Like always, talk about anything you found interesting in the reading for today. Here are some specific prompts to get you started thinking:
- Talk about “superstition” in the book. For example, in the beginning, Pilar, who is part gypsy, reads Robert Jordan’s palm, then refuses to tell him what she saw. In a later chapter, Pilar insists that she can smell death on people while Robert Jordan believes this idea is nonsense. Why do you think Hemingway includes these beliefs? What are we to think of them?
- What about the Catholic religion in the book? What do the characters say about God and religion? Why don’t the peasants have God anymore? What do they have instead?
- Choose one of the characters to discuss and analyze in more detail. You might examine Rafael the gypsy or the old man Anselmo or Pablo. What are these men like; what role do they play in the book? Or you might choose to discuss Maria or Pilar or Robert Jordan himself. What about the relationship between these 3? Who is Pilar jealous of when they go on the walk to El Sordo’s?
- Discuss Gaylord’s Hotel and the Russian influence in the war. What happens at Gaylord’s? Do you think Gaylord’s is a corrupting influence on Robert Jordan as he himself sometimes worries? Why does Hemingway choose to include this background in the novel?
The idea of superstition or mysticism throughout the book is interesting because it seems to almost contrast the ideas that war supports, such as reality, rationalism, and science. Of course people during war and hard times in general tend to look to another worldly idea that they can put their faith in, like religion. However, we know that many people during this time often stopped believing in God, Christianity, or Catholicism due to the tragedies and traumas they had faced because of war. So this mysticism is being hinted at throughout the book seems like another outlet they can put their beliefs and fears of the unknown into something tactical. These people are grasping on to anything that can make the reality of the events they’ve experienced seem like they’ve happened for a reason beyond the world’s control. I think Hemingway includes these for multiple reasons, one being a way to foreshadow certain events in the plot later on, most likely tragic. In chapter 19 we see all the characters except Robert and Pablo believe in Pilar’s superstitions of a smell of death. The combined smells are described by Pilar and are accumulated in very different circumstances. They have overarching themes of birth and death and sickness in the form of nature. This form of superstition reintroduces the importance of the natural world in the novel.
While reading Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, the internal monologue that we see throughout from Robert caught me by surprise. It caught me by surprise not only only from a character arch standpoint, but also from a stylistic point of view. All throughout the novel thus far we see the weight of war and the growth of intricate and meaningful relationships. It is clear that Robert has taken new ideas and concepts into consideration due to the turmoil and unprecedented conflict that warfare has entailed. What I paid most attention to was the piece of his inner monologue in chapter 18 where he says, “It would be as difficult and embarrassing to speak about as a religious experience and yet it was authentic. . . . It gave you a part in something that you could believe in wholly and completely and in which you felt an absolute brotherhood with the others who were engaged in it” (Hemingway 339). When Robert originally turned his life upside down to go fight in the war, he wanted this sort of “wholesome” and “real” connection with people. Then we have this sort of realization come into play regarding the two sides of this war as they are extreme feelings of betrayal from the Republican side. He goes on to discuss the complexities of contrasts and comparisons when it comes to religion which only furthers his definite character. I look forward to seeing more monologues such as this one because I feel it paints the Spanish Civil War in a more humanized light.
In these chapters of For Whom the Bell Tolls, Pilar, Maria, and Robert take a quick journey to El Sordo’s. During the journey up, they are led by Pilar who seems to be in good spirits, even forcing the group to stop so she may talk and tell a (horrific) story. However, on the way back from El Sordo’s, she’s acting sour and a bit sickly. Maria and Robert take notice and try to get her to rest, and instead they are met with snide and rude remarks. The contrast of the journey up to the journey down is highly noticeable when you consider how she wanted to sit happily on the way up, but on the way down she refused with angst. On page 176, Pilar’s thoughts are shown and she states “If it had been evil she should have been shot. BUt it wasn’t evil. It was only wanting to keep her hold in life. To keep it through Maria.” Pilar’s jealousy is only enhanced by Maria and Robert’s new relationship, as she sees an ideal version of herself and her youth through Maris, and has taken care of her. As well, she may be jealous considering her dooming romance with Pablo, who is becoming more and more intolerable to her by the minute.