Robert Jordan as the Hemingway Code Hero and Pilar as the Spirit of Survival
Robert Jordan as the Hemingway Code Hero and Pilar as the Spirit of Survival
“The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”
For Whom the Bell Tolls
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(Two kinds of courage in For Whom the Bell Tolls - Robert Jordan’s heroism of action and sacrifice, and Pilar’s heroism of endurance and survival)
1. Explain: Robert Jordan as a Typical Hemingway Hero.
(Robert Jordan: A Simple Guide to the Hemingway Hero in For Whom the Bell Tolls)
1. Introduction: What is a Hemingway Hero?
In the books written by Ernest Hemingway, there is a special kind of main character. Readers and teachers often call this character the "Hemingway Code Hero." This hero is usually a man who has seen terrible things, like war, and has lost his belief in big, fancy words like "glory" or "honor." Instead of talking about these things, he focuses on how to act. He tries to be brave, calm, and good at his job, even when he is afraid or in pain.
Robert Jordan, the main character in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (published in 1940), is the best example of this hero. He is an American man who goes to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He used to be a Spanish teacher at a university in Montana, but now he is a "dynamiter" - an expert at blowing things up.
His mission in the book is very specific. A general named Golz orders him to blow up a bridge to stop the enemy (the fascists) from moving forward during an attack. The book covers only about three days, or roughly 70 hours, of his life. During this short time, Jordan shows us exactly what it means to live by the "Code." He faces the fear of death, he falls in love, and he does his duty perfectly.
This report will explain simply why Robert Jordan is a hero, using his own words and thoughts from the book to prove it.
2. The Idea of "Nada" (Nothingness)
To understand Robert Jordan, you first have to understand what he is fighting against inside his own head. Hemingway had a famous idea called nada. This is the Spanish word for "nothing."
What is Nada?
In Hemingway's stories, nada means that the universe does not care about you. It means there is no clear order in the world and, for characters like Jordan, usually no life after death. It is a scary feeling of emptiness. Jordan often feels this emptiness when thinking about the war or the future. He describes the feeling of death and loss as leading to "nowhere":
"For him it was a dark passage which led to nowhere, then to nowhere, then again to nowhere, once again to nowhere, always and forever to nowhere..."
How Jordan Fights the Nothingness:
Because the world is chaotic, the Code Hero has to create his own order. He does this by having a "Code" - a set of personal rules.
Don't talk too much: Jordan doesn't complain about his problems.
Stay in control: He tries to keep his mind focused on physical things, like eating, drinking, and working, so he doesn't get scared by his imagination.
Don't imagine the worst: Jordan often tells himself not to "think." He knows that if he imagines getting captured or killed, he will lose his nerve.
"Stop it, he told himself. You mustn't worry. You know the things that may happen."
3. "Grace Under Pressure": The Definition of Courage
Ernest Hemingway famously defined courage as "grace under pressure." This is a very important part of being a hero. It does not mean you are not afraid. It means that you are afraid, but you do not let it stop you from doing what you have to do. You act calm and polite even when things are going wrong.
Keeping Calm:
Throughout the book, Robert Jordan is under a lot of pressure. He is behind enemy lines working with a group of guerrillas (rebel fighters) who are difficult to manage. The leader of the group, a man named Pablo, is drunk and dangerous. Jordan notices that Pablo is losing his nerve, and he identifies this weakness clearly:
"I don't like that sadness, he thought. That sadness is bad. That's the sadness they get before they quit or betray. That is the sadness that comes before the sell-out."
Jordan refuses to let himself feel this "sadness." When things go wrong, he stays focused on the mission.
No Complaining:
A true Hemingway hero suffers in silence. Jordan has a lot of worries. He worries that the bridge mission will fail. He worries that he will die. But he rarely speaks about these fears to the other people. When Pilar, a strong woman in the group, says she smells "death" on him, Jordan dismisses it to stay strong.
"I do not believe in ogres, nor soothsayers, nor in the supernatural things."
4. Being a Professional: The Hero as a Worker
One of the most important ways Robert Jordan fights against chaos is by being very good at his job. In Hemingway's view, doing a job well is a moral victory. It is one thing you can control in a crazy world.
