For Whom The Bell Tolls Summar Essay

When Jordan and Anselmo returned to the cave, they found Pablo, “bleary-eyed drunk.” While they ate, Pablo again tried to provoke Jordan into a fight. One of the other men punched Pablo in the face, but Pablo only laughed.

In the early light of morning, Jordan spied, and shot, an approaching Fascist cavalryman. Quickly he directed Pablo to lead the dead man’s horse away from the camp while another man quickly hid the body. Next he ordered a large machine gun to be placed and camouflaged above the camp. Jordan figured the horseman must be part of a patrol searching for El Sordo, who had stolen horses the night before.

After a short time, four more cavalrymen passed – unmolested – below. “We could have killed all four,” the gunner protested. “But with the firing who knows what might have come?” Jordan replied. And as he had surmised, twenty more soldiers soon followed in their wake. Later, when they heard the attack on El Sordo’s camp, some of Pablo’s men wanted to go to their aid. But Jordan said it would be useless. And no matter what the cost, the bridge had to come first.

Again, Jordan was right. For hours El Sordo’s men fought valiantly. But when ti-ie Fascist bombers arrived, El Sordo and his band were slaughtered, and the Fascist officer ordered all the dead guerrillas beheaded to serve as a warning to other rebels.

Now, without El Sordo’s men, Jordan knew the attack on the bridge would be almost impossible. Still, they watched the roads, as Fascist tanks, troops and trucks crossed over the bridge.

That night as Jordan slept, Pablo stole and destroyed the exploder, detonator and blasting caps from Jordan’s pack, then disappeared. When Pilar woke Jordan to tell him this news, his stomach felt “hollow.” They would now have to set off the dynamite using grenades – a much more dangerous method.

Before dawn Jordan and the others prepared for the operation. Most would divide and attack two Fascist flank posts, while Jordan and Anselmo killed the guards on the bridge and set the dynamite. Just as all was readied, Pablo appeared with five other men to join them. Jordan had mixed feelings about Pablo’s return, but decided that any reinforcements were better than nothing.

Everything was set; everyone was in position. Now they must wait for the aerial bombardment to signal the beginning of tl-ie offensive. To Jordan it seemed that it would never come, “that nothing could happen on such a lovely late May morning.” Suddenly they heard “clustered, thudding of the bombs,” and Jordan and Anselmo opened fire on the two guards. As Jordan wired the bridge, the few minutes seemed like an eternity. Finally he was able to pull the pins and the bridge was blown high into the air. But in the explosion, Anselmo, a sensitive man who had always hated killing, was killed himself by a steel fragment. Jordan tearfully cursed Pablo; the old man might still be alive had Pablo not stolen the blasting caps.

Jordan raced to the designated meeting place to regroup. Crouched in the pines, he found only Pablo, Pilar, Maria and two other gypsy insurgents. Pablo was leading a dozen horses. Though Pablo claimed at first that the other guerrillas had been killed by Fascists, Jordan forced Pablo to admit that he himself had slaughtered them to get their horses.

The survivors were now hemmed in by Fascist troops and tanks. They needed to cross a road that led to safety, knowing full well that the Fascists would strafe the road with bullets once they were alerted. Jordan chose to cross last. As he made his move, a tank fired a shell, trapping him beneath his wounded horse. The others dragged him out of the line of fire, but Jordan knew his leg was hopelessly crushed. Maria knelt near him and sobbed. Jordan voiced his love for her, and though she begged to stay with him, he assured her that as long as she was alive, he would live too. Finally the others wrestled her away from him so they could leave.

Jordan gripped his submachine gun and waited. He pondered the events that had brought him there to die. He would not, however, die in vain. The fight of the common people was his fight; someday they would win, and hopefully struggle for peace as tenaciously as they strained for freedom. Jordan smiled, took aim at the leading Fascist officer who had come into view, and squeezed the trigger.

Commentary

Hemingway once worked as a reporter covering the Spanish Civil War. For Whom the Bell Tolls was the most famous book to come out of that war, which served as a prelude to the devastation of World War 11 in which the free world united against Fascism. Perhaps overly romanticized, at the same time the novel illustrates humanity’s great capacity for either hope or despair, as shown by the contrast between the devoted Anselmo and the brutish Pablo.

Written as though translated from formal Spanish, the novel evokes a realistic mood. The title was taken from a quote by John Donne: “… Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”