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The Bridge
The treacherous terrain where the novel is set—the hills and mountains near Segovia, north of Madrid—represents the treacherous ups and downs of war, in which successes are often followed by failures, and the thrill of victory often accompanies stifling boredom and miserable conditions. The mountains where the Republican guerillas have positioned themselves comprise a harsh, forbidding environment, with rugged terrain and a volatile climate: it even snows at one point, though the novel is set in late May. Though difficult to navigate, the snow also proves useful to the Republicans, helping to disguise them from the fascists; as the weather clears, the fascists are able to gain control of the territory and launch attacks. Thus, the Republicans’ success is in many ways contingent on the conditions of the mountains, and they strategize frequently about finding discreet vantage points and hiding from plane surveillance. At times, the mountains seem like the ideal setting in which to hide and organize strategy, but the guerillas often complain of boredom and of primitive living conditions, given that their headquarters are in a cave.
Furthermore, though it is implied that some of the guerillas (Pablo, Pilar, and Maria) are able to escape the mountains at the end of the novel, Robert Jordan is left to die in them, suggesting that warfare—and all that it entails, both wins and losses—is unavoidable and all-encompassing, just as massive and intimidating as mountains themselves.
The Hills and Mountains Quotes in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The For Whom the Bell Tolls quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Hills and Mountains. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 37
Quotes
If I die on this day it is a waste because I know a few things now. I wonder if you only learn them now because you are oversensitized because of the shortness of the time? There is no such thing as a shortness of time, though. You should have sense enough to know that too. I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend. I know him better than I know Charles, than I know Chub, than I know Guy, than I know Mike, and I know them well. Agustin, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and my wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife. She is also my sister, and I never had a sister, and my daughter, and I never will have a daughter. I hate to leave a thing that is so good.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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The Hills and Mountains Symbol Timeline in For Whom the Bell Tolls
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Hills and Mountains appears in For Whom the Bell Tolls. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...can handle it. The two men work their way through the pine forest of the mountainside, around the face of the mountain and across a stream. The young man begins to...
(full context)
...says that the only reason he and his group are able to operate in the mountains is because they are quiet, and he and Anselmo spar verbally.
(full context)
Chapter 2
...she tells him that she is called Maria, and that she has been in the mountains for three months. Her hair was shaved in the prison at Valladolid; she was on...
(full context)
...and she reminds Jordan that after the bridge, the group must move down from the mountain. Jordan thanks her for her frank advice and goes to wake Anselmo to travel to...
(full context)
Chapter 3
...doesn’t reveal anything. Agustin curses at him and says that he wishes to leave the mountains.
(full context)
...trying to gather men from other bands, since he knows every move made in the mountains.
(full context)
Chapter 8
...realizes that if they are not looking for anything, they might see the group in the hills , but they might mistake them for their own troops. Jordan gets dressed while another...
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...There is some talk that troops have been sent from Valladolid to clear out the mountains.
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Chapter 11
...Pilar will tell him the rest of her story. He thinks of her as “a mountain,” and Joaquin and Maria as “young trees.”
(full context)
...up the bridge would be easy before daylight or at daylight, but fleeing from the mountains will be difficult. He asks Robert Jordan if they could blow up the bridge at...
(full context)
Chapter 15
...relieve him of his post. Fernando, standing nearby, joins them, and they move back up the hills in the snow. Jordan is suddenly “very happy,” feeling a “sudden, rare happiness that can...
(full context)
Chapter 21
Robert Jordan tells Pablo that he is going up into the mountains. Pablo takes the soldier’s automatic rifle off of the horse, which Primitivo has retrieved, and...
(full context)
Chapter 27
El Sordo does not like the hill where he is fighting, but he has no choice, since he is being pursued by...
(full context)
...on the slope below him; there are other dead bodies on the other sides of the hill . Unless they bring up a trench mortar (to throw a bomb), the fascists will...
(full context)
One of Sordo’s men says that Pilar knows that they are dying on the hill and is doing nothing to help, but Sordo says that there is nothing she can...
(full context)
...that it is a “trick”: the first officer starts yelling at Sordo’s group again, cursing the hilltop . The second officer, Paco Berrendo, shakes his head: his best friend, a young lieutenant,...
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Berrendo tells Mora that it isn’t smart to go up into the hills , but Mora insists that the “Reds are dead.” He begins to scream, “Shoot me!...
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The planes start to bomb the hilltop , but no one on the hilltop knows it. When the bombing is over, Berrendo...
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Chapter 28
...group, since the planes only “scare you to death.” But when he hears quiet from the hills at last, he knows that it is over. Maria has come up from the camp...
(full context)
...reminds him that they had no choice. They watch as horsemen come into sight on the hill , some horses carrying bundles. What Jordan cannot see is that one saddle carries a...
(full context)
Chapter 34
The fascists hold the crests of the hills , but there is a valley that no one holds, save for a fascist post...
(full context)
Chapter 42
Meanwhile, Pablo has ridden back from the hills to the cave, and Andrés is making progress toward Golz’s headquarters with Gomez on his...
(full context)
Chapter 43
...will come back down for him and, before heading up to a higher position on the hill , leaves him with a rifle and cartridges.
(full context)
