Cultural Connections Theme Analysis

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a distinctive work in part because Hemingway attempts to translate Spanish idioms and grammar directly, without removing their original contexts. The result is a novel that is acutely attuned to cultural differences. Instead of assimilating Spanish culture into a wholly American writing style, Hemingway combines the two, helping to express Spanish to an English-speaking audience. Similarly, Robert Jordan’s own experiences as an American fighting for the anti-fascist Spaniards reveal more resemblances between the two cultures than differences. The United States, Jordan discloses, is no less corrupt than Spain, and Jordan’s own allegiance toward the anti-fascists demonstrates the extent to which cultural differences can be transcended. Though Jordan initially believes that he cannot understand the Spanish people, whom he views as profoundly two-sided—caught between extreme “kindness” and extreme “cruelty”—he finds himself overcoming this conviction to form intense bonds with his fellow fighters, confirming the important of connection and empathy across cultures.

For Whom the Bell Tolls takes up the project of cross-cultural linguistics, attempting to depict the Spanish language in an American style without fully “Americanizing” its facets. Some dialogue in the novel reads as archaic or outdated, since Hemingway attempts to express the difference between formal and familiar addresses in Spanish, using “thou” and “thee” to represent “usted,” and “you” to represent “tú.” Hemingway’s translations are not always seamless or modern in feel, allowing the English-speaking reader to “hear” the linguistic differences between English and Spanish. For example, the somewhat awkward, unfamiliar phrase “I obscenity in the milk” recurs throughout the novel, a direct (though partially censored) translation of the Spanish curse me cago en la leche. Thus, English and Spanish are marked as distinct but uniquely intertwined, allowing for cross-cultural exchange at the level of language.

The novel also explores the impact of cross-cultural dynamics on its American protagonist and Spanish characters, drawing parallels between the political situations of both the United States and Spain, and developing Robert Jordan’s attachment to Spain throughout the novel. Robert Jordan wonders “what sort of guerrilla leader” Pablo “would have been in the American Civil War,” comparing his own knowledge of American warfare—imparted on him by his grandfather, a veteran of the American Civil War—with his impressions of the Spanish Civil War. American and Spanish violence, he realizes, are not so different. Prompted by Pilar’s story of Pablo’s massacre on the fascists in his hometown, Jordan reveals that he once witnessed a lynching in Ohio, incited by the same kind of drunkenness and mob behavior that took shape in Pablo’s town: “I have had experiences which demonstrate that drunkenness is the same in my country. It is ugly and brutal.” Furthermore, Agustin, another guerrilla fighter, asks Jordan about taxes and land ownership in the United States, arguing that “the big proprietors and the rich will make a revolution against such taxes […] they will revolt against the government when they see that they are threatened, exactly as the fascists have done here,” and suggesting that the United States, like Spain, will soon confront fascism, given their shared problems.

At first, Jordan believes that there are few connections to be made between Spanish and American culture, despite his own immersion in Spanish culture and his former position as a Spanish teacher in the United States. Jordan declares that “there are no other countries like Spain,” and that “there is no finer and no worse people in the world” than the Spaniards, explaining that he does not understand them, because if he did, he “would forgive it all,” and he finds it difficult to forgive their brutality. Yet he also never feels “like a foreigner” in Spain, since the Spaniards trust his command of the language and his knowledge of different regions.

Ultimately, Jordan sacrifices himself for the safety of his fellow guerrillas, allowing them to escape to safety and devoting himself to the cause of the Republic: “he fought now in this war because it had started in a country that he loved and he believed in the Republic and that if it were destroyed life would be unbearable for all those people who believed in it.” In becoming a martyr, Jordan demonstrates his own understanding of and connection to the Spanish people, and he declares that “I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend […] Agustin, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and wife.”

Though many of Hemingway’s novels and writings are set away from the United States—such as A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises—they usually feature a globalist perspective, drawing comparisons between an American home and a European setting. Cultural differences are likewise emphasized in For Whom the Bell Tolls, but these differences do not preclude the possibility of cultural connection or mutual understanding. Robert Jordan is familiar with and sensitive to his adopted country, and by the end of the novel, he has reached a level of profound empathy and acceptance, transcending his American roots and living up to the novel’s epigraph, “No Man is an Iland [Island].”