Hey all, I have been reading the book For Whom the Bell Toll's and my professor asks us to answer some questions.

Just trying to see what some of you think. Ill send F/G + purchase more if I have too! Here are the questions. I need to answer the first 5!

ON HEMINGWAY PERSONALLY:
1. In what way does Hemingway's early writing reflect a temperament that would be drawn to Spanish culture?
2. Given Hemingway’s total war experience, how likely is it that his portrait of war in Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls is authentic?

3. Who was Jose Robles, and how did he figure in the friendship between Hemingway and the American writer, John Dos Passos?

4. Is it fair to say that Hemingway’s personal involvement in the Spanish Civil War was at best ambivalent and at worst self-serving?

5. How does the ever-present temptation of suicide figure in Hemingway’s love of Spain? Is there a connection between his eventual suicide and the way he saw and loved bull-fighting?

6. Was Hemingway a brave man or a coward? In answering this, consider his actions before and after he got wounded in Italy. Also consider his trips to the front lines near Madrid with Joris Ivens and his cameraman. Also consider his suicide in 1961.

7. How might have Hemingway’s adopted Catholicism played a role in his ambivalence toward taking a side in the Spanish Civil War?

8. In 1939, Hemingway left Spain swearing that he would not return until there were no political prisoners in Franco’s Spain. In spite of that, and with Franco still the dictator of Spain, he returned in 1960 with a lucrative contract to produce a book on bull-fighting that was supposed to be a follow-up to Death in the Afternoon. He did write the book, The Dangerous Summer, but it was a disaster. It came out a year before his suicide. What conclusions about Hemingway personally and Hemingway as a writer might you draw from these facts?

9. What role did Hemingway’s relationships with his wife, Pauline Pfeiffer and fellow-reporter Martha Gellhorn play in Hemingway’s return to Spain in 1936?

10. How did Hemingway meet Martha Gellhorn and how did his actions after the meeting indicate that this meeting was the end of his marriage to Pauline Pfeiffer?


ON HEMINGWAY AS A WRITER:
11 Is it fair to judge a book like For Whom the Bell Tolls from a political standpoint, or should it stand by itself as a fictional success or failure?

12. Is For Whom the Bell Tolls a realistic portrait of events, attitudes and politics of the Spanish Civil War?

13. Before he left for Spain, Hemingway finished what is considered one of his poorest books, To Have and Have Not. At one point, its protagonist, Harry Morgan, says something like: "One man ain't got no chance alone. One man alone ain't got a fucking chance."

If this comment is taken as the book’s theme, how does it apply to For Whom the Bell Tolls? How does it apply to “The Fifth Column”?

14. Between the end of WWI and the beginning of WWII, many intellectuals found spiritual solace in socialist and/or communist causes. These intellectuals often believed that artistic works had the responsibility of promoting a political agenda or a social cause. Does For Whom the Bell Tolls show that Hemingway had given in to this principle in spite of his protests against it?

15. Did Hemingway ever kill another human being in combat?

16. Hemingway made some distinctive stylistic choices in For Whom the Bell Tolls. For one thing, he was prohibited from using strong cursing by his publisher, and tried to work around that with acceptable phrases that still got the idea of the curse across. For another, he chose to use personal pronouns like, “thee,” “thou,” and “thy,” instead of “you” and “yours.” Finally, he chose to insert Spanish phrases, which, though left untranslated, are clear from the context.
How well do those choices work? Did you find them successful in heightening your response to the mood and texture of the book, or did you find that they were intrusive and weakened your involvement in the book?
Were these choices, in your view, signs of Hemingway’s weakening powers of writing or were they daring innovations that showed he was at the top of his writing powers?

17. Was Hemingway courted by the Russian communists in Spain and used to give them a more reputable image to Americans?

18. Who, probably, is the character of Robert Jordan based on in real life?

19. What was the quality of reporting Hemingway turned out for NANA, Esquire and Ken?

20. Is “The Fifth Column” a theatrical reworking of the real events that happened to Hemingway in the Hotel Florida?


ON HEMINGWAY’S POLITICS:
21a. If you had to regard For Whom the Bell Tolls only in terms of its political stance, what would you say that stance is and why?

21b. Same question for Hemingway’s only play, “The Fifth Column.”

22. How were Hemingway’s views about the apolitical role of the writer contradicted by his actions and reporting?

23. Where were Hemingway’s sympathies in the Spanish Civil War?

24. Whatever answer you gave for the previous question, what evidence is there to contradict it?

25. The Spanish Civil War lasted just over three years, from 1936 through 1939. How do Hemingway’s presence in Spain during that time and his actions in Spain during that time compare to the presence and actions of two other well-known authors: John Dos Passos and George Orwell?

26. A friend of mine who has lived in Spain for years and is married to a Spanish woman objected to my criticism of the Franco regime. He said, “Without Franco, there would have been chaos and lawlessness in Spain. Whatever you think of him, he saved Spain from disintegrating into anarchy.” How do the events in For Whom the Bell Tolls contradict or lend support to my ex-friend’s statement.

27. Was Hemingway someone who loved war or hated it?


Anyone love Hemingway, and willing to share their knowledge!? Thank you