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
Pilar wakes Robert Jordan at two o’clock in the morning to tell him that Pablo has left and taken something of his. Jordan gets up and returns to the cave, where he sees that his sacks have been slit open; Pablo has taken some of the explosives. Pilar says that Pablo got up in the night, apparently to go urinate, but he did not return. Ashamed, she says that they have both been betrayed by Pablo. Jordan says that there are other ways “to do the exploding,” and he tells her to go get some sleep. She says that she has failed him and the Republic.
Robert Jordan learns that Pablo has betrayed the group by leaving the camp and stealing some of Jordan’s explosives needed for the offensive on the bridge. Though Pablo previously seemed positive about the plan for the bridge, he has changed his mind suddenly—perhaps because he is afraid that the group will meet the same fate as El Sordo and his men.
Themes