The Expert at Work:
Robert Jordan is not just a soldier; he is a technician. He knows everything about explosives. The book gives us many details about how he works. He doesn't just guess; he calculates.
"He drew three sketches, figured his formulas, marked the method of blowing with two drawings as clearly as a kindergarten project..."
This focus on work helps him stay sane. When he is working with the dynamite, he forgets about the danger.
"He had only one thing to do and that was what he should think about."
Handling Disaster:
The biggest test of Jordan's professionalism happens near the end of the book. Pablo steals Jordan's most important equipment: the "exploder" and the detonators. Without these tools, blowing up the bridge seems impossible. A normal person might give up. Jordan, however, immediately comes up with a new plan using hand grenades. He gives very specific, professional instructions to Anselmo, the old man helping him:
"Treat it softly but do not let it sag so it will foul. Keep it lightly firm but not pulling until thou pullest... When thou pullest really pull. Do not jerk."
This shows that even when everything goes wrong, the hero relies on his skill to get the job done.
5. Living in the "Now": A Lifetime in 70 Hours
Because Robert Jordan knows he might die very soon, he has a special philosophy about time. He believes that you can live a full life in a very short time if you live it intensely.
The Theory of the "Now":
Jordan explicitly thinks about how he must trade a long life for a short, intense one.
"I suppose it is possible to live as full a life in seventy hours as in seventy years; granted that your life has been full up to the time that the seventy hours start and that you have reached a certain age..."
He convinces himself that the present moment is all that matters.
"And if there is not any such thing as a long time, nor the rest of your lives, nor from now on, but there is only now, why then now is the thing to praise and I am very happy with it."
Enjoying the Senses:
To live fully in the "Now," Jordan pays close attention to physical sensations.
Drinking Absinthe: He describes the drink as "opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea-changing liquid alchemy."
- Nature: He connects deeply with the Spanish landscape.
6. Love and Maria
In many of Hemingway's earlier books, women were seen as a distraction. But in For Whom the Bell Tolls, love helps Robert Jordan become a better hero.
"The Earth Moved"
Jordan falls in love with Maria, a young Spanish woman who has been hurt by the war. Their romance happens very fast. When they are intimate, they share a powerful experience that Jordan describes as the earth moving.
"Time having stopped and he felt the earth move out and away from under them."
Love vs. Duty
Jordan does not let love stop him from doing his job, but it gives him a reason to fight. At the end of the book, he shows the ultimate love. He knows he is going to die, so he forces Maria to leave with the others so she can be safe. He tells her that she carries his life with her now:
"Thou art me now.... Thou art all there will be of me."
"There is no good-by, guapa, because we are not apart."
7. The Problem with his Father (Suicide)
Robert Jordan has a deep, dark secret that haunts him: his father committed suicide.
The Cowardly Father
Jordan's father shot himself to escape his problems. In the Hemingway Code, suicide is usually seen as an act of cowardice. Jordan worries he might be weak like his father.
"I don't want to do that business that my father did."
He contrasts his father with his grandfather, who was a brave soldier in the American Civil War. Jordan wants to be like the grandfather, not the father.
8. Comparison with Other Characters
Pablo: The Fallen Hero
Pablo used to be brave, but he has lost his courage. Anselmo tells Jordan:
"Pablo was brave in the beginning."
Now, Pablo is selfish and sad. He represents what happens when a hero loses the Code.
Anselmo: The Good Man
Anselmo is brave and loyal, but he struggles with the morality of killing.
"To me it is a sin to kill a man."
Jordan admires Anselmo but knows that as a soldier, he must be "harder" than Anselmo. Jordan accepts the sin of killing because it is his duty.
9. The Ending: The Final Test
The end of the book is the final test of Robert Jordan's heroism. After the bridge is blown, his horse is shot, and it falls on his leg, breaking it. He cannot escape.
The Choice
He is in terrible pain and knows the enemy is coming. He fights the urge to shoot himself immediately to end the pain (the path of his father). Instead, he decides to wait and ambush the enemy officer to buy time for his friends.
"I have fought for what I believed in for a year now. If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it."
The Victory
Jordan lies behind a pine tree, fighting to stay conscious.
"He lay very quietly and tried to hold on to himself that he felt slipping away."
