For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is often considered one of Ernest Hemingway’s greatest works. In the introduction to the edition used in this guide, Hemingway’s grandson writes that “Hemingway conceived For Whom the Bell Tolls out of his own experience and the knowledge that he had gained about Spain and its people” (10).

Hemingway was an American journalist and Modernist writer; his creative work included both novels and short stories. Hemingway greatly valued fighting for his country, but as a young man during World War I, he was turned away from active service due to a problem with his eyes. Determined to serve, he worked as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross in Italy. He became a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star, which brought him into the circles of Modernist writers and avant-garde artists, many of whom were expatriates living in Paris.

Hemingway spent time in Spain before living in Paris, and he returned to Spain regularly while researching Death in the Afternoon (1932). He developed a great love of the country and of bullfighting. He was deeply affected by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and he returned to Spain one year after war broke out to write for the American Newspaper Alliance.

As a writer, Hemingway valued concise language and style and the promotion of truth above all. His grandson reminds readers that Hemingway himself stated:

A writer’s job is to tell the truth. His standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention, out of his experience, should produce a truer account than anything factual can be. For facts can be observed badly; but when a good writer is creating something, he had time and scope to make it of an absolute truth (11).

Despite his preference for concision, the influence of the Modernist movement on Hemingway’s writing can be seen in his use of techniques such as stream of consciousness. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert provides the primary perspective for this, but several other characters are given space for their stream of consciousness. Hemingway’s explorations of the effects of war are also particularly Modernist; Hemingway’s peers often explored the ways that modern warfare fundamentally altered the world and how they perceived it.