Thinking Activity- 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' By Ernest Hemingway

This blog is written in response to the Thinking Activity on Ernest Hemingway's 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' given by Yesha Bhatt Ma'am at the Department of English, MKBU. 

In this blog, I have tried to explain what is a Hero?, what is a typical Hemingway Hero? and How is Robert Jordan a Hemingway Hero?

What or Who is a hero?

When we use the word “Hero”, we usually label someone who is popular or influential in some ways. First it begins with our parents, at a young age our heroes are our parents, then as we grow and come to know various people our hero changes like gods, sports players, freedom fighters, comic heroes etc. 

Let's discuss what a hero is. And  the definition and characteristics of a hero.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a hero is “a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability, an illustrious warrior, a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities, one who shows great courage, the principal male character in a literary or dramatic work, the central figure in an event, period, or movement, or an object of extreme admiration and devotion”.

Thus a hero is not at all a common man but he becomes beyond it and a higher human being. A hero is noble and with a certain set of values. Heroes usually work for the ‘Greater Good’ of society and the world. It's not necessary to every hero that they have superhuman abilities but those who take a stand against the Wrong or evil that harms innocents and causes troubles. 

One of the best qualities of a hero is that they are always ready to sacrifice or put their life on the line. They do not agree on anything for fear of their life but in contrast they raise their voice even if there is danger lying ahead.

All those things are in hero but that does not mean that heroes are exceptional to the danger and they always stay without harm. Sometimes heroes are the ones who are mostly the ones who go through sufferings that others can only imagine. For example we can take Bruce Wayne AKA The Batman Who is a Billionaire but also is an orphan who watches his parents murdered before his own eyes. Therefore he realizes the cruelty and reality of the world in his childhood and then becomes Batman, a symbol of Justice. He fights crime and puts justice in society without getting or demanding any rewards. He protects his city Gotham from crime but also works for the welfare of the city through his original personality Bruce Wayne.

Bruce Wayne is not a Superhuman but he goes beyond his limitation and upgrades his level to superhuman but  If we see the Hero through the lens of “superhuman” then there is also an example of superhuman and it is Spider-Man.

Peter Parker who is a normal teenager who gets bitten by a hybrid Spider and becomes Spider-Man, but that does not stop his problems as he is also a teenager, a middle class boy and also not well aware of the world. But the best part is that he becomes a hero as he grows up from a boy to man and he also fights villains and criminals and he also solves his problems as a common individual. He also loses sometimes, like he loses his uncle Ben who gives him the philosophy of hero that,

“With great Powers, comes great Responsibilities.”

Joseph Campbell also tries to give definition of hero that,

“The hero, therefore, is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his [or her] personal and local limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms”

for understanding what is or makes a hero watch this video.

What is a Hemingway hero?

His most of Protagonist comes from his own experience and understanding, so one or another ways many have his resemblanse or impact of his life.

The representation of Hemingway's hero is known as the ‘code hero’. In the works of Ernest Hemingway the protagonist follows certain codes like code of honour, courage, endurance etc. therefore through those codes or the characteristics those heroes try to live in the world surrounding them. They don't just live but live in pride and dignity and do heroic things. They suffer from daily life pain and sufferings. They have a past life of trauma and troubles. They overcome all the difficulties of life and prove that they are the strongest and wisest.

Another characteristic of Hemingway’s hero is that they are realists and do believe in a realistic approach to the various events. They give thoughts to certain situations, they apply logical understanding and experience into given circumstances.  

They are the men of action in various situations. The plot of the story moves along with them as we follow their journey and witness their actions and courageous decisions. Mostly they meddle between good and evil, as they have their own philosophy and understanding of the situation and by that they pick sides and do their work.

The key point of the Hemingway hero is that  'A man can be destroyed but not defeated', That most of his heroes refuse the defeat and instead they die but in dignity.

One of the good examples of Hemingway's code hero is in ‘The Old Man and The Sea’, the fisherman called Santiago. An old man who goes fishing in the sea but fails for just one or two but for Eight four days yet he does not give in but goes on and on. We see his glorious past as the young fisherman, He was strong and hard to defecate but he was now aged and was an old man.

He stays in the sea for three days and two nights and catches the Marlin fish. He deals with various difficulties like wind and bad weather. Sharks attack his boat and eat the Merlin fish. At the end there's only bones and the skeleton of the fish that he brings to the shore but even that was a great thing as before that no one had ever seen or caught that big fish. So in the end he defeats all his problems and resolves in dignity.

The Old Man and The Sea

How is Robert Jordan a Hemingway hero?

Robert Jordan is the protagonist of the novel ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, established as a typical Hemingway Hero. For him the line of Donne is appropriate that,

“No man is an island entire of itself”

He is the code hero as Hemingway has established living on the code of  honour, courage, endurance. He is a soldier from the US and takes part in The Spanish civil war of independence from the side of Guerrilla fighters of republicans and takes the mission of blowing a Bridge from Colonel Golz. He has his own philosophy of doing his given duty. He does believe in the republican but he believes that what they are fighting with is more evil and so is he fighting alongside them.

He is a noble man and lives with dignity and wants to contribute in the lives of others and is without any personal motive or agenda and does not seek any reward for the help that he was doing in the war. For him it was the duty that he must fulfil, even if it takes the sacrifice of his life.

He is pretty much a person tormented by his past as most of Hemingway heroes, and finds salvation when he falls in love with Maria, and finds a different approach to his life though that. He becomes more confident on his purpose of life and becomes more conscious of his mission. Even in the end when he is left alone the only moving force he can find is his love toward Maria.

He is a realistic person and also a true hero that choses self sacrifice in order to save his friends. He analyses the truth of given situations and comes to the conclusion that if he stays where he is because of his deep wound it's better for the rest to live because that would be a logical response to given circumstance and that's what he does.

Robert lives in the world of pain and suffering, fulfils his duty, falls in love and eventually sacrifices himself for the sake of love and friendship and becomes a martyr. He lives with pride and dignity and dies undefeated as he fulfils his duty.

So, Robert Jordan, the protagonist of the novel ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’ is a typical Hemingway Hero.