In the very last sentence of the book, we see him fully integrated with the earth, calm and ready to do his duty one last time:
"He could feel his heart beating against the pine-needle floor of the forest."
10. Conclusion
Robert Jordan acts as the perfect Hemingway Hero because he masters the difficulties of living in a harsh world. He accepts that death is the end, but he fills his short time with work, sensory pleasure, and love. He rejects the cowardice of his father and chooses to die fighting for others.
As he thinks in his final moments:
"I have tried to with what talent I had."
He proves that a man can be destroyed, but if he keeps the Code, he cannot be defeated.
2. Write your Views on the very brave character, Pilar.
(The Soul of the Earth: Pilar in Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls)
1. Introduction: The Real Hero of the Story
When we talk about Ernest Hemingway’s famous book For Whom the Bell Tolls, we usually talk about the main character, Robert Jordan. He is the American soldier who comes to Spain to blow up a bridge. But if you look really closely at the story, you will see that Robert Jordan is not the most important person in the book. The most important person the heart and soul of the story is a woman named Pilar.
Pilar is a very brave and strong character. She is the leader of a group of fighters hiding in the mountains during the Spanish Civil War. This war was a terrible time in Spain when the country was fighting against itself. On one side, there were the "Republicans" (the group Pilar fights for), who wanted a government by the people. On the other side were the "Fascists," led by a general named Franco. It was a bloody and confusing war.
In this report, we are going to look very deeply at who Pilar is. We will see that she is much more than just a background character. In fact, without her, the whole group of fighters would fall apart. She is like the earth itself: strong, sometimes rough, but always supporting life. She is scary sometimes, but she is also full of love. She is, as her name suggests, a "pillar" of strength. She holds everything up.
2. What Pilar Looks Like and How She Acts
2.1 A Woman of Great Strength
Hemingway does not describe Pilar as a typical "pretty" woman found in romance novels. He makes her real. He wants us to feel her power. When Robert Jordan first meets her, he sees a woman who is big and heavy. She is described as being almost as wide as she is tall. She wears heavy black skirts like a peasant woman from the country. She has big hands and a strong, brown face.
Pilar knows she is not beautiful in the way a model is beautiful. She is very honest about it. She tells the young girl, Maria:
"I was born ugly. All my life I have been ugly. You, Ingles, who know nothing about women. Do you know how an ugly woman feels? Do you know what it is to be ugly all your life and inside to feel that you are beautiful?"
She says this without being sad. It is just a fact to her, like the sun rising in the east. But she also says something very interesting about her nature:
"I would have made a good man, but I am all woman and all ugly. Yet many men have loved me and I have loved many men. It is curious."
This is important. Pilar is saying that she has the strength and power that people usually think only men have. But she is definitely a woman. She is proud of being a woman. In the hard life of the mountains, being "pretty" is not useful. Being strong is what keeps you alive. Her "ugliness" is actually her armor. It shows she has lived a hard life and survived it.
2.2 Her Voice and Her Anger
Pilar has a very loud and powerful voice. She is not afraid to say bad words. In fact, she swears just as much as the men do. When she gets angry, she can shout down anyone. There is a man in their group named AgustÃn who swears all the time. Pilar can swear right back at him until he stops. This is one way she keeps control. She shows the men that she is tough enough to handle their rough talk.
However, her voice can also be very gentle. When she talks to Robert Jordan or Maria, she can sound like a loving mother. She has a "deep, maternal warmth." This shows that she is a complete person. She can be fierce like a warrior one minute and kind like a grandmother the next.
Some people compare Pilar to a real woman from history named Dolores Ibárruri, who was called "La Pasionaria." La Pasionaria was a famous communist leader who gave big speeches. Pilar is like her because she is a strong female leader in her fifties who wears black. But Pilar is different because she doesn't care about politics and rules as much as she cares about people. She fights for her village and her friends, not just for a political party.
3. The Magic of Pilar: Seeing the Future
One of the most mysterious things about Pilar is that she is part Gypsy. In the book, this means she has special powers that normal people do not have. Robert Jordan is a modern American man. He believes in science and facts. Pilar believes in magic and signs. This creates a really interesting conflict between them.
