Bell Tolls Diction

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Recommended: Hemingway's use of symbolism in the old man and the sea

Nicole Holubec
5/21/2018
AP Literature
Larson
Philosophical Residue
The philosophical residue of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls reveals the impact of love, duty, and relationships on the main character’s ideas about death.
For Whom The Bell Tolls begins in May 1937, in the time of the Spanish Civil War. The main character is an American man named Robert Jordan who left the United States to enlist on the Republican side in the war and is also assigned the dangerous mission of blowing up a Fascist controlled bridge. Robert Jordan meets a peasant named Anselmo who takes him to the guerrilla camp and it is there where he meets the rest of the characters. There’s Pablo who is the leader of the camp, Pilar a gypsy who also seems to pose …show more content…

His opinion of love at first was different too. In the beginning, when speaking to General Golz about the plan to blow up the bridge, Golz says, “You better not have any sometimes on this bridge. No, let us not talk anymore about this bridge. You understand enough now about the bridge. We are very serious so we can make very strong jokes. Look, do you have many girls on the other side of the lines?” Robert Jordan replies, “No, there is no time for girls.” Golz shakes his head and says, “I do not agree. The more irregular the service, the more irregular the life. You have very irregular service.” Robert Jordan doesn’t search out for love and in his time during the war he does not want to deal with the stress of having a woman in his life. Winning the war and completing his mission is his life now. In this conversation readers also view Golz’s opinion. He refers women as a distraction from the war. This opinion of Robert Jordan marks the beginning of what he thought about love at first, a meaningless construct. When Robert Jordan arrives to the guerrilla camp and is introduced to Maria he automatically felt drawn to her. When night came they all gathered to eat together. “She sat down opposite him and looked at him. He looked back at her and she smiled and folded her hands together over her knees. Her legs slanted long and clean from the open cuffs of the trousers as she sat with her hands across her knees and he could see the shape of her small uptilited breasts under the gray shirt. Everytime Robert Jordan looked at her he could feel a thickness in his throat.” Robert Jordan’s observing of Maria shows his attraction to her. He pays close attention the way her hands fold over her knees, how long her legs are, the shape of her breasts. This type of body language reveals to the readers that he feels something for her and based on her body language, she seems to be feeling something for him as

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