Thinking Activity
End of the novel 'For Whom the Bell Talls'
This blog is written as a thinking activity assigned by Yesha ma'am, department of English, MKBU on the novel 'For Whom the Bell Tolls ' by Ernest Hemingway. In this blog I am going to deal with the ending of the novel.
Before looking at the main answer let's have a brief understanding at the introduction of the writer and the novel.
Ernest Hemingway:-
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. He was born on July 21, 1899 and died on July 2, 1961. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.
For Whom the Bell Tolls:-
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway. It was published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, 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.
Eng of the novel:-
For Whom the Bell Tolls ends up in a battle between the guerrillas and the fascists, where Robert Jordan and his team of guerrillas succeed to blow up the bridge. In this battle some then died and some were able to escape. Till this time of the story, readers may think that it will end happily. But the sudden burst of fascist army causes the tragedy of our central characters Robert Jordan and Maria.
When we reach the ending part of the novel, when the mission to blow up the bridge is completed, we may think that there will be something good at the end. When Pilar says,
"Maria! Thy Inglés is here."
This sentence of Pilar fills up all the suspensions of Maria about her beloved Robert. Robert survives the initial battle and embraces Maria, realising that he was able to still love her in the midst of the battle. But still there are so many things which can cause anything, anything. After blowing up the bridge, Guerrillas lost their men Anselmo and Eladio.
“And thy people?” Agustín said to Pablo out of his dry mouth.
“All dead,” Pablo said.
The surviving men leave by horseback but are slowed when an enemy manages to shoot Jordan's horse. The horse falls, knocking Jordan to the ground and breaking his leg in the process. Jordan realizes he will have to stay behind and accept his death. Pablo offers to kill him but Jordan refuses. He wants to be able to shoot at a few of the enemy soldiers and give his men a better chance for escape. After he got injured, he still thinks about all not his own sorrows and sufferings. He says to Pablo to take Maria away to be safe.
"No. I think the nerve is crushed. Listen. Get along, I am mucked, see? I will talk to the girl for a moment. When I say to take her, take her. She will want to stay. I will only speak to her for a moment."
The ending part is much different than the whole story. At the beginning till this moment we just get an idea that the novel is about love between Maria and Robert and the story of Spanish Civil War, its cruelty. But at this moment, we come to know that the love of Robert and Maria, which developed in three days, is not just attractive love but rather spiritual love. This concept we can observe when Robert repeatedly says,
“Now I thank thee for it. Now you are going well and fast and far and we both go in
thee. Now put thy hand here. Now put thy head down. Nay, put it down. That is right.
Now I put my hand there. Good. Thou art so good. Now do not think more. Now art thou
doing what thou should. Now thou art obeying. Not me but us both. The me in thee. Now
you go for us both. Truly. We both go in thee now. This I have promised thee. Thou art
very good to go and very kind.”
“Stand up,” he said. “Thou art me too now. Thou art all there will be of me. Stand up.”
“There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart.
"We are now us" this idea is being constantly repeated by Robert which gives us a way that he has got the spiritual side of love where to be with each other is not necessary but to be with each other in their memory and heart is much more important. If we look at the situation that they were facing, it was not safe. Robert's leg is injured so he can't ride a horse or move further. If he can, there might be chances that Fascists may have caught all of them. He also prevents Maria from leaving him and goes to the safe place with Pilar. In Maria, we find that she has the concept of love to be and die with each other. As she constantly says to be with Robert.
Roberto,” Maria turned and shouted. “Let me stay! Let me stay!”
But Robert's definition of love is far beyond her, who believes that they are with each other forever. Now they both are one. Here I would like to compare both the main character's idea of love with two bollywood movie dialogues.
“I am with thee,” Robert Jordan shouted. “I am with thee now. We are both there. Go!”
He forces the love of his life to leave him to die alone in one last confrontation with the fascists. The ending seems to bring us back to Hemingway's stereotypical studly male character, who faces the cruel truth of the situation, leaves his love, and sacrifices himself to buy his friends some time. Not when they all left, Robert thinks that, "Pilar will take care of her as well as any one can."
In the ending part we can look at Robert in a humanitarian way. He now thinks of everyone. Though in his each and every thought was Maria, but he also has compassion with other people. That we can see in the lines,
"The time is too short and you have just sent her away. Each one does what he can. You can do nothing for yourself but perhaps you can do something for another. Well, we had all our luck in four days. Not four days. It was afternoon when I first got there and it will not be noon today. That makes not quite three days and three nights. Keep it accurate, he said. Quite accurate."
"You’ve had as good a life as any one because of these last days."
He also has spiritual ideas to his death as he says "Dying is only bad when it takes a long time and hurts so much that it humiliates you." Now he is ready to die. But before he dies, he till the last atom of his breath wants to fight. With confidence he says, "Let them come. Let them come. Let them come!"
The confusions presented at the end is well developed by Hemingway. When Fascist came to attack and he has to be ready to fight, he says himself such words,
"Think about them being away, '' he said. Think about them going through the timber. Think about them crossing a creek. Think about them riding through the heather. Think about them going up the slope. Think about them O.K. tonight. Think about them travelling, all night. Think about them hiding up tomorrow. Think about them. God damn it, think about them. That’s just as far as I can think about them, he said. Think about Montana. I can’t. Think about Madrid. I can’t. Think about a cool drink of water. All right. That’s what it will be like. Like a cool drink of water. You’re a liar. It will just be nothing. That’s all it will be. Just nothing. Then do it. Do it. Do it now. It’s all right to do it now. Go on and do it now. No, you have to wait. What for? You know all right. Then wait."
At the end when he thinks about Maria and is able to shoot. This shows though their love was developed in just three days, it deepens than the love of long time..
In his last thoughts, Robert Jordan turns to his own male ideal – his grandfather – and tries to gather himself to face death and the paralyzing pain of his wound. Nonetheless, in a tellingly human way, he admits that he doesn't prove so good at either as he'd hoped. At the end, Jordan lays back on the earth and waits. The ending part of the novel is nicely constructed. The book's first sentence is mirrored in the last, once more describing Robert Jordan lying on the "pine needle floor" and waiting. It takes the repeated image of Robert Jordan on the forest floor itself – what's its significance? One possibility to consider is that it calls attention to Robert Jordan as an individual at once alone and in relation to the larger world – of nature, yes, but of everything more generally. Throughout, the novel contrasts the connection to nature felt by Robert Jordan and other characters with nature's lack of concern about their own suffering and death.
Robert Jordan's mission to blow up the bridge succeeded. But on the other hand the attack by the Republicans has almost certainly failed, because the fascists are prepared to meet them. If the bridge operation was only significant to the extent it was part of the larger attack. By this we have a kind of doubt that Anselmo, Eladio, and Robert Jordan have risked their lives and lost them for nothing. Robert Jordan has himself reconciled to his own death and to killing others. The attack as a whole is only a loss for the Republicans. Moreover, Robert Jordan had doubt that the attack itself would probably fail, which is why he'd written a report to the officer leading it.
The story ends with the approach of Lieutenant Berrendo, one of the fascist leaders, and Robert Jordan taking aim to shoot him. Here, we can't find what happened to Robert, but by the forces we can imagine that in front of the Fascist army, it is impossible to survive. So we can imagine that Robert meets to the death as a myriad.
The novel ends with open discussion because Robert Jordan is aiming to shoot enemies. Hemingway's style of ending this novel openly to let the readers think about the upcoming situation. We as a readers may come to the conclusion that Robert dies at the end but after completing the novel.
Let's sum up...
To conclude, we can say that the novel moves at the end in two major or universal ideas,
- Love
- Humanity
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