morning after the planes. And certainly, bad came within three days.”

Pilar is so deeply disgusted by the way her people gleefully kill fascists that she feels as if there will be some kind of punishment. This is one of the moments when Pilar asserts that she has the power of foresight, which is what “showed” her that something bad would happen to Robert.

“‘I am thy sister,’ Maria said, ‘And I love thee and thou hast a family. We are all thy family.’”

Maria’s words to El Sordo’s young soldier, and Pilar’s echo of them, illustrate just how deeply connections can be forged in wartime. Comrades and companions become family when they must fight side by side and endure danger and oppression.

“That was one thing that sleeping with Maria had done. He had gotten to be as bigoted and hidebound about his politics as a hard-shelled Baptist and phrases like enemies of the people came into his mind without his much criticizing them in any way […] His mind employed them without criticism. Of course they were true but it was too easy to be nimble about using them […] Bigotry is an odd thing. To be bigoted you have to be absolutely sure that you are right and nothing makes that surety and righteousness like continence. Continence is the foe of heresy.”

Robert shows self-awareness when he observes his own bigotry. He knows it is wrong, but he does continue having bigoted thoughts, revealing how overcoming prejudice is a process rather than an immediate change.

“But neither bull force nor bull courage lasted, she knew now, and what did last? I last, she thought. Yes, I have lasted. But for what?”

Pilar’s overarching personal theme is that of outliving or out-braving the men she loves. In this moment, she has just told the group about her last days with the brave matador she loved, and she ends with this reminiscence of her ability to continue living and questioning of meaning. Even Robert, whom she does not love but whom she follows loyally, dies before her.

“This was the sort of distinction that Robert Jordan should have made and, if he had been there instead of the old man, he would have appreciated the significance of these cars which had gone up. But he was not there and the old man simply made a mark for a motorcar going up the road, on the sheet of note paper.”

Hemingway again foreshadows future disaster. The car that has just passed Anselmo is one disguised as another type of vehicle, but Anselmo does not recognize it. If he had, then perhaps Robert would have had evidence of fascist preparation early enough to get news to Golz before the attack.

“It is only orders that come between us. Those men are not fascists. I call them so, but they are not. They are poor men as we are. They should never be fighting against us and I do not like to think of the killing.”

Yet again, Anselmo brings humanity to the narrative. He recognizes that fascists are not animals but human beings and that there are men like him in the Nationalist army who are simply following their own orders.

“[Y]ou fought that summer and that fall for all the poor in the world, against all tyranny, for all the things that you believed and for the new world you had been educated into.”

Robert reminisces about his early idealism here. He still believes in these ideals, but he looks back on them from a place of disillusionment, having seen that the war is not conducted in the ways it “should” be.

“You corrupt very easily, he though. But was it corruption or was it merely that you lost the naïveté that you started with? Would it not be the same in anything? Who else kept that first chastity of mind about their work that young doctors, young priests, and young soldiers usually started with?”

Robert’s experiences in Spain have taught him more about how the world works—in ways that many would wish not to discover. He realizes here that he is no difference between people like doctors or soldiers, who take up their causes with gusto until they see the harsh realities of their practices.

“One does not do that and love all at the same moment.”

Robert’s shooting of the fascist cavalryman reminds him of his original reasons for not wanting a relationship during the war. He is too far into his relationship with Maria to abandon it, but he asserts in the moment that he will not engage with words of love when he has just been forced to kill a man to keep them all safe.

“Robert Jordan read it through and then put all the letters together with the papers into his hip pocket. He did not want to read the other letters.”

Robert is reminded of the brutality of war while reading the letters belonging to the cavalryman he killed. Like Robert and those around him, the man had loved ones at home who must now experience the despair of loss. Robert cannot face more of the letters and the emotions they evoke.

“What you have with Maria, whether it lasts just through today and a part of tomorrow, or whether it lasts for a long life is the most important thing that can happen to a human being. […] you are lucky even if you die tomorrow.”

Robert learns both to live in the moment and to appreciate what goodness he does have in his life through his relationship with Maria. Life is precious at any time, but especially during war, Robert learns how important it is to allow himself to live even as they encounter the dangers of the conflict.

“‘I have admired thy judgment much today, inglés,’ Pablo told the wine bowl. ‘I think thou hast much picardia. That thou art smarter than I am. I have confidence in thee.’”

This is another moment of foreshadowing. It recalls the moment earlier in the novel when Robert told himself that any kindness from Pablo would indicate that he had decided to betray them. Remembering that earlier thought, this moment serves as further foreshadowing of Pablo’s betrayal and the crumbling of Robert’s plan.

“And how can the world be made better if there are no children of us who fight against the fascists?”

Maria provides a unique perspective among the characters. Robert, and likely many others in the war, believes that he should not bring children into such a horrible world, but Maria points out that if they want the world to become better, there must be further generations to fight against injustice.

“You, you, he raged at himself. Yes, you. You told yourself the first time you saw him that when he would be friendly would be when the treachery would come. You damned fool.”

Robert now recalls his own prescience about Pablo’s betrayal. Angry with himself for not recognizing the moment when Pablo decides to betray them, he berates himself.

“Don’t get into a rage. That’s just a way out too. There are always ways out. You’ve got to bite on the nail now.”

Robert is self-aware enough to recognize that anger, like cowardice or suicide, is just a way to escape one’s feelings and current reality. Moments like this reveal that Robert values acceptance of reality above all.