At the midpoint of For Whom the Bell Tolls, I find myself both unable to distinguish this from A Farewell to Arms and reluctant to finish the story at all. The man whose writing I last found to be extraordinary and enlightening became tedious when copied between two different covers and attempted to be passed off as a different book. Thus far in the novel, I had found this reading to be unimaginative, sluggish and redundant. These conclusions are probably most frustrating because I can see the depth of knowledge retained by this great man that are dwarfed by his journalistic writing style and lack of creativity. Though detached and individual novels, For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms were so alike in character development and theme that is was difficult to ascertain between the two without taking into consideration the change of point of view and tone.

Hemingway's characters of Robert Jordan and Maria, in For Whom the Bell Tolls, are nearly carbon copies of Fredrick Henry and Catherine of A Farewell to Arms. Each of his men begin the novel as naive and foolish American youth who enthusiastically join a foreign battl

In effort to prove that the most recent reading was not a complete waste of my time, I offer the following points of contrast between the tone and point of view in the two novels. Although each story was set in a war torn country with uncertain outcomes, For Whom the Bell Tolls tells a tale more of uplifting hope and heroism, whereas A Farewell to Arms projects feelings of despair and utter loneliness. Hope and heroism are exhibited in the fighting death of Jordan while amidst the fascists in the last scenes of the book, while Robert's situation is more delicate because of the long and lonely life which he must now spend without wife or child. The first person, limited point of view of A Farewell to Arms versus the third person omniscient view in For Whom the Bell Tolls prove to be a fascinating differentiation of thought processes. While reading of Fredrick Henry, we were only able to see into the mind of him; he had no further insights for us in order to clarify the story. Robert Jordan's story was more fulfilling, however, as a result of the wider range of perspectives. Ones finds it easier to get a full spectrum of the biases of the characters when ones finds them to be solely in a particular character instead of exhibited in the thoughts of all involved.

e only to psychologically desert the cause and give up on the conflict for love. Their lack of committed love is exhibited in their periods of rather "loose" lifestyles before the wars. They have not yet enough experience to fully understand the consequences of enlisting: Robert believes he will be back teaching college the next semester and Fredrick that a war would be more "fun" than his suburban life. Consequently, they fight not for themselves or their ways of life but

Some common words found in the essay are:
Farewell Arms, Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan's, bell tolls, Fredrick Henry, farewell arms, theme difficult ascertain, character development theme, alike character development, Tolls Farewell, development theme difficult, tolls farewell arms, character development, development theme, theme difficult, alike character, hope heroism, difficult ascertain, change view, fredrick henry,
Approximate Word count = 1174
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)