War is a dangerous experience, with soldiers being forced to face their own mortality every day. During war, soldiers must make difficult choices that define who they are and what they believe in, and the Spanish civil war was no exception. In Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, the hero Robert Jordan demonstrates, through his choices, that living, honorably and committed, is more important than death.
Robert Jordan is an American volunteer fighting against Fascism in the Spanish civil war. His mission was to destroy a bridge behind enemy lines and to accomplish this, he enlists the help of a guerilla band. The guerilla band are “by definition "irregulars," improvising their own expedients to structure a life lived outside of normal socially controlled habits and moves” (Rovit and Brenner 120). Thus, Jordan has placed himself in a situation in which all his decisions are regulated entirely by himself, instead of the social restrictions he would experience in another setting.
One of the most memorable members of the band is Maria, a girl whom Jordan fell in love with almost upon sight. They soon start a complicated, hurried relationship. “The situation of war compounds the urgency of the passion of Maria and Robert, … In such a union, … there is no such thing as appropriate, especially under the circumstances” (Josephs 93). Jordan explained to Maria that in normal circumstances, he would never make such a commitment so quickly and deeply, but Jordan knows that in three days he may not be alive, so he must love while he still can. “The first night spent at the guerilla camp destroyed his cold approach to the mission before him, for he fell deeply in love with Maria. …he knew after she left that he was no longer ready to die” (Hornstein 1240).
Maria's love is not the only thing important about her. Her past history makes her a symbol of the cause Jordan fights for. “[Maria's] past experience as an innocent victim of brutal oppression identifies her strongly with the cause to which Jordan has committed himself…” (Rovit and Brenner 125). As Jordan falls in love with Maria, he is also committing himself further to the country which he loved enough to volunteer his life for. “Maria is a symbol of a country that is being raped by Franco. By falling in love with her, Jordan loves the beauty, honesty, and devotion of the land for which he gives his life” (Stoltzfus n.p).
Another memorable character from the guerilla group is the drunkard Pablo, a man who only faintly resembles the powerful leader he once was. “In Pablo, Hemingway gives us a complex and nuanced[sic] character, weakened by age, events, and wine… . His deviousness is as defined as Anselmo's loyalty and Maria's love” (Trilling 94). At the beginning of the civil war, Pablo led an attack on a town, which ended in the massacre of the resident Fascists. Instead of a dignified shooting, the killings become animalistic, with people being clubbed to death. Pablo watched on with little emotion on his face, but later “[Pablo] shows remorse for what he has done… Pablo uses wine to keep himself from reliving the horrors of his actions” (O'Donnell 68). Pablo is a foil in two ways for Jordan. Pablo kills people brutally and undignified, while Jordan tries to leave them some honor, and Pablo is a coward who values his own life more than the cause, which Jordan would give everything for.
Pablo's cowardice causes problems for the mission from the very beginning. When he had nothing to lose, he was a fearless man, but with his new riches of stolen horses, his life becomes valuable to him and Pablo considers the mission to be a dangerous idea. For the first two days he is constantly whining and complaining; most of the guerilla group wants to shoot him. Before they get the chance to, on the third day, he takes Jordan's detonators- which would enable Jordan to destroy the bridge- and throws them into the gorge that the bridge spans. Surprisingly, Pablo returns after leaving the scene of the crime with recruited help, which emphasizes the idea of commitment to a cause.
With the detonators missing, Jordan now has an even harder task ahead of him.
With Pablo gone and the explosives stolen, Robert Jordan manages to control his anger and apply himself to solving the new, more difficult problem of destroying the bridge with less manpower and fewer explosives. Always supremely pragmatic, Robert Jordan neither dwells on the past nor fears the future but instead concentrates on the present situation.
(Medvedovsky n.p.).
That Jordan never considers abandoning his mission shows his unwavering and admirable commitment to the task assigned to him, even if it risks his life, and the lives of those around him, even more.
