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.

Thinking Activity- Poem's by W. B. Yeats

This blog is written in response to the Thinking Activity on the Poems of W. B. Yeats, given by Dr. Dilip Barad Sir at the Department of English, MKBU.

Poems by W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) was an Irish poet, playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the co-founders of the Abbey Theatre. He was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. His work was greatly influenced by Irish mythology and folklore, and his interest in these areas led him to found the Irish National Theatre Society. He often wrote in a symbolic and mystical style, and his poems showed a deep appreciation of the natural world. His best-known works include "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "The Wild Swans at Coole," and "The Second Coming." He was also a prolific essayist and critic, and wrote several plays, including Cathleen Ni Houlihan (1902), and The King's Threshold (1904).

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

The darkness drops again; but now I know

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

The poem ‘The second coming’ is written in black verse and is divided in two stanzas. The poem was written in 1919 and was first published in ‘The Dial’ in 1920. The first stanza contains 8 verses and second contains 14.

In the first stanza the poet describes a world with chaos and that is at the edge of destruction.  “The falcon cannot hear the falconer”, here the poet says that the humans have abandoned the morels and the teaching of god. People have lost the tendency toward violence and anarchy. It is understandable  if we look into the background of the poem.

Probably through this poet discuss the situation of the aftermath of first world war and the Irish war of independence. How humanity saw the world at fire and fighting one another. Also the defeat of Irish rebellion against British rule in the war. There is also a hidden subject that was undiscovered and  that was the Spanish flu. At that time people in Europe were terrorized by the  influenza pandemic that is commonly known as The Spanish Flu. people were worried about their family, spatially about pregnant women because the highest death rate was among the pregnant women. Yeats was also worried about his pregnant wife Georgie Hyde-Lees who caught the flu and almost died. The tension and terror of flu is also is reflected through the poem’s first half.

On the other half of the poem the poet brings the Christian myth of the second birth of Jesus Christ. The myth of the second coming says that Christ will return to the world for the sake of good people who will endure through time and will be faithful to him, he will rescue them and guide them through heaven. 

The poet however is not talking about a kind god rescuing the good people but a beast that has the head of a human and the body of the lion. As the poem indicates that the world has become chaotic and the people have lost control toward violence and safety thus what they have received is not the kind god but as poet says “ pitiless as the sun” a violent beast who will destroy the world and punish the wrong people, that will bring the world toward the Apocalypse. 

The two thousand years the human race have spent in ignorance will end as the beast is marching towards the Bethlehem. The birthplace of Christ will become the place of the second coming, that is probably the beast who will destroy the world.

On Being Asked for a War Poem

I think it better that in times like these

A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth

We have no gift to set a statesman right;

He has had enough of meddling who can please

A young girl in the indolence of her youth,

Or an old man upon a winter’s night. 

This poem contains six lines, with rhyme scheme of ABC, ABC. The first three lines are about what a poet thinks about writing about war and in the other three lines he writes about what the writer's purpose is and where his limits are.

W B Yeats was asked for a war poem by the American novelist Henry James who with Edith Wharton was editing an anthology of war poems, ‘The Book of Homeless’. Yeats wrote a poem but it was not a war poem but an artistic refusal for being asked to write a war poem.

Yeats wrote the poem on 6 February, 1915 with title "To a friend who has asked me to sign his manifesto to the neutral nations" but later changed it into  "A Reason for Keeping Silent" before sending it in a letter to James. The poem was first published in Edith Wharton's ‘The Book of the Homeless’ in 1916 as "A Reason for Keeping Silent". Later the poem was  reprinted in ‘The Wild Swans at Coole’, that time the title was changed to "On being asked for a War Poem".

In the first three lines Yeats says what a poet should do in such situations. For him a poet should stay away from politics and situations like war as he has less influence than “ statesman” political leaders on the public. Yeats say that poets have “no gift to set a statesman right” , so they better be silent in such happenings like war, that sometimes created by politicians and leaders just to gain some political agendas and fulfil their propaganda. 

In the last three lines Yeats discusses what the role of the poets is. According to him, rather than being political and fulfilling the propaganda of politicians, the poet's main purpose is to please his readers. “Enough of meddling”, through this line the poet wants to say that he does not want to meddle in political propaganda as he has enough of it as he writes for “young girl in the indolence of her youth” and for  “ old man upon a winter’s night”. Through his two examples of “young girl” and “old man” he establishes his view of poet’s concerns that poet should write about ‘Youth and Wisdom”, than political issue.

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Frame Study of the movies 'Modern Times' and 'The Great Dictator'

This blog is written in response to the Thinking Activity on the frame study of the Charlie Chaplin's movies, 'Modern Times' And 'The Great Dictator' given by Dr. Dilip Barad sir at the Department of English, MKBU.

