Hemingway - The Novels to Read

Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Suggested Reading Index

3. For Whom the Bell Tolls:

Unlike first-person narrator Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises (see discussion) and first-person narrator Lieutenant Frederic Henry in A Farewell to Arms (see discussion), the narrator of For Whom the Bell Tolls is a distant, third-person observer. While this narrator usually restricts "his" perspective to that of the novel's protagonist, Robert Jordan, there are several occasions where the narrator allows himself the license to describe scenes outside the scope of Robert Jordan's perspective, and as we approach the end of For Whom the Bell Tolls, the narrative distance increases. We'll discuss the significance of perspective and distance in a moment.

The second important structural difference relates to the time line. The Sun Also Rises covers, accounting for the "present" moment of the story alone, approximately a year's worth of time. In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway covers the time period between 1916 and 1918. For Whom the Bell Tolls, however, follows a series of events that unfold in three days.

The American, Robert Jordan, has left the United States to enlist in the Republican (Loyalist) military during the Spanish Civil War (follow link for an Answers.com analysis), in May, 1937. Robert Jordan enlists as a demolitions specialist, and, with the assistance of a group of Spanish Guerilla fighters (guerillos), he must sneak across enemy lines into Fascist (Nationalist) territory to destroy a bridge controlled by the Fascists.

Robert Jordan joins a group of guerillos commanded by a strained, dual leadership. Pablo is the official leader of the band. Once a fiercely passionate patriot, Pablo has devolved into a reckless individualist. As the story develops, the reader will note how thoroughly the other characters insult Pablo, even physically abusing him, to the point of psychologically emasculating him. In addition, the narrator saddles Pablo with all sorts of subhuman imagery, equating him, somewhat paradoxically, with the selfish force of brutal beasts. This unusual, paradoxical imagery--the emasculated man versus the forceful, stubborn animal--makes Pablo into perhaps the most complex and intriguing character in any of Ernest Hemingway's novels.

Pablo's woman, Pilar, the true leader of the band of guerillos, forms an immediate alliance with Robert Jordan. Pablo establishes his hostility toward Robert Jordan just as quickly. When Pablo declares that none of his guerillos will help Robert destroy the bridge, Pilar and the rest of the camp overrule Pablo, and Pablo is forced to consent. Some of the guerillos urge Robert Jordan to kill Pablo; Pilar says that Pablo is harmless.

The guerillos are caring for Maria, a young woman recently captured and raped by the Fascists. An intuitive, emotional bond connects Robert Jordan to Maria from the moment of their first encounter, and even though she has been raped, both Robert Jordan and Maria feel completed in each other's company. They fall instantly in love, and they immediately consummate their feelings.

In the discussion of A Farewell to Arms I referred to a common connection literary critics like to make between Catherine Barkley and Maria. I previously explored how unfriendly critics liken the two female characters as falling into a singular portrayal, one of two subsets of women that Ernest Hemingway created.

This critical line argues that both women are not really women. They are both stereotypical, submissive characters--supremely offensive stereotypes--that fully depend on men for fulfillment of their private motivations. Even more damning, from a literary perspective, these critics state that these women, in fact, have no motivations. In literature, of course, even flat stereotypes play significant roles in plot development--as long as each of these flat characters is neatly packaged with a relevant motivation.

I would suggest that these critics reread A Farewell to Arms. Only a critic with a preconceived agenda could fail to see Catherine Barkley's motivation. Catherine's motivation, of course, is the force that changes the direction of Frederic Henry's motivation. She desires a way to divert her thoughts from the cold truth of abandonment. In despair, she designs a fantasy to divert her in the same way Henry has diverted himself with war, loyalty, and the code of masculinity by which he has tried to live. Moreover, Catherine's motivation is in no way submissive--hers is a dominant motivation that calls Frederic away from war, calls him to play the foregrounded game of love. She is not incomplete, nor is she a flat character, and she certainly does not suffer from a lack of motivation.

With that out of the way, I can now join these same critics in denouncing Maria as a flat, stereotypical, offensively submissive female character without any motivation. While Ernest Hemingway does a brilliant job of elevating Maria to a symbolic representation of Spain--specifically, Robert Jordan's love for Spain--Maria remains a static, incomplete character without any notable motivation. Feminist critics disdain the way the recently raped Maria finds wholeness in union with Robert Jordan; a wholeness, even, to the extent that the "earth moves" for her twice in these three days when having sex with Robert Jordan. I fully agree with these critics. Ernest Hemingway shows a remarkable lack of insight, if he believes that Maria could have the capacity for such oneness with a man after experiencing rape--and even if she did have the capacity for such completion, who could believe that she would want it?

One more or less relevant sidenote to Maria's character--or lack--returns us to her metaphoric value to For Whom the Bell Tolls as a structurally cohesive unity. Robert Jordan needs Maria to symbolize the potency of the earth--he needs Maria to reconnect him to life. Robert Jordan is a uber-rational man; but through his experiences with Maria and with the people of Spain, he "evolves" into a romantic. This new persona enables him to achieve a positive resolution to his preoccupation with suicide--a preoccupation that takes center stage at the conclusion of For Whom the Bell Tolls. The thematic value of victory in defeat plays a large role in Ernest Hemingway's later works, most significantly in The Old Man and the Sea.

Finally, we can now return to the narrator of For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the significance, and consequence, of having a third-person observer with varying degrees of omniscience tell us this story.

Because all the novel's action occurs within the span of three days, we require a wider narrative lens. In order to see the poignancy of Spain, the potency to which Robert Jordan eventually surrenders, we must have access to a world that Robert Jordan could not fully understand through his limited experience. Or, more to the point, the reader could not possibly understand the beauty and grace of these Spaniards that Robert Jordan loves without entering their thoughts and experiences.

This need contrasts with that required by either The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell to Arms. In those books, the reader follows the protagonists across longer periods of time. In addition, neither of those protagonists surrenders himself to a larger purpose--why should a reader look outside the experiences of either Jake Barnes or Frederic Henry? But For Whom the Bell Tolls requires a surrender to an omnipotent force, and requires the surrender from both Robert Jordan and from the reader. For this reason, For Whom the Bell Tolls is a signficantly more ambitious and successful accomplishment. Of course, this necessary narrative distance also highlights character flaws--such as the weakness of Maria as a character--because inevitably the narrator will need to show us why she matters.

But this is one flaw--and all masterpieces, literary or other, contains flaws. For Whom the Bell Tolls represents one of Ernest Hemingway's greatest accomplishments, both as a writer and as a human being specifically because it demonstrates his capacity for change. Later, perhaps, Hemingway would lose this capacity and it would cost him his life.

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Taboo Monkey on Three Novels:
1. The Sun Also Rises
2. A Farewell to Arms
3. For Whom the Bell Tolls

Suggested Reading Index