Book Review: For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]My girl.

[00:00:03]Every time this character this brings me so much joy.

[00:00:09]I'm telling you, I said this in my last video. If you know, you know. Name that name this character in the comments below and where she comes from. Ladies and gentlemen, we gather around today to talk about a book, as you can tell by the title, I knew would take me some time to get around to this review and I feel like my review of For Whom the Bell Tolls by Earn Him You could write a dissertation on this book. Um so, yeah. Let's hop into it cuz there's a lot to discuss and I'm not discussing everything. You got to pick and choose some of your battles. You got to love Ernest Hemingway and the way he writes sometimes. He makes me question my grammar. Okay. In this you have to have very much head and be very cold in the head.

[00:00:57]So, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, you know, one of the Ernest Hemingway, you know, like one of the most classic American authors, right?

[00:01:08]And this is considered a classic, one of the classic war novels, period, I think.

[00:01:15]We have the main character, Robert Robert Jordan. He is in Spain during the Spanish Civil War as a part of an anti-fascist guerrilla unit.

[00:01:25]This novel explores massively explores themes of agency versus free will or lack of agency, the ethics of killing another human being and the toll that war has on the individual. That's just for the most part where I'm going to focus this review. There were when I outlined my review for this, just my brainstorm, and what I could possibly have talked about theme-wise, I was like, um I had a lot and I was I was let me narrow this down so that my review seems most cohesive to me, right? This was not an easy book to review. The first thing that stood out to me as I read this novel is how Hemingway portrays the concept of agency or the lack thereof.

[00:02:10]Through these militaristic elements of the story. So, we have these characters, especially Robert Jordan, they use following orders or I'm doing my duty to exemplify detachment for certain actions.

[00:02:24]Putting the weight of their actions on the shoulders shoulders of those who are higher than than them, those who are giving them the orders. This tactic is a lot is allowing for them to absolve themselves to the best of their ability, they're telling themselves this, right?

[00:02:38]Of the responsibility of the responsibility, excuse me, and eliminating their free will.

[00:02:43]Militaristic operations, somebody someone like our main character, Robert Jordan, feels like choice is a luxury, free will doesn't always exist. He is a cog in the machine. "I only come from my duty," Robert Jordan told him. "I come under orders from those who are conducting the war. If I ask you to help me, you can refuse, and I will find others who will help me.

[00:03:05]I have not even asked you for help yet.

[00:03:08]I have to do what I'm ordered to do, and I can promise you it of its importance."

[00:03:13]He resented Golz's orders and the necessity for them. He resented them for what he could do what they could do to him and for what they could do to this old man. There were bad orders all right for those who would have to carry them out. You are instruments to do your duty. I am agreed that it is perhaps the best that he should be eliminated in order that the operations projected should be ensured of the maximum possibility of success. Again, this theme of with all of this also includes does the end always justify the means, especially when it's matters are light of life and death.

[00:03:55]So, in the same vein, there is this contrast between feeling and thinking.

[00:04:00]When one can shut off one's feelings and thoughts, an individual is able to carry out certain orders with detachment.

[00:04:08]This can again be seen with Robert Jordan, and we have his love interest, Maria. Getting involved with Maria opens up Robert Jordan and Maria to What is that noise?

[00:04:21]Is that a bird?

[00:04:32]Oh, no, that's some a tool outside.

[00:04:34]Somebody's using equipment. Okay, never mind. I was like, I have the ears of a hawk, man. That was not That does not sound like it's close at all.

[00:04:41]Um So, Robert Jordan, even against his better judg- judgment, perhaps, getting involved with Maria, him opening up those feelings and thoughts, he's bringing that He's bringing upon himself, Maria, and even those in this unit that he's in, this gorilla unit, to even more risk.

[00:05:01]>> [snorts] >> And it's not just physical, it's emotional, as well. What happens when you know, there's a lot that there's a lot that happens when you let your guard down, especially when it comes to love.

