For Whom the Bell Tolls: Chapter 36 Summary & Analysis

Andrés arrives at the Republican government post, but he doesn’t cross the “triple belt of wire” for safety reasons: as he approaches the belt, a rifle fires at him, and he tells its owner not to shoot. A voice asks him who he is, and he says that he is from the “band of Pablo” and “not a fascist.” Other voices chime in and begin to debate whether to shoot him or not; eventually, he is allowed to enter with his rifle above his head, insisting all the way that he is not a fascist. One men says that he has never heard of the band of Pablo. Andrés tells the soldiers that he himself has “no importance,” but “the affair is serious.” He realizes that he is up against the “crazies,” the ones who wear black-and-read scarves, and shouts “Viva la Libertad!” One of the men replies, “Viva la F. A. I. Viva la C. N. T."

Andrés is allowed to climb over the parapet, and the bomb man of the group greets him warmly, calling him a “coreligionary.” He looks at André’s papers, noticing the seal of the S. I. M., and asks him where he was born. Andrés says he was born in Villaconejos, and the soldier asks him to prove it; he describes a bodega owner and tells the soldier about his father’s work as a Republican in Villacastin. The soldier says that there is “too much of this silly guerilla nonsense going on,” and that the guerillas should come and “submit to Libertarian discipline.”

Andrés is “endowed with almost supreme patience” and is not flustered by the soldiers’ criticism and threats. He tells the soldier that he has orders to deliver a dispatch to General Golz, and the soldier tells him that he mistrusts him, since his papers could be forged. Andrés is taken into a trench behind the hill to see the Commander, all the while reflecting that he does not like “these people who were like dangerous children; dirty, foul, undisciplined, kind, loving, silly and ignorant but always dangerous because they were armed.” He himself is without politics, except that he is “for the Republic”; though he thinks what “these people” have said about the Republic is “beautiful,” he still does not like them. As they walk down the hill, the officer orders André to give him his gun, since he “trusts no one.”