Hemingway’s Concept of Hero and Code Hero

Hemingway’s Concept of Hero and Code Hero

Robert Jordan, a tall, a thin young man, with sun streaked fair hair, and wind and sun burned
face, is one of the most complicated heroes, in Hemingway’s fictions. He is a typical
Hemingway hero who fights till end and wins a moral victory for him.
Two categories of heroes are found in the novels of Ernest Hemingway. One of which is a
round character who finds himself unfit for the circumstances in which he is surrounded, but
with the passage, of time he evolves certain values, which make his survival possible.
According to the critics, this kind of character is “Hemingway Hero”, or “the Tito”. In the
other category of hero is a developed character that does not need for further improvement.
He is a confident man who knows his area of action and his skills. He serves to teach, the
Tito, and thus is called “the Tutor” or “the code hero”.
Jack Barnes, Nick Adam, Fredric Henry etc., are all Hemingway’s typical heroes. They have
been presented in the background of First World War. They portray the attributes of “Lost
Generation”. They have got disillusioned with war and, therefore, remained under great
stress. War has shattered their all the ideas of religion, humanity, love and peace.
Hemingway at first shows through them the death of love, lost ness and forlornness’ and
finally the moral code of life that “a man can be destroyed but not defeated”. Hemingway
hero is a sensitive and intellectual being, but he suppresses his thoughts, he suffers from
“Nada” the extreme feelings of nothingness. Inconsequence, he leads a life of sensuousness
and seeks pleasure in sexuality, drinking and roaming about.

Hemingway takes life as a battle, in which man has to fight till his end. Therefore, his hero is
always revealed in a war or war –like conditions, fighting against natural or human forces.
This war can either be physical or spiritual or both. Within the course of his war, he learns
the code of his life that: “A man is not made for defeat”. And that: “A man can live only
through the manly encounter against death”.
This code helps him to achieve a moral victory. Hemingway believes that “a winner gets
nothing in this world”, therefore, we see.

“Despite Hemingway’s preoccupation with physical

contests his heroes are almost always defeated physically their victories tries are moral one”.

Robert Jordan is considered to be the most complex of all heroes, presented by Hemingway.

He has seen excessive violence and bloodshed and is thoroughly aware of the cruelties of
war, yet he is ready to fight for the cause of “humanity”. He is an idealist as well as a realist.
He knows “neither all fascists are black nor all republicans are white”, but he fights for the

betterment of Spanish people, as his meditations reveal: 

“You believe in liberty equality and

Fraternity. You believe in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”.

 Thus, as it is common with

Hemingway’s heroes, Jordan is also shown under great stress and tension –at the same time
though he criticizes his actions yet he is also ready to blow the bridge.
He is very sensitive and intellectual being but he feels that thoughts are not appropriate for
the world in which he is living, he takes refuges in drinking and sexually. Though he does not
want to keep his mind busy in thinking about the rightness of his action, as he feels “to worry
is as bad as to be afraid”. Yet he keeps himself busy in the unrealistic thoughts of a happy

future with his beloved Maria. 

“When there was no understanding only the delight of

acceptance”.

Though he likes “good things” of life yet he is so committed and honest to himself and his
duty, that he does no let these things, come in his way. Even he attributes his love for Maria
to his love for Spain as he says:

“I love thee as I love that we have fought for”.

He is so honest to the job that is assigned to him that he can understand that to blow the
bridge is futile, yet he blows it, for it is the very order given to him.
Being a main character of Hemingway, he also fights his personal psychological battle in
Spain. Jordan is extremely ashamed of his father, who attempted suicide instead of fighting.
He wants to wash out his guilt. Though the life is dear to him, yet dearer than life is the need
for the justification of his courage, which his father lacked. Thus, the war has a

“double

importance” for him. He says: “My mind is in suspension until we win the war”.

He idealizes his grandfather, who was a courageous warrior and had died in a battle. Fighting
against the enemy, Jordan seeks his code within the thoughts of his grandfather and is
determined to fight till his death. When he falls from the horse and it breaks his leg, Jordan
remains there to cover the escape of his companions. At this time it is the memory of his
grandfather, which keeps him firm on his decision. Though he is disappointed yet not
desperate. He has learnt the lesson like Santiago that:

“A man can be destroyed but not

defeated”.

Near the end, he bears the pain courageously, and proves that “pain does not matter to a
man”. He appears to be satisfied on achieving the moral victory over his enemy. This is the
lesson Hemingway wants to give through his writings that fighting matters more than winning
and one who fights till the end, is the winner in true sense.
Thus we can conclude that Robert Jordan is a typical Hemingway hero, with all the heroic
qualities in him. He also retains some of the autobiographical touches in his characters; this
quality of his personality also enriches his personality in the eye of the readers.