[00:05:12]It can affect your decision-making because who your priorities shift. And And so, it it prevents him from It puts him at risk um when it comes to his detachment, when it comes to his assignment, right? And it when it comes to, you know, blowing up this bridge for the cause. Turn off the thinking now, old-timer, old comrade.

[00:05:31]You're a bridge blower now, not a thinker. This was no way to think, but who censored his thinking? Nobody but himself. He would not think himself into any defeatism. It is not you who decides what shall be done. You follow orders.

[00:05:44]Follow them and do not try to think beyond them. The orders on this are very clear.

[00:05:50]Two, very clear. But you not But you must not worry, nor must you be frightened. For if you allow yourself the luxury of normal fear, that fear will infect those who must work with you. So, on this mission for the cause, right?

[00:06:06]This anti- fascist guerrilla unit that Robert Jordan is in, those So, Robert Jordan and those who he's teamed up with, they know that lives are going to be lost when it comes to the blowing up of this bridge, and those that are on the opposing side that they come in contact with. There are skirmishes that happen between the opposing sides in this novel. They know that this is a civil war.

[00:06:34]And because of this, like in any war war, civil or not, they know that lives will be lost and that those lives will be lost at the cost of their own hands.

[00:06:43]Is there ever a time in this is what this question this book is asking. Is there ever a time when killing is permissible or justifiable, and should one ever take pleasure in it? I do not like to kill men.

[00:06:54]No one Nobody does, except those who are disturbed in the head, Robert Jordan said. But I feel nothing against it when it is necessary, when it is for the cause.

[00:07:04]Yes, several times, but not with pleasure. To me, it is a sin to kill a man, even fascists who we must all kill.

[00:07:12]To me, there is a great difference between the bear and the man. And I do not believe the wizards wizardry of the gypsies about the brotherhood with animals. No, I am against the killing of men. Do not think of it as a man, but as a target, the acuerdo.

[00:07:31]Do not shoot at the whole man, but at a point. Thou art a hunter. Thou hast no problem. One thing that Hemingway does tackle in this novel, which for my understanding, I think this is a theme in many of his novels, it's the repercussions of war.

[00:07:51]The the repercussions that war and violence have on men and women.

[00:07:55]PTSD.

[00:07:58]We have Maria, who has been through her own traumatic ordeal because of this Civil War.

[00:08:04]And we have Robert Jordan and other men who have been exposed to great violence because of the war. As Robert Jordan also reflects on his father and his grandfather having fought in wars and what that did to did to them. And he even there's a portion of the novel where he reflects on his grandfather and wishes that his grandfather was still alive to talk about some of these things.

[00:08:25]Um because now he's able to understand certain things as a man better because he's experienced more and, you know, he's really missing the loss of an elder to confide in. Confide Yeah, confide confide in, excuse me, when it comes to processing and talking out these things that you experience as you continue to uh live and you're just exposed to more.

[00:08:47]Hemingway makes it clear, I think, that in these conditions, who really wins on either side. Do Does anybody really win when there are just very deep scars that are left behind regardless regardless of what side the person may fall on.

[00:09:03]There are always consequences to war and violence and everybody play pays at a minimum a psycholog- a psychological price. In the case of this Russian comrade, he was very nervous from spending too much time at the front.

[00:09:16]He had fought at Irun, which you know, was bad, very bad. He had fought later in the north and since the first groups who did this work behind the lines were formed, he had worked there.

[00:09:27]In Estremadura in Andalusia.

[00:09:31]I think he was very tired and nervous and he imagined ugly things.

[00:09:35]I did pronounce that right, Andalusia?

[00:09:37]Yeah, I did pronounce it right. I'm sorry.

[00:09:39]I am so tired. It's like I'm reading and it's like my brain is blanking as I'm reading. I'm skipping over words.

[00:09:45]You saw fear and apprehension. The fear was made by what he had been through.

[00:09:49]The apprehension was for the possibility of evil he imagined.

[00:09:53]I saw death there as plainly as though it were sitting on his shoulder. And what is more, he smelt of death. He smelt of death, Robert Jordan jeered, or fear maybe. There is a smell to fear.

