Hemingway is one of the major novelists who
touched the apex of literary skies in American
literature. He has written many great novels and
his contribution has got international acclaim
and fame. He is contribution to literature earned
him prize. He attracted the attention of
readers and critics because of his themes and
style of telling a story. He is so unique in these
two areas that he heroes and writing style have
come to be known as Hemingway heroes and
Hemingway style. Hemingway’s themes are unique and
different from many other American
writers. It is true that he carried the influence
of many American and English writers
Hemingway's choice of a John Donne poem as the
source of the novel's title and epigraph
emphasizes a major theme of For Whom the Bell
Tolls: "No man is an island,"
that is, no person can exist separate from the
lives of others, even others living in far-away countries.
The theme is demonstrated by the actions of Robert
Jordan. Throughout his participation in the Spanish
Civil War, he has fought actively for a cause of antifascism. As the novel progresses, his involvement with the guerrillas
and his love for Maria, teach him the value of the individual as he or she affects a larger
society.
He doesn’t
believes in the abstract ideology which doesn’t represent people. For
Jordan, Maria represents human love, the first he has ever known. It is for her that
he stays behind to allow the rest of the band to escape,
demonstrating his realization that others depend on him as he has depended on them. His decision not
to commit suicide at the end of the novel represents his ultimate understanding that he must
fight for the people whose lives are affected by the cause. Apart from the relationship
of individual and society, death is another
theme:
"his
heart beating against
the pine needle floor of the forest."
The main topic of the novel is death and violence
as effected by war. When Robert Jordan
is
given the mission to blow up the bridge, he knows
that he will not survive it. Pablo also knows that it will lead to their deaths. El Sordo faces 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. Violence
haunts the novel, death of Maria’s parents, Joaquin’s tragedy and above all,
Robert Jordan awaits his death feeling his heat beating on the floor of Spanish land at the end.
The war has affected the lives of people physically as in
Maria who loses her physical innocence
when she is raped by Fascist soldiers and also psychologically as the changed
behaviours of characters like Anselmo
who has to suppress his aversion to killing human beings,
and Lieutenant Berrendo to quell his
aversion to cutting
heads off of corpses. War even costs
the innocence of people who aren’t involved in it directly as War journalists, writers,
and we as readers who abandon innocent expectation. In war, Hemingway shows that morality is
subjective and conditional, and that the sides of right and wrong are almost never clear-cut.
All these conditions are resulted by fascism which Jordon calls ‘a lie told by rods’. Later, he talks of the threat of fascism in
his country:
“…many who do not know
they are
fascists but will find it out
when the time comes”
Thus, salvation lies in romantic love
which is another main them of the novel. Even though many of the characters in For Whom the
Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel
still holds out hope for romantic love. Even the worldlywise Pilar, in her memories of Finito,
reveals traces of a romantic outlook on the world.
Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love
at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic. Love endows Robert Jordan’s life with new
meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels
for the Republican cause. He believes in love despite the fact that other people like Karkov
entertain “purely materialistic”
outlook. Romantic love is one of the most important ways in
which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theories in favor of intuition and action over the course
of the novel. Loving her transports him from his intellectual world of ideology to the
world of real-life relationships. Maria represents the love that humanizes Jordan, making
possible his transition from a political partisan to one who recognizes the worth of the
individual. For Maria, Jordan's love is the healing touch she needs to cure the psychic wounds and a
moving spirit for Jordon as he declares:
“I have not
found one [woman] that moved me as
they say they should move you.”
The most important theme which is the
integral part of Hemingway’s novel is heroism,
especially code-heroism. 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. During thenovel, Robert Jordan becomes the true Hemingway Code Hero, displaying a
penchant for action and grace under pressure. Even
though he realizes the dangerous nature of his mission and questions the orders of General Golz to carry it out in
daylight after the offensive has commenced, he never doubts his own
ability to accomplish the task. Even after Pablo steals
and destroys some of his key
equipment, he does not run from the danger. Jordan more clearly displays grace under pressure
after he has been injured by fascist gunfire. Paralyzed and unable to easily escape with the
others, he insists upon being left behind with a gun.
When Maria begs to stay with him, he
convinces her to leave by telling her his mission will have been worthwhile if her life is
saved. Thus unable to travel to safety, he faces death with bravery, firing his gun at the enemy
to give the others time to get away. He exemplifies the Hemingway code because the code heroes
also fight to the last bit as he stated:
"there is
something you can do yet"
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, also human beings. “No man is an island”.
Thus the novel takes a pure ironical stand in the
situation of Spanish War.(The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) broke out when the Spanish army in Morocco when a few of the most influent generals of the Spanish Army, led by General Francisco Franco, rose up against the democratically elected Republican government, presided over by Manuel Azaña.)
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