Book Club: For Whom the Bell Tolls Discussion (spoilers)

theCzar

I finished For Whom the Bell Tolls a month ago, but I finished my exams on Saturday, so it's only now I can jot down a few thoughts. I'm not going to bother putting spoiler tags around stuff, as I presume if you're here, you've finished the book.

Nor am I going to write an essay, just hit (or miss) a few points, so feel free to add different points.

I thought the book started slowly, only a few characters that initially didn't seem to have much about them, Pablo the coward, Rafael the Gypsy freebooter, Pilar introduced just as Mujer of Pablo, Anselmo the reliable. We didn't know much of Jordan's motivation, an American fighting for a Spanish republic, alongside communist Russians.

This book however isn't about the blowing of a bridge, its a book about the different characters and how the mission affects them. As the Story develops, Pilar and Pablo emerge as fascinating characters, Pablo the cold blooded revolutionary in particular. Pablo is my favorite character, and his transformation as the book reaches its climax is brilliant, when he returns to the group having sabotaged Jordan's explosives, you expect him to be killed, but instead he reassumes command. Then when he murders the other revolutionaries so there will be enough horses for his band, we see first hand his cold blooded pragmatism.

All in all, I thought the ending was one of the best I’ve ever read, the death of Anselmo and Jordan was such a waste when we know the attack is doomed to fail because of idle gossip in Madrid. Very sad.

There's obviously a lot more I could talk about it, but instead I'll open the floor to what I hope is some lively debate.

ionapaul

Just stumbled upon this forum again, after not visited for months and months. I read For Whom The Bell Tolls for the first time last year, after completing a very comprehensive narrative history of the Spanish Civil War by Anthony Beevor (Stalingrad / Berlin fame). I think a good grounding in the history surrounding such a novel is fairly important when analysing it - though I would say that having studied so much history over the years! I think the author's characterisation of Jordan, Pilar and Pablo has much to do with his real-life experiences of the Republican side during the war, as well as the well-documented history of that side's infighting and shocking waste of resources. The Republican guerillas are, by and large, portrayed as heroic characters fighting 'the good fight' against overwhelming odds and ultimately doomed to failure.

dudara

That's a good point. I often felt while reading the book that some more background information on the war in Spain would have been a bonus.

Ultimately, it's a very tragic book. A band of people, fighting a brave fight, which can never suceed, as we know from history. Anselmo, the loyal and steadfast mountain man. Pablo, the intelligent and ruthless guerilla leader who has fallen into decline. Pilar, his wife, who is a mountain. And Robert Jordan, who fights somehow because of family tradition and because of his love of Spain.

Again, Pablo is the character that sticks in my head the most. He's the one person who does the most definite acts in the book. He leads the cavalry away from the cave, he steals the detonators, he brings back horses and men, who he later shoots to ensure his own band escapes. Earlier in the book, we hear how as a rebel leader he arranged for the public flogging and execution of fascists. Despite being a drunkard for most of the book, he is always acting and doing something.