Examples Of Sacrifice

Sacrifice in the face of death as a result of war abounds throughout the novel. Robert Jordan, Anselmo and others are ready to do as “as all good men should” that is to make the final sacrifice. The most reoccurring embracing gesture reinforces this sense of close companionship in the face of death. An occurrence involving the death of the character Joaquin’s family serves as an example of this theme; having learned of this tragedy, Joaquin’s comrades embrace and comfort him, saying they are now his family. Embracing this love for one’s friends is the love and intimate relationship for the Spanish soil. A love of place, of the senses, and of life itself is represented by the pine needle forest floor both at the start of the novel and emotionally,
at the end of the novel. This is seen when Robert Jordan awaits his death feeling “his heart beating against the pine needle floor of the forest” (Hemingway, 58).

Suicide
Suicide in the event of war looms as a substitute to suffering. Most of the characters including Robert Jordan would prefer death over detention and are prepared to kill themselves, be killed, or kill to avoid it. As the book comes to an end, Robert Jordan, wounded and unable to travel with his colleagues, awaits a final ambush that will end his life. He gets ready against the cruel outcomes of suicide to avoid capture, or inevitable torture for the withdrawal of data and death at the hands of the enemy in war. Nevertheless, he hopes to avoid suicide partly because his father, whom he sees as a coward, committed suicide. Robert Jordan is very much aware of suicide but he doesn’t approve it during war. He thinks that “you have to be awfully occupied with yourself to do a thing like that.” Robert Jordan’s opinions on suicide may be used to analyse Hemingway’s suicide 21 years later. Hemingway’s father also committed suicide as a result of war (Hemingway, 79).
In their camp, Robert Jordan meets Maria, a young Spanish woman whose life had been shattered by the execution of her parents and her rape at the hands of the Falangists at the outbreak of the war. His very strong sense of duty clashes with both guerrilla leader Pablo’s unwillingness to give in to an operation that would put his life and that of his band to danger. He found new lust for life which arises out of his lust for Maria. However, when another band of anti-fascist guerrillas led by El Sordo’s are surrounded and killed, Pablo decides to deceive Jordan by stealing the dynamite caps, looking forward to cut away the demolition. In the end Jordan improvises a way to detonate his dynamite, and Pablo returns to aid in the operation after facing the loneliness of abandoning his comrades. Finally the bridge is successfully destroyed (Hemingway, 70).
The enemy, however having been previously acquainted of the coming offensive, has prepared to ambush it in force and it seems very most unlikely that the blown bridge will do much to prevent surrender.
Jordan is mutilated when his horse is shot out from under him by a tank. Knowing very well that he would show his comrades down, he bids goodbye to Maria and ensures that she escapes to protection with the surviving members of the guerrillas. He turns down an offer from another fighter to be shot and lies in agony, hopeful to kill an enemy officer and a few soldiers and delay their pursuit of his comrades before dying or being killed (Hemingway, 46). The narration comes to end just before Jordan launches his
ambush.
Hemingway clearly believes that courage is something that transcends outcomes. Hemingway may say speaking through Jordan’s interior monologue, “The first thing was to win the war, everything was lost,” by saying this he does not really believe it. The case that he does not is easy to make. In the same paragraph later we find mention of a value that is more important than winning the war, the value of soldiers duty, “He was serving in a way and he gave absolute loyalty and as complete performance as he could give while he was serving.” There is something higher in struggling than success or failure litters the pages of almost everything Hemingway wrote. This notion of duty, of respect for a code of behaviour, is a romantic notion. When applied to war, it turns war into something more than it is- a dirty disgusting, degrading chore that is sometimes necessary for good to push back evil and into something that has value in and of itself, something in which who fight find an opportunity to affirm something that is more sublime than victory (Hemingway, Ernest & Se Hemingway, 59). This romantic view of war glorifies war.7
Equality
The last reflective relation of war in the book is equality. What goes around comes around. Hemingway shows the never ending Hinduism like circle of war, whereby people fight, die, fight, die and after many such pointless revolutions, there is some escape. What one side does to the other is always returned. The balance of things must be maintained, the same holds true for war. The best example of this is with Lieutenant Berrendo, who kills Sordo. Later on, Robert Jordan kills Berrendo, showing the circle of equality. It is here that Hemingway makes most reflective theme known; given that war is equal (one man kills another only to be killed). The war itself is nothing but an embarrassment, something like people taking turns to kill one another (Whiting & Jim, 58). The sheer irony is again used by Hemingway even at the bridge attack scene, when the character guerrillas attack the bridge and kill many of the fascists, only to lose many of their own. Another irony is the causes that both sides are fighting for, communism and fascism, both of which are unequal and unfair ways of life. The use of Gaylord’s by Hemingway when Robert Jordan thinks about it idealises it as a debauch, corrupt place. Ironically this is the unofficial communist headquarters and place of socializing during the war. Communism, in fact holds people to be equal and have equal things, yet Gaylord’s is anything but that, serving with them the best delicacies possible.
Conclusion
The concept of war in the novel “For whom the Bell Tolls” encompasses the plot, characters, storyline, setting and much more. Hemingway talks about the equality of war that one side does to the other side will eventually be returned to the first side (Hemingway, 79). Hemingway also satirizes the whole concept of was by poking fun of “disillusionment” both sides have, and the real truth that both sides are good, peace loving people that have been made to fight one another.
Although Hemingway writes about the Spanish civil war, his narration extends beyond the war and beyond the Spain where the central events take place.
It becomes the universal theme beyond the limits of time and space, a timeless story of war period. This universality imparts a significant place to Hemingway’s works in the alienation society, man’s place in this universe and the drastic effects of war are the themes on which he spent a great deal of time as an author. Consequently, he transfers to the paper entirety of his age precisely with no intention to do any mythmaking with regard to war. By ignoring any inconsequential detail in his war novels, he crafts a story with an undercurrent theme of nothingness with the integral theme of war (Hemingway & Ernest, 24).
Violence and death are some of the results of war as seen in the above illustrations. His era was the period of destruction and emotional and spiritual disillusionment. This disillusionment is clearly described with his infinite capacity to capture the cynicism of war in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (Hemingway, 79). He very enthusiastically states the enthusiasm of his heroes regarding with their participation in the war and how disillusionment do replace their enthusiasm in the gist of all his war
novels.
The cruelties and causalities of Spanish civil war disillusion Robert Jordan’s vision. He becomes unable to withstand the violence and death all around him. His inner conflict makes him identify that his cause is merely mirage. Though he is determined to fulfil his duty and he does so as Hemingway’s heroes do. Dexterously, Hemingway establishes an atmosphere of reconciliation in which heroes reconcile with the existing conditions and don’t neglect their duty. Robert Jordan does the same thing. He recognizes the uselessness and silliness of war, yet he prefers to die and not leave his mission incomplete.