For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

I saved the one I remember liking the best for last. In 11th grade, my 12th grade English teacher approached all of us her who were going to be her students, and told us we had to pick some book to read over the summer, because we'd have to write an essay over it first thing when school started in the fall. I had enjoyed the Old Man and the Sea, so I picked For Whom the Bell Tolls.

It reads differently now, since in high school, I didn't know how the Spanish Civil War ended.  Robert Jordan, Pilar, Anselmo and the rest, fighting for the Republic. Robert in particular hoping this offensive - of which he and the guerrilla bands are a small part - can be the place where they start winning. Except they didn't win. Franco won. So some of them died for nothing, but maybe it at least convinced them to leave those hills, head elsewhere. I'm not sure anywhere else in Spain would be especially safe, but it's mentioned more than once in the story that Pablo's group couldn't stay much longer, that cavalry was going to be scouring those hills more thoroughly soon.

The other historical bit that stuck out to me was Jordan thinking of how he worked with the Communists because they were the only organized bunch on the Republic's side, much better than those Anarchists. It's a little funny, because the Communists were basically taking orders from Moscow, and Moscow didn't give a tinker's damn about Spain in and of itself. It was a way to test their weapons a bit, without actually endangering their own country. Hemingway wouldn't be the only person who didn't recognize that at the time, but it was something I thought of while reading those sections.

What stands out the most now, that I'm betting didn't when I first read it, is the sense of necessity. No one is excited about blowing the bridge, certainly not once they learn they have to wait until after the attack starts, after daylight. The closer they get, the greater the tension, the sense of walls closing in. The fate of Sordo's group, buried under an aerial bombardment, served to highlight what they were up against, how bad it was they can't rely on darkness. But they accept this is what they're doing, and they try their best to do it. Anselmo does not want to kill men, can't understand how Robert equates it to killing animals, but he does it when it's needed, hoping he can make up for it later. Jordan grows to hate the orders more the longer he's around the partisans, but he still has to use their help, and hope that he can come up with a plan that will let them succeed, and survive. Pablo doesn't want any part of any of it, but I guess he can't bear to be alone either, and that means he has to help, because he's their best chance of escaping. Nobody wants to be there, everyone is afraid of dying, and each comes to grips with that their own way.

The past is a big part of that, too. Robert stuck between his grandfather, the great soldier, and his father, who committed suicide, something I don't think Robert understood until the very end. Pilar thinking back on her matador love, and how he would have to constantly conquer his fear of the bulls. Anselmo and his fear that his will would falter when the moment came. Andres relief that he'd miss the battle, because he's tired of having to match everyone else's expectations of his bravery. That was the one I found most interesting (outside of Jordan's father having killed himself, because that's straight out of Hemingway's life), because of how he had been driven to put on a show every year during the bull-baiting. He had to bite the bull's ear every year, because it was expected of him, but it only really works that first time, when he's too young and exhilarated to realize how risky it was. Later, he realizes those things, and it seems foolish, but he has to keep trying it, because people will think less of him, and he can't bring himself to simply say, "No." Better for outside forces to save him from it. I don't know if that's Hemingway reflecting on masculine ideas of bravery in general, or Spanish ideas of it in particular.

I'm glad I reread it. I imagine I didn't appreciate the other characters' backstories as much the first time. Probably regarded them as needless filler getting between me and the climactic battle.

'No one could tell from the bodies of these wounded men he would leave in beds at the Palace, that they were Russians. Nothing proved a naked dead man was a Russian. Your nationality and your politics did not show when you were dead.'