[00:10:05]In him too, the despair was from the sorrow that soldiers turned to hatred in order that they may continue to be soldiers.

[00:10:12]Now it was over.

[00:10:14]Now it was over, he was lonely.

[00:10:17]Detached and unrelated and he hated everyone he saw. Once you saw it again as it was to others, once you got rid of your own self, the always reading of self that you had to do in war, where there could be no self, where your self is only to be lost. For Whom the Bell Tolls.

[00:10:38]This is my second Hemingway. My first Hemingway was that I read was As the Sun Rises. I enjoyed For Whom the Bell Tolls more than The Sun Also Rises. I think I just got on with it a little bit better, but which is what happens sometimes with some authors. Some of their books you're like, I get it, I enjoyed it, maybe not my favorite, but then you come across another one of their works and you're like, yeah, I like this one better or this one kind of suits me a little bit more. I also think that because The Sun Also Rises was my introduction to Hemingway, picking up this one, I knew what to expect more when it came to came to his writing style.

[00:11:14]And I think that for me, the themes in particular in this one in For Whom the Bell Tolls, I enjoyed them more, perhaps, even though there are some you could just argue that there's some overlap here, but maybe just the way that it was presented, I got on with it a little better. I I annotated a lot and I mean I mean do you see that?

[00:11:38]I annotated quite a bit and even when I was going back through the book in my annotations to pull together the review, it was very hard to narrow these quotes down because I mean it it was almost I felt like every other page I was marking something. This is one of those books that um it's about 400 and something pages but because Hemingway is packing so much into it. Again, he is a master at the bare minimum in a good way. Skeletal writing. He says what he needs to say in a very blunt direct manner but that bluntness does not detract from how profound it is. And so I'd have to sit there and sometimes like mm let me [clears throat] think about this for a minute and that really slowed down the reading process which I didn't mind at all. So even though it was only 400 and some pages, 400 and 471 pages, it's not necessarily a short book but it's not a 1,000 pager. Um >> [laughter] >> it took me quite a bit of time to get through it. It was a slow read for me.

[00:12:41]But it was worth the effort because again it's just one of those books you got you I I think you get the most out of it from if you were to sit with it.

[00:12:48]I'm not going to lie, I thought the book was a tad bit too long. I think it could have been a little bit shorter um for the purposes of the narrative.

[00:12:56]And towards the end I I was kind of ready for it to be over.

[00:13:00]But did that detract from the overall impression that the book left on me? No.

[00:13:06]No, not really. I still gave it a four out of five a four out of five. Again, I really enjoyed it. Um and it made me look forward to reading more Hemingway.

[00:13:14]In fact, whenever I do pick up another Hemingway, Farewell to Arms it is. This cover is immaculate. But Farewell to Arms it is whenever that happens. It might not be this year.

[00:13:25]But no, I enjoyed it and this was the more so than The Sun Also Rises for me that said, "This is why people like Hemingway. I can see why this is a classic."

[00:13:34]This was also one of those reviews, I feel like I just skimmed the surface when it comes to things that one could talk about.

[00:13:43]You there I could have gone on about the commentary on religion in this book, um people and their ideologies and the sides that they take, very relevant right to today's climate.

[00:13:56]Um I could go more into the female characters, etc., but that's what rereading is for.

[00:14:04]There are some stuff in this book I'm still chewing over. And so, that's why also I decided to leave certain things out of my review because some stuff is still marinating, if that makes sense. I'm like, even when I was going back over my my annotations, I'm like, I feel like I still have thoughts forming on this, and that's okay.

[00:14:22]Thoughts and comments below, what is your famous favorite Ernest Hemingway?

[00:14:26]Um how did you get on with For Whom the Bell Tolls? How did you get on with A Farewell to Arms if you read it. I I'm really excited to read this when I do get to read it. Thoughts and comments below, feel free to follow me on Instagram where I get up to more bookish shenanigans. Bookish. I post all of my book content there first.

[00:14:46]And yeah, that's it. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.