For Whom the Bell Tolls

                         Thinking Activity

         For Whom the Bell Tolls

                                                           By 

                                           Ernest Hemingway

           

        Hello Readers ! The blog is  written as a part of  Thinking Activity based on the novel For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. This Task is assigned by Yesha Ma’am , Dept. of English , MK Bhavnagar University.  In this particular blog , I am going to discuss what is the attitude of Robert Jordan Towards the war. 

                        

About the Author : 

                                   

            

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

 

            Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist ,  short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style, which included his iceberg theory. The Iceberg Theory had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 and died in 1961,  in Oak Park, Illinois. He started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen.

          Ernest's first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer’s disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman’s journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat.

For Whom The Bell Tolls :

       For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan. He was a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia.

       Robert Jordan was assigned to compete for a mission to blow up a bridge. He was an American who taught Spanish at a University in the middle of the country. He was also part of the International Brigades, a group of communist volunteers who helped Spain gain its independence. The Spanish Civil War was a battle between democracy and fascism. Ultimately, fascism won and General Francisco Franco ruled Spain for the next thirty-six years.

       Robert Jordan is attached to a guerrilla squad and is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia, Spain. The squad is composed of a variety of personalities, including Maria , who has had her life shattered by the Fascist troops. The two fall in love and Robert begins to doubt the wisdom of the battle to come. 

         Robert and his group manage to blow up the bridge even though they have lost the detonator and some of the dynamite, so they have to be closer to the explosion than is safe. Many of the men are killed, but Robert and Maria, with a few more people escape.

         Robert's horse is shot by a sniper and falls on him, breaking his leg. He tells them to go on without him and asks Augustin to take care of Maria. Then, the story ends with him waiting to ambush the coming fascist troops and buy more time for his squad departure.

          “For Whom the Bell Tolls" opens with an epigraph by John Donne. The quotation is a poem titled, "No Man is an Island". Donne says that when we hear a funeral bell ring, not to just ask who is dead, but to realize it rings for us all.

•   What is the attitude of Robert Jordan towards the War?

          Robert Jordan is a  protagonist in this novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Jordan is a young American who has volunteered to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. In this novel, Jordan's attitude towards the war is complex, reflecting Hemingway's own ambivalence towards armed conflict.

          Robert Jordan sees the war as a struggle for freedom and democracy against fascism and oppression  and is willing to risk his own life to fight for what he believes in. 

       Jordan is also deeply moved by the suffering of the Spanish people, and is particularly affected by the plight of the guerilla fighters he encounters in the mountains. Robert Jordan is deeply committed to the Republican cause and believes in the ideals of the revolution.

        At the same time, Jordan is haunted by memories of his experiences in World War I and fears that he will be unable to escape the psychological damage inflicted by the violence he witnesses in Spain. He also struggles with the knowledge that his actions may lead to the deaths of others, including innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.

    Jordan's attitude towards the war is one of resignation and acceptance. He knows that the struggle he has been fighting for is unlikely to succeed, but Jordan continues to fight nonetheless. He Was driven by a sense of duty and a desire to protect the people he has come to care for.

Thank You… .