Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love in War
Cultural Connections
Violence, Cowardice, and Death
The Eternality of the Present
Summary
Analysis
All the orders for the night have been given, and Robert Jordan reflects that “it will come” now in the morning. Golz has the power to make the attack, but not to cancel it; Madrid will have to cancel it. Jordan thinks that he should have sent his message to Golz earlier, but he did not know what was going to happen with El Sordo before. Jordan tells himself that he will either have to blow up the bridge in the morning or he will not have to, but it is likely that he will have to blow it up—or if not this bridge, some other bridge.
Jordan reflects on what is to come, realizing that no matter what, the guerillas will be forced to act against the fascists in some way: death and violence are essentially unavoidable.
Themes
Jordan also tells himself that he has done “very well for an instructor in Spanish at the University of Montana,” but that he is not “anything very special.” Jordan’s grandfather fought four years in the American Civil War, and he is just finishing his first year in the Spanish Civil War: he has a “long time to go yet.” As a distraction, Jordan tells himself to remember “something concrete and practical” like the cabinet in Jordan’s father’s office, with arrowheads on a shelf, war bonnets on a wall, and a buffalo bow in the corner of the cabinet. He remembers his grandfather’s saber and his Smith and Wesson .32 caliber gun, which his grandfather told him he could handle, but not “play with.”
Jordan reveals more details about his family, particularly his father and grandfather. It is clear that Jordan feels insecure about his own capacities (he is not “anything very special”) because of his grandfather’s status as a war hero; it is also clear that he first became interested in fighting because of his grandfather’s status and his collection of weapons, which Jordan was drawn to, suggesting the desirable power of violence.
Themes
Jordan’s grandfather told Jordan that he had killed someone with the gun, though he also told him that he did not “care to speak about it.” After Jordan’s father shot himself with this pistol, the coroner returned it to Jordan, saying that his father “set a lot of store by it,” and “it’s still a hell of a good gun.” The next day, Jordan rode up to the top of the high country above Red Lodge with Chub and threw the gun into a lake. Later, Chub told him that he knew why he threw the gun away, and Jordan said that they didn’t have to talk about it. Jordan still has his grandfather’s saber in his trunk in Missoula.
Hemingway provides insight into Jordan’s philosophies of death and killing. Like Jordan, his grandfather clearly felt uncomfortable with the idea of killing others: he, too, was not proud of the violent acts he committed during the American Civil War, and it seems that this ambivalent stance is one that Jordan has carried on. Additionally, Jordan has been directly impacted his father’s suicide. It is fitting, then, that he has expressed a variety of emotions about death, violence, and killing throughout the novel, since he was forced to confront death at an early age, and it seems that he has never really processed this significant event. That Jordan only reveals this part of his past later on in the novel suggests that he has repressed many of his feelings about his father’s suicide, contributing to his conflicted views on the value of killing and the impact of death.
Themes
Jordan wonders what his grandfather would think of this situation, given that he was such a good soldier. He wishes that his grandfather were in the war instead of him, and thinks that maybe they will “all be together by tomorrow night.” He is sure that there is no “hereafter,” but there are things he would like to talk to his grandfather about. At the same time, he realizes that if there is an afterlife, both he and his grandfather would be “acutely embarrassed by the presence of his father.” Anyone has a right to kill themselves, Jordan thinks, “but it isn’t a good thing to do.” He wonders if the bravery in his family skipped a generation, and he thinks that if his father “wasn’t a coward,” “he would have stood up to that woman and not let her bully him.”
Jordan feels ashamed of his father’s “cowardice,” which led him to kill himself; he believes that his father didn’t stand up to “that woman” (perhaps Jordan’s mother or step-mother). At this point in the novel, it becomes clear that Jordan’s hardened stance on courage and duty in war is a direct result of his childhood trauma. He feels deeply embarrassed by his father’s death and worries that his father’s “cowardice” is genetic—that he, too, is innately cowardly. Additionally, Jordan’s strong views on women—that they are not as important as his duties in war—seem to be a result of his father’s passive behavior toward “that woman.”
Themes
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Jordan remembers that Karkov told him that after the war, he could go to the Lenin Institute in Moscow, but Jordan realizes that he doesn’t want to be a soldier: he just wants to win the war. Thinking about his father has “thrown him off,” since although he forgives his father, he is still “ashamed” of him. Jordan decides that he “better not think at all,” and that once he is with Maria, he won’t have to think. Suddenly, he knows “absolutely” that he will have to blow up the bridge, and whatever Andrés does—whether he is able to deliver the message or not—doesn’t matter.
Once again, Jordan forces himself to repress his feelings and, instead of dwelling on the past or the future, return to the present and the duties he must carry out.
Themes