3.1 Reading Palms
There is a very famous scene where Pilar asks to see Robert Jordan’s hand. She wants to read his palm to tell his future. When she looks at his hand, she suddenly stops. She drops his hand and refuses to say what she saw. She tells him she saw "nothing."
But Robert Jordan knows she is lying. He knows she saw something bad. Later, we realize that she saw his death. She knew that he was going to die at the end of the mission. This shows how brave she is. Imagine knowing your friend is going to die, but you cannot tell him because he has a job to do. She has to carry that secret sadness all by herself so that he can be brave enough to blow up the bridge.
3.2 The Smell of Death
Pilar also talks about the "smell of death." This is one of the scariest and most amazing parts of the book. She claims that when a person is about to die, they have a special smell. She says she smelled it on her old friend, a bullfighter named Finito, before he died.
Robert Jordan doesn't believe her at first. So, Pilar describes the smell to him. She uses very simple but gross examples. She says the smell is a mix of many things, telling Jordan to imagine:
"In this sack will be contained the essence of it all, both the dead earth and the dead stalks of flowers and their rotted blooms and the smell that is both the death and birth of man."
She also complicates the smell by adding other ingredients, like the smell of an old woman who drinks blood:
"When such an old woman comes out of the matadero... with her face gray and her eyes hollow... put your arms tight around her, Inglés, and hold her to you and kiss her on the mouth and you will know the second part that odor is made of."
Why does she describe it like this? She is trying to tell us that death is a natural part of life. It is like the earth. Flowers die and rot, and they go back into the ground. Pilar understands that life and death are connected in a circle. By making Robert Jordan think about this smell, she is forcing him to face the reality of the war. She is teaching him that death is not just an idea; it is a real physical thing.
4. The True Leader of the Band
In the mountains, there is a group of guerilla fighters. Officially, the leader is a man named Pablo. But Pablo is not a good leader anymore. The war has made him sad, drunk, and afraid. He loves his horses more than he loves the cause.
4.1 Taking Over from Pablo
Pilar sees that Pablo is failing. She is brave enough to stand up to him. She insults him in front of the other men. She tells him he is a coward. She says:
"Coward... You treat a man as coward because he has a tactical sense. Because he can see the results of an idiocy in advance."
But Pilar does not accept his excuses. She asserts her dominance clearly:
"I am the leader... Pablo is finished."
This is an incredibly brave thing to do. In that time and place, men were usually the bosses. For a woman to take power from her husband was very rare. But the other men - Anselmo, AgustÃn, and the Gypsy accept her. They listen to her because they know she is stronger than Pablo. They know she has "cojones" (courage). She leads not because she is a man, but because she is the best person for the job.
4.2 Keeping Everyone Together
Pilar is the glue that holds the group together. She does everything:
She cooks and cleans: She makes sure everyone eats. This is her domestic side.
She plans the fighting: She organizes the attack on the bridge. She talks to other leaders like El Sordo to get help.
She keeps spirits up: She jokes with the men when they are sad. She yells at them when they are lazy. She comforts them when they are scared.
She is a very practical leader. She knows that her side, the Republic, is not perfect. She knows their leaders are disorganized. But she keeps fighting anyway. She fights because she hates fascism. She says:
"I am for the Republic... And the Republic is the bridge."
5. The Storyteller: The Horror of the Massacre
One of the reasons we know Pilar is honest is because she tells the truth about her own side. In Chapter 10 of the book, she tells Robert Jordan a terrible story about what happened in her hometown at the start of the war.
5.1 The Killing of the Fascists
Pilar describes how Pablo organized a massacre (a mass killing) of the Fascists in their village. These were the rich men, the landlords, and the guards. Pablo didn't just shoot them. He wanted everyone in the village to be part of the killing.
He set up two lines of men leading to a cliff. The men in the lines had "flails." A flail is a wooden tool used by farmers to beat grain. Pablo forced the Fascists to walk between the lines. The villagers beat them to death with the flails and then threw their bodies over the cliff.
5.2 Why This Story is Important
Pilar’s description is very graphic. She talks about the sound of the wood hitting bone. She talks about how the villagers got drunk and started to enjoy the violence. She admits that she was there and she watched it. She says she felt sick, like "nausea," but she didn't stop it:
"I myself had felt much emotion at the shooting of the guardia civil by Pablo... It was a thing of great ugliness, but I had thought if this is how it must be, this is how it must be."
