Summary: Chapter Twenty-seven
“Pasionaria says ‘Better to die on thy—’”
Joaquín was saying to himself as the drone came nearer them. Then he
shifted suddenly into “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with
thee. . . .”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
El Sordo and his small group of fighters defend their
hill. El Sordo, who has received three wounds already, also must
shoot his wounded horse. The zealous teenage fighter Joaquín invokes
a slogan of the Communist party, but other fighters deflate his
enthusiasm, claiming that three major leaders of the Communist Party
all have sons who are not fighting in the war. El Sordo expects
that planes will soon come and bomb the hill.
Just before three o’clock in the afternoon, the Fascists
attacking El Sordo’s hill wait for the planes to arrive. Captain
Moro, sure that all the guerrillas are dead, wants his Lieutenant
Paco Berrendo and other men to advance, but they are afraid. When
Captain Moro finally comes out of cover, El Sordo shoots him dead.
The planes arrive and bomb the hill, killing all the guerrillas
except Joaquín. Lieutenant Berrendo then shoots Joaquín and orders
the beheading of all the guerrilla fighters. However, he does not
stay to watch his orders carried out.
Summary: Chapter Twenty-eight
After the planes leave, the men at Pablo’s camp
halfheartedly eat the stewed hare with mushrooms that Pilar has
prepared for them. Later, Primitivo and Robert Jordan see a cavalry
column riding along the road with an officer at the head. The officer
is Lieutenant Berrendo, who feels remorse for having cut off the
heads of the guerrilleros’ corpses. He remembers his dead friend
Julián and begins to pray.
Anselmo, returning from La Granja, also sees Lieutenant
Berrendo’s column ride past. He passes by El Sordo’s hill and sees
that the corpses have been beheaded. Horrified, he prays for the
first time since the start of the Republican movement. The prayer
makes him feel better. When Anselmo arrives at the camp, Fernando
tells him that Pablo has also already seen the corpses and told
everyone about what happened to El Sordo.
Summary: Chapter Twenty-nine
Anselmo reports to Robert Jordan what kind
of preparations the Fascists have been making. After consulting
with Anselmo, Robert Jordan sends Andrés across enemy lines to headquarters
in Navacerrada with a letter to General Golz. In the letter, Robert Jordan
recommends that both the bridge-blowing operation and the larger
offensive be canceled. He explains the confusing bureaucracy of
the military machine to Anselmo. As Robert Jordan writes the letter
to General Golz, Pablo compliments him for his presence of mind
and good judgment.
Analysis: Chapters Twenty-seven–Twenty-nine
Joaquín’s and Anselmo’s returns to religion at crucial
moments of terror and solitude reveal the spiritual emptiness of
the Republican side. The Republican government made religion illegal
when it assumed power six years before the action portrayed in For
Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway criticizes the Republican
leaders’ failure to provide the Spanish people with any spiritual
solace to fill the void left by the banning of religion. Despite
their beliefs in the Republic and official repudiation of organized
religion, both Joaquín and Anselmo discover that their unquestioning
faith in the Republic is unsatisfying. Although Joaquín initially
faces the Fascists’ attack by reciting Communist slogans, he turns
to the prayers of his childhood when the bombing begins because
he realizes that the Communist rhetoric is empty. Similarly,
Anselmo turns to prayer for solace when he discovers El Sordo’s
men beheaded. Hemingway uses religion to highlight an important
failure in the Republican leadership, a failure that he sees as
a form of betrayal of the Spanish people.
