For Whom the Bell Tolls: Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

In the dark, the group comes up the hill, loaded heavily with equipment and ammunition. Pablo says that with his five horses, he will deal with the lower fascist post, cutting the wire and “falling back” upon the bridge. Ever since Pablo returned to the cave, Robert Jordan has felt increasingly better; seeing him has broken “the pattern of tragedy into which the whole operation had seemed grooved ever since the snow.” Jordan feels that the operation is now possible.

The “greatest gift” Robert Jordan has—the “talent that fitted him for war”—is the ability to “despise” whatever “bad ending” there might be. He can ignore harm done to himself, since he knows that he himself is “nothing,” and death, too, is “nothing.” He feels that he has been “most fortunate” in the last few days, since he has learned that “he himself, with another person, could be everything.” Still, Jordan tells himself that he shouldn’t think of Maria “all day ever,” and that he can do nothing now to protect her “except to keep her out of it.” He needs to do the job well and fast, and then get out: thinking about her will only “handicap” him. Maria walks up to Robert Jordan, and he tells her not to worry about anything, saying that she will be most useful taking care of the horses during the offensive.