美国文学选读-丧钟为谁而鸣

Analysis on the theme ofFor Whom the Bell TollsThe themes of Hemingway’s novel are always about the war ,love and death. But they are describe in different ways depending on his different books. For example, the a farewell to arms and the sun also rises were written in 1920s,for whom the bell tolls was written 10 years later. We can see the attitude of Hemingway to love war and death has developed a lot. After struggling in lostness in a long time,he got rid of his lostness.The theme of war.The writing of war in the novel A Farewell to Arms is based on Hemingway’s early experience in World War I．Frederick Henry the protagonist of the novel，goes to the war in a burst of enthusiasm．This is reflected from his blindness in joining the Italian army．The disillusionment of Frederick Henry comes to stand for the disillusionment of the World War I generation：I was always embarrassed by the words sacred，glorious，and sacrifice and the expression in war．．．now for a long time and I had seen nothing sacred，and the things that were glorious and no glory and the sacrifices were like the stock yards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it．There were many words that you could not stand to bear and finally only the names of places had dignity．Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything．Abstract words such as glory,honor,courage，or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages，the numbers of roads，the name of rivers，and the numbers of regiments and date.The First World War gave that generation too much pain．That is why they got cynical about it and antiwar sentiment permeated everywhere．After World War I grew a lost generation，among which，Hemingway was the representative．But the attitude towards the war changed in the For Whom the Bell Tolls.In the 1930s，Fascism had become militant，imperialistic，and international．Although the artist devoted to the development of his art，isolated from political and social affairs，he could not ignore it any more．Just as Hemingway said that there was only one form of government that could not produce good writers，and that system was fascism．Robert Jordan，the protagonist of the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls，is not only a teacher of Spanish and a lover of Spain；he is also a writer，just like Hemingway．As an artist he is fully aware of the threat of fascist domination．But he take the duty without hesitate. And he came to the poor village and made friends with the soldiers. In the end of the article , he was not fear of death. He felt he could fight for the people who are oppressed by the fascism.Like the feeling you expected to have but did not have when you made your first communion．It was a feeling of consecration to a duty toward all the oppressed of the world which would be a difficult and embarrassing to speak out as religious experience and yet it is authentic as the feeling you had when you heard Bach，or stood in Charters Cathedral or the Cathedral at Leon and saw the light coming through the great windows⋯．It gave you a part in something that you could believe in wholly and completely．．．．It was something that gave much importance to it and the reasons for it that your own death seemed of complete unimportance ．．．．But the best thing was that there Was something you could do without this feeling--You could fight．Human LifeMany characters die during the course of the novel, and we see characters repeatedly question what can possibly justify killing another human being. Anselmo and Pablo represent two extremes with regard to this question. Anselmo hates killing people in all circumstances, although he will do so if he must. Pablo, on the other hand, accepts killing as a part of his life and ultimately demonstrates that he is willing to kill his own men just to take their horses. Robert Jordan’s position about killing falls somewhere between Anselmo’s and Pablo’s positions. Although Robert Jordan doesn’t like to think about killing, he has killed many people in the line of duty. His personal struggle with this question ends on a note of compromise. Although war can’t fully absolve him of guilt, and he has “no right to forget any of it,”Robert Jordan knows both that he must kill people as part of his duties in the war, and that dwelling on his guilt during wartime is not productive.The question of when it is justifiable to kill a person becomes complicated when we read that several characters, including Andrés, Agustín, Rafael, and even Robert Jordan, admit to experiencing a rush of excitement while killing. Hemingway does not take a clear moral stance regarding when it is acceptable to take another person’s life. At times he even implies that killing can be exhilarating, which makes the morality of the war in For Whom the Bell Tolls even murkier.Romantic LoveEven though many of the characters in For Whom the Bell Tolls take a cynical view of human nature and feel fatigued by the war, the novel still holds out hope for romantic love. Even the worldly-wise Pilar, in her memories of Finito, reveals traces of a romantic, idealistic outlook on the world. Robert Jordan and Maria fall in love at first sight, and their love is grand and idealistic. Love endows Robert Jordan’s life with new meaning and gives him new reasons to fight in the wake of the disillusionment he feels for the Republican cause. He believes in love despite the fact that other people—notably Karkov, who subscribes to the “purely materialistic”philosophy fashionable with the Hotel Gaylord set—reject its existence. This new acceptance of ideal, romantic love is one of the most important ways in which Robert Jordan rejects abstract theoriesin favor of intuition and action over the course of the novelFace the DeathFor Whom the Bell Tolls was written after the defeat of the Republic．During the Spanish War,Hemingway saw many heroic deeds．Hemingway,just as Robert Jordan，the hero of the novel，seemed to have found something worth dying for．If you die as these men did．then physical death means nothing and you can say as you breathe your last“Death，where is thy sting?or to use Hemingway’s own words“Those who have entered it honorably，and no man ever entered earth more honorably than those who died in Spain already have achieved immortality．Even though you died without having won，your sacrifice was not in vain，and victory shall yet be yours．Robert Jordan，like many Hemingway’s heroes，is obsessed by death from the beginning of the novel．death，Robert Jordan grows out of the fear of death at last and shows his courage in the face of death．For he has fervent belief in the cause of fighting for the people he loves deeply,as well as his perfect fulfillment in love.time．The bridge is successfully destroyed，and Jordan is mortally wounded．Instead of committing suicide，he decides to stay behind to cover the retreat of the guerrillas with his sub—machine gun．So he accomplishes his personal achievement through self-sacrifice．Each one does what he can，he thinks．He can do nothing for himself but perhaps he can do something for another．He dies not only for Spain，not only to save the girl Maria who he loves，but also his own sake in fulfillment of a moral duty．The grim world in which he had grown up has not broken Jordan nor forced him to a deal with his conscience．Jordan dies a moral victor．Whether one has fear of it or not．one’s death is difficult to accept．Sordo had accepted it but there was no sweetness in its acceptance even atfifty·two，with three wounds and him surrounded on a hill．He joked about itto himself but he looked at the sky and at the far mountains and heswallowed the wine and he did not want it．If one must die，he thought，andclearly one must，1 can die．But 1 hate it．Dying Was nothing and he had nopicture of it for fear of it in his mind．But living was a field of grain blowingin the wind on the side of a hill．Living Was a hank in the sky．Living was anearthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out andthe chaff blowing．Living Was a horse between your legs and a carbine underone leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the farside of the valley and the hills beyond．”Hemingway’s heroes grow up，and step by step their idea of meaning of life changes and crystallizes.参考文献1.靳伟英走出迷惘的迷雾—《丧钟为谁而鸣》的主题思想[学位论文]硕士 20022.张娜解读海明威死亡主题【学位论文】硕士 2006。