So the band continues with their dangerous mission, and manages to successfully destroy the bridge. Their success does not come without loss, however. Anselmo, the man who first showed Jordan the bridge, is killed by falling debris. “For Robert Jordan, Anselmo represents all that is good about Spaniards. He lives close to the land, is loyal, follows directions, and stays where he is told” (Medvedovsky n.p.). Anselmo is devoted to the cause he fights for, and by killing him, Hemingway made the point that commitment often includes death, which becomes increasingly important through the novel.
With the bridge successfully destroyed, the guerilla group flees the Fascists pursuing them. One by one, they ride through an open field, with Jordan going last. His horse is struck by a Fascist bullet, causing it to fall and crush Jordan's leg. Immediately, he realizes he must stay behind and give the others a chance to survive. “[Robert Jordan's] heroism constitutes a commitment to personal responsibility and intimate love in the face of a lost game in a losing game” (Gottesman 1521). Before Maria must leave, Jordan tells her that “… if thou goest then I go with thee. It is in that way that I go too” (Hemingway 463). Jordan has to be strong for Maria, who is distraught at the thought of leaving him. Almost forcibly, Pablo and Pilar lead her away. “Then Jordan must prepare himself to kill and to die, to use up what is left of him for her, to give what is left of him for her, to sacrifice himself for her” (Josephs 152). Jordan's final stand is a combination of saving the girl he loved, and staying committed to his cause until the very end.
While he waits for the Fascists, pain forces him to consider suicide before he can make his last, weak attack on the Fascists. Suicide is a theme throughout the novel, with several people carrying pills or razor blades with them at all times to have ready in the event they need to commit suicide.
…Hemingway characterizes suicide as an act of cowardice by associating it with characters that are vulnerable or lack strength of spirit. Robert Jordan's reliance on inner strength in his rejection of suicide contrasts the other characters' weakness.
(Medvedovsky n.p.)
Jordan's father committed suicide years before, and as Jordan copes with his own pain, those memories come back to him. “The reflections on [Jordan's] father's suicide are dramatically motivated by his own awareness of the pressures that oppose him and the necessity that he places upon himself of performing well” (Rovit and Brenner 122). Jordan is lying on the ground with his gun at ready, waiting for his inevitable death. During the wait, Jordan doesn't express fear of the impending death, only fear that he might faint before he can protect his fleeing loved ones. Jordan does not fear his death because he knew he would have to face it eventually. Instead of focusing on dying, Jordan focused on making the most of his final moments for those he loved and appreciating the life that he had lived as honorably as he could. “Death became… the extreme limit of experience and the final test of the genuine ordeal” (Bradley 1455). Jordan's life and death were equally significant to the main theme. “[Robert Jordan] dies, but he has done his job, and the manner of his dying convinced many readers of what his thinking had failed to do: that life is worth living and that there are causes worth dying for” (Bradley 255).
The life Jordan lived and the death that ended it proved him to be an exemplary hero. “The first real hero in Hemingway's fiction-someone who sacrifices himself… for something larger (the cause), or for someone else (Maria and the band)- is Robert Jordan” (Josephs 84). By committing himself wholly to a cause, and by living his life honorably, Jordan proves death is nothing to fear, if one has lived a rich life beforehand.
