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Chapter 34
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in For Whom the Bell Tolls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love in War
Cultural Connections
Violence, Cowardice, and Death
The Eternality of the Present
Summary
Analysis
Robert Jordan lies beside Maria, who is still sleeping, and “rages” at himself, calling himself an “utter blasted damned fool” for not seeing Pablo’s treachery before. Jordan feels that he is “mucked for good” and that he needs out get his anger out. He curses his grandfather, Spain, and the Spaniards, for their “conceit and their treachery.”
Jordan is angry with himself for not seeing that Pablo intended to betray the group, and he begins to question the war and all it represents to him—his family connections to war (symbolized by his grandfather) and his faith in the ideals of the Republic.
Themes
Jordan’s rage begins to “thin,” and he thinks about the “good ones” in Spain. He hates injustice as he hates cruelty, and gradually his anger dies down. He reflects that his situation isn’t as bad as he thought it was, and that though they are short of people, he can “do the bridge” with the few people he has left. He tells the sleeping Maria that he has it “all figured out,” and that though they will be killed, he will blow up the bridge, and she will not have to worry about it.
Jordan forces himself to stay focused on the plan and put his frustrations aside, though he realizes that he and the others will probably be killed while carrying out the offensive.
Themes
