'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' Ernest Hemingway

For Whom the Bell Tolls. 1

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Publisher

Minumsa | Released 2012-05-31

Category

Novel

Book description

A Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize–winning author who pioneered 20th-century American literature ...

Author rating

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There are criteria I use when choosing a book to read, and one of them is whether the book's design is beautiful. Recently a lot of Minumsa's World Literature collection was added to the library on the base, so I was about to pick a book from among them. One was 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die,' which I had read and written about before, and the others I considered were books like 'The Plague,' 'The Glass Bead Game,' 'A Farewell to Arms,' and 'The Decameron.' 'The Glass Bead Game' was a book that Gihwan-hyeong, who lives with me, had mentioned, so I'd only heard of it, and I'd just been curious since reading Hesse's works before (also it was pink, so it stood out a bit); Camus's 'The Plague' remains in my head because its overwhelming thickness startled me. 'A Farewell to Arms' I wanted to see because it's a work I'd heard about so often, and 'The Decameron' I wanted to see because it's Giovanni's work and one of the considerably older works among Minumsa's world literature. It was also because I had the thought that I absolutely had to read a book that combines 'religion' and 'culture.' After all that deliberation, I simply wanted to read 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' It's two volumes, and as someone who had never once read a work by 'Hemingway,' I felt an obligation to read at least one of his works, and I liked the color. You might say it's very 'visual' and 'appearance-focused,' but that's the truth. Yet, unlike the impression the color gives, in its content I came to like this book very much.

If 'A Time to Love and a Time to Die,' which I'd read just before, was set against the story of World War II, this book was written on the subject of the 'Spanish Civil War,' called the prelude to World War II. The series of events of the Spanish Civil War, which unfolded from 1936 to 1939, could well be called the most complex event, with the most fiercely entangled interests, in the history of 'ideology and freedom' that it occupies in modern history. Whereas most countries were largely divided into 'socialism' and 'liberalism,' or 'communism' and 'capitalism,' Spain's case was even more expanded than this. Royalists and Catholics, and fascists like the 'Falange' formed one camp, while the Popular Front, the socialist general federation, the International Brigades, and the strongly liberal Catalan separatist-independents and Asturian separatist-independents also threw themselves in with the Republicans, so that groups were entangled to a degree that there could be no greater 'ideological' struggle. But as the Republican government failed to properly suppress the right-wing rebellion led by Franco, and at the same time failed to properly support the 'defense of freedom' achieved through the residents' self-governance, the tide of war gradually shifted to Franco's advantage.

The author had a record of actually participating in the Spanish Civil War. Moreover, he often acted for 'freedom' during the 'civil war.' However much the theme of Hemingway's novels may be 'war,' he had never before defended 'freedom' this earnestly. After being active in Spain, he returned to the United States and gave a lecture tour, appealing that the people's forces of Spain needed help. Of course, there were also many conservatives who criticized him. Because at the time, within Spain's 'freedom' forces, the Socialist Workers' Party centered on socialism was very dominant. But if you ask whether they failed to take care of the people, I would say no to that. Through various papers, the 'Popular Front,' the 'Republican army,' and so on during the Spanish Civil War were an aggregate of very diverse forces, and they were unchanging in their aim to drive out Franco, who was backed by the privileged class, the royalist class, the Catholic circle, landlords, and the propertied. It's just that it's correct to see forces like the Socialist Workers' Party and the Spanish Communist Party as having been mixed in among them. The Republican side was supported by the International Brigades — made up of multinational countries (the U.S., Britain, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Cuba, Scotland, etc.) — as well as the Soviet Union, Mexico, and others, while the Franco side was supported by Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italian government. The reason it can be called the prelude to World War II, where fascism and freedom of thought collided, is that the scale grew very large with such diverse countries participating. It's only that they didn't introduce full-scale troops; counting just the number of participating countries, there was no civil war as large as this. So Hemingway wanted Americans to help the people of Spain who wanted 'freedom.' The first manifestation of his humanitarian thought began precisely in this novel. The way 'Robert Jordan' loves 'Maria,' who was violated by the fascists, and embraces her wounds can be seen as a part where the author figuratively expresses his own thoughts. Whenever I read Robert narrating his own thoughts while loving Maria, I could feel several times that this was not 'Robert's' thought but the 'author's' conviction. But he does this not only through 'Robert.' He also expressed his own thoughts through the old man Anselmo, like this.

The night they attacked Otero he had killed a man for the first time in his life, and he hoped that in this attack there would be no occasion to kill anyone.

Through the narration of Anselmo and Robert, the author transferred his agonizing over 'killing a person.' Both had the thought that one must kill if there's no other choice, but among them Anselmo was someone who wanted to avoid killing a bit more, and Robert was someone who, knowing well that it couldn't be avoided, thought that since there's no choice he would do it well. I had never seen this kind of narrative method before, so I read it finding it novel and good. Usually one narrated one's thoughts through a single protagonist. 'Stingo' in 'Sophie's Choice' was like that, and Levin in 'Anna Karenina' was like that, but because in this book various protagonists express their thoughts simultaneously, something felt different.

The author presented from the very start 'for whom the bell tolls.' It is stated in the preface that the bell tolls precisely for my 'death.' Here, I means the protagonist 'Robert Jordan,' and at the same time it would also apply to readers who have empathized with this protagonist. Moreover, the author doesn't keep all the remaining main characters except Robert Jordan alive either, and wraps things up with old men like Anselmo and gypsies like Fernando ultimately dying.

As an aside, Spain as a country seems to have been an object Hemingway viewed as very fascinating. Seeing the praise of Spain throughout the book's content (through phrases saying there's no place like Spain), his affection for this country seemed very deep. And I felt there were especially many parts narrating the feeling of green forests. It was very good that he wrote this book with great interest in Spain. Of course, I learned while reading other writings that Hemingway didn't write about Spain based on 'accurate facts,' but for feeling the things he thinks about war and his attitude toward 'freedom,' this book was enough. If there's something truly regrettable, it's that starting from this coming Monday it seems I won't be able to read books for a while...