By telling this story, Pilar shows her moral bravery. She is admitting that the "good guys" (the Republicans) did something evil. She is teaching Robert Jordan that war turns ordinary farmers into killers. She is showing that violence is ugly, no matter who does it. She is the historian of the group, making sure that the truth is not forgotten. She doesn't hide the ugly parts of history.
6. Pilar as a Mother and Healer
Pilar is not just a warrior; she is a healer. Her relationship with the young girl Maria is one of the most beautiful parts of the book.
6.1 Healing Maria
Maria has been through a nightmare. The Fascists captured her, shaved her head, and hurt her very badly. She is traumatized. When Pilar found her, she took her in. Pilar keeps Maria safe in the cave. She calls Maria her daughter.
Pilar decides that the best way to heal Maria is to help her find love. When Robert Jordan arrives, Pilar pushes Maria toward him. She literally tells Maria to go to his sleeping bag. She guards them so they can be alone. Pilar believes that a good, healthy love with a good man will fix the damage inside Maria’s heart. She tells Jordan:
"What you have with Maria, whether it lasts just through today and a part of tomorrow, or whether it lasts for a long life is the most important thing that can happen to a human being. There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it."
6.2 Living Through Others
But this is also a little sad for Pilar. Pilar is getting old. She knows she is ugly. She knows she will never have a young, handsome lover like Robert Jordan again. When she sees Maria and Robert Jordan together, she feels jealous. She admits this. She says she is jealous of Maria’s youth and beauty.
Because she cannot have that romance for herself, she lives through Maria. When Maria tells her about the lovemaking - how "the earth moved" - Pilar listens very closely. It makes her happy but also sad. This shows Pilar’s sacrifice. She gives up her own desires to make sure the young people can be happy, even if just for a few days.
This makes her a "Great Mother" figure. In stories, the Great Mother is someone who gives life and protects it. Pilar provides the cave (like a womb), she provides food, and she helps love grow.
7. The Bravest of Them All
So, why is Pilar the "very brave character" you asked about? Her bravery comes in many different forms.
7.1 Physical Bravery
She is a woman in her fifties living in cold mountains, eating bad food, and getting shot at by airplanes. She never complains about the hardship. She hikes through the snow. She carries a gun. She is ready to fight and die if she has to. When the planes come (she calls them "sharks"), she protects her people.
7.2 Emotional Bravery
This is perhaps her rarest kind of courage.
Facing the Truth: She is brave enough to see the future (Robert Jordan’s death) and accept it without falling apart.
Facing Her Flaws: She is brave enough to admit she is ugly and jealous. Most people try to hide their insecurities, but Pilar speaks them out loud.
Facing History: She is brave enough to tell the story of the massacre. She doesn't pretend her side is perfect.
7.3 "I Last"
There is a very famous line where Pilar thinks to herself. She thinks about all the brave men she has known, like Finito the bullfighter and Pablo in the old days. She realizes that their bravery burned out. Finito died. Pablo became a coward.
She thinks to herself:
"Neither bull force nor bull courage lasted, she knew now, and what did last? I last... But for what?"
This is the key to her character. Men like Robert Jordan are like fireworks they explode and die for a cause. But Pilar is like a mountain. She endures. She survives. Her bravery is the bravery of survival. She has to keep living after the heroes are dead. She has to keep the memory of them alive. That is a very heavy burden to carry, and she carries it without breaking.
8. Conclusion
Pilar is the backbone of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Robert Jordan is the hero of the action, but Pilar is the hero of the spirit.
She represents the Earth: solid, permanent, and real.
She represents Spain: complex, violent, but full of passion.
She represents Humanity: capable of both cruelty (the massacre) and immense love (caring for Maria).
She is a leader who leads with both a gun and a spoon. She is a mystic who sees death but chooses life. She is a woman who knows she is "ugly" but has a beautiful soul. When the story is over and the bridge is blown, and Robert Jordan is left behind, Pilar is the one who leads the survivors away. She is the one who continues. She is the one who lasts. That is why she is the bravest character.
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