Books of Literature by Nobel Prize Winning Authors: 2020 Challenge discussion
For Whom the Bell Tolls
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Week 4: chapter 31-43
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Tracey
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Nov 23, 2016 07:42PM
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1. Jordan had studied war since a boy when his grandfather introduced him to the American Civil War in which he fought.What happened to the gun that he carried through the 4 years of the war? How did it effect Jordan?
2. Maria shares some of what happened to her at the hands of the Fascists. How do you feel about what they did? How did Jordan feel about her afterwards? Is this sort of thing 'normal' in times of war? Explain.
3. What did Pablo do and how did it effect the mission Jordan had?
4. What was Andres mission and how did it go? What opposition did he have?
5. How did you feel at the end of the book?
My review:There were times I didn't like or understand the book but I persisted and was rewarded.
This story is achingly, painfully, beautifully, exquisitely, real. There are no good guys/bad guys. There are differences of opinion, there are good and bad on both sides. There is no absolute truth but isolated moments of crystalized pureness of thought, emotion, existence. As Jordan, one of the main characters, says in the book, to live more of life in 3 days, to learn more in that time, than even a longer life would give.
I cried at the end; of course I did. I loved the main characters with all their flaws and foolishness, because they were so real and human. I think this book is about humanity and coming to accept it in all it's glory and insanity.
One thing I found interesting was Jordan's thoughts on suicide. He felt it was a cowardly thing and yet towards the end he was fearful of having to resort to it himself. He held out and did not.Hemingway committed suicide and had had mental ill health for along time. I feel he was expressing his own feelings in Jordan. It is being more widely recognised now that Hemingway was on certain medications and treatments for depression towards the end of his life and that it could have been these that changed the balance of his mind and prompted the suicide. The treatments back then were pretty harsh. I would like to think this was so.
