Description Of Bombings

Chapter 1: The Description of Bombings
The plot of For Whom the Bell Tolls revolves around the Republic’s bombing attack on the Fascists. The attack is portrayed as so meticulously planned out by the Republican forces that any diversion from the original plan can be considered a threat to its achievement of success. Golz, the general that plans out the attack, states that if the bombing is to be a success, the bridge must be blown up at exactly the time the attack begins and that “Merely to blow the bridge is a failure.” As a result, the entire novel builds upon the idea that the success of the bombing offensive is dependent on the ability of the one man and a group of guerrilla fighters to carry out a task that seems to become more impossible

The materialization of these clouds acts as a curtain that separates the previously intact images of society with scenes of destruction, exemplifying the brutality and strength of the weapons at man’s disposal. In some cases, Hemingway describes the state of the town after the smoke clears. For example, in The Flight of Refugees, the town of Reus is bombed and disappears “in a brick-dust-colored cloud of smoke.” It then reappears when Hemingway describes the devastating scene of destruction that replaced Reus, which has been so severely damaged that its inhabitants abandon it

In For Whom the Bell Tolls, on the day of the bridge attack, Robert Jordan listens for the sound of the bombs, which announce the beginning of the attack. This is evident since it is said that “he heard the sudden, clustered, thudding of the bombs” before beginning his assault. While one could relate this depiction of the bombardment to the sudden and unpredictable portrayal of the bombings in his articles, which I mentioned before, since Robert Jordan anticipates the attack and is waiting for it to begin, it is difficult to consider the attack as sudden or a surprise. Similarly, when Sordo’s guerilla group is bombed during their last stand on a hilltop, Hemingway firstly describes “the whistle of the air splitting apart and the (…) red black roar” as the bomb hits the