Frame study of Charlie Chaplin movies ‘Modern Times’ and ‘The Great Dictator’

When we want to know about important events and People of any time, we go to the history books or news but when we want to Know about the spirit of the time or the people in general we go to the literature. In the present time movies have become an essential part of the literature and also very helpful to understand the people, their psychology, changing time and nature of society and the world. Nowadays some movies are senseless and some have extreme sense in them, but we are going to talk about a person(Charlie Chaplin) who lived before us but his understanding and sense of making movies and his filmography is making sense even after a long time.

To understand the time and the setting of the 20th century.

The two films of Charlie Chaplin, ‘Modern Times’ and ‘The Great Dictator’ are very helpful movies to understand the setting and zeitgeist of the first half of the 20th century. Different frames of the movies wonderfully represent the time and people of the 20th century.

Charlie Chaplin’s movies are comedic and more for entertainment, but that does not stop him to become critical, and it in fact helps him to put layers in his movies. As they both fulfill a critical approach and awesome entertainment. Charlie’s Modern Times Criticizes the Industrialization and how society is becoming artificial and machine like and in “The Great Dictator” he mocks Hitler and the dictatorship and how the world leaders acts and how it impacts the common people. 

‘Modern TImes' is movie released in 1936 and it’s about a factory worker who tries to live in the world that is changing very fast and a poor girl who wants to raise herself from poverty. The movie is considered as the last great silent movie. It was a satire of modern age and contained various themes like, the dehumanizing effects of many aspects of modernity, including industrialization, bureaucracy, urbanization, and law enforcement.

‘The Great Dictator’ was released in the year 1940 and through the film Charlie Chaplin satirized the dictatorship as in that time various countries were ruled by dictators, in particular Germany by Hitler. The dispute between Aryan and Jewish people and the country's situation is presented by the double roles of Chaplin as Hynkel and Jewish Barber.

 Impact of the industrialization

The movie “Modern times” begins with note that goes like this,

“Modern Times, story of industry, individual enterprise and humanity crusading in pursuit of happiness”.

The story revolves around the Tramp character of Charlie Chaplin and as the film goes on we discovers various aspects of the industrialization effect on the human life and the social conditioning of the 20th century.

The very first scene holds a very deep meaning as it depicts modern life, that the way of living has become artificial and mechanical and the word is relaxing on the clock and all the people follow an invisible root of life, like sheep following each other. All controlled by the clock.

In the present time also we learn how to cope up with the modern world, how to blend ourselves with others. We all learn to get used to and become one of the crowd and how to get along with the flow.

The machinery and the people is also very deeply meaningful as they represent the laborers of the factories and the working class people. The bosses of the factories want to gain more and more profits and that's why they make more pressure to work and live like machines. The work stress of the factory and company of the machinery leads The Tramp to the bad mantel conditioning and the requirement of psychological help.

The industrialization is spreading and progressing but on the other hand there is no relevance to it with the common life. The owners of factories and industrial rich people are becoming more and more rich but the poor laborers and common people are becoming even poorer. 

This understanding comes from the girl who steals Bananas and takes them to her house where her two young sisters wait for food. Their father is a factory worker who lost his job and then dies in a protest against the factory owners. Through the Girls story we see how the government system fails to provide help to the people in need and how it also creates problems rather than solving them.

The Tramp and The Poor Girl together try to win against the cruel world but they always fail. They dream about a simple dream of home, happiness and more than anything the food. They want to fulfil the basic need of food as they don’t get that much at the end of the day.

The dictatorship and their propaganda. 

In ‘The Great Dictator’, Charlie Chaplin makes a parody of the German leader Adolf Hitler through the character of Dictator Hynkel. Charlie played double roles of Hynkel and a Jewish Barber.

The portrait of Hynkel highlights how dictators become selfish and favors only those who roam around them. They hear what they want to and do whatever they please and what benefits their propaganda.

From public support and weapon power they become leaders and rulers and then they dream of ruling the whole world.  The dictatorship becomes favorable to only one group of the people of one part of the society. Their main purpose becomes political gains and fulfillment of their propaganda. 

The character of Hynkel is a dictator who is a pretentious and hypocritical person who favors the general who always does something to please him and punish those who oppose him or tries to give sensible ideas. 

Through the Jewish barber we see the life of Jewish people in the rule of the dictator. How the Jewish colonies are marked and the police harass the common people and the common people lives in the terror of the authorities. The Jewish people once were also part of the nation as the Aryans, but they lived in the Ghetto.

The Ghettos were colonies where Jewish people lived in various countries as they were minorities, but now the term Ghetto is applied to the minority living areas where people live, like minorities, immigrants and poor peoples.

The division of colonies was very significant at that time. Industrialism also divided the colonies as the dictatorship. There are two areas one is the ghetto where Jewish people live and in the other the Aryan lives. Same way in other parts of the world through industries was the division of rich and poor people. Rich live in lavish and luxurious areas while the poor and working class people live in ghetto type places.