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Chapter 40
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
Pablo stops to dismount from his horse, and Robert Jordan smells the horses and “the unwashed and sour slept-in-clothing smell of the new men.” Jordan asks Pilar if she understands that the attack on the post cannot happen until they hear “the falling of the bombs.” Pilar says that she has understood this since they were at Sordo’s, and Jordan asks Pablo if he, too, understands; he says that he does, though they need more horses. Jordan wonders if Pablo is planning something, and he shakes Pablo’s hands as they depart. Jordan feels that they must be allies now. Pablo apologizes for taking the explosives, and he says that he thinks the bridge will be a “successful termination.”
Though Robert Jordan still feels wary about Pablo, he decides to put his trust in him for the sake of the operation: in the face of danger and violence, unity is important.
Themes
Jordan says goodbye to Maria and tells her not to worry when she hears the firing. He has not felt “this young” since he took the train at Red Lodge to go down to Billings and go away to school for the first time. Jordan’s father had kissed him goodbye, cried, and said a prayer, since he was a “very religious man.” Jordan had been embarrassed by his father, and he had suddenly felt so “sorry for him that he could hardly bear it.” As the train moved away, the brakeman asked him if he minded going away to school, and he said that he didn’t. Jordan feels just as “young” and “awkward” now, saying goodbye to Maria, as he did then.
Jordan remembers feeling ashamed about his father when he saw him off to school as a child, since he became emotional—going against traditional ides of masculinity. Now, though, Jordan seems to understand how his father felt—though he still finds saying goodbye, and displaying emotion, difficult. Though he did not mind leaving his father behind, he finds it very hard to leave Maria.
Themes
Anselmo, Agustin, and Robert Jordan walk downhill and position the maquina (machines) for the explosion behind the bases of pine trees. Jordan tells Agustin that he and Anselmo will “deal with” the sentries at the posts near the bridge. Jordan tells Anselmo to fire at the sentry when he does, and when the man at his post is dead, to cross the bridge over to him at the other post. Then, the two will place the charges to explode the bridge. He tells Anselmo not to think of the sentry as a man but as a target, and Anselmo says that he will do as Jordan orders. When he leaves, Jordan lies down on the floor of the forest, loads his sub-machine gun, and waits for daylight.
In order to make Anselmo more comfortable with the idea of killing the sentry, Jordan tells Anselmo to think of him as a “target”: specifically ordering Anselmo to kill is the only way to make Anselmo forgo his principles and his opposition to killing.
Themes
