For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
read: circa 2007
Guardian 1000 Novels

Like George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia,  For Whom the Bell Tolls  is interesting for the devotion that foreigners have to the Spaniard's cause and how much they are willing to sacrifice.  Hemingway paints that willingness to sacrifice as an ideal.  The characters in the novel, particularly the protagonist Robert Jordan, have an unwavering commitment to their cause to the point of sacrificing everything.  They also have many characteristics we look for in a war hero: courage, determination, honor, an understanding of what must be done and how to do it.  But For Whom the Bell Tolls is not a pro-war novel.  Hemingway doesn't shy away from the horrors of war; even the townsfolk throwing out their corrupt former rulers do so with a sickening bloodlust.  So it is not that war brings out the best in Jordan, it is that he is so pure in his intentions and laser-focused in his commitment that he is willing to wage war, willing to endure and participate in it, willing even to lead men into battle and plan missions, even when he is convinced it will lead to his own death.