One of Hemingway's greatest novels ever

After recently finishing "For Whom the Bell Tolls" the book left me stunned and greatly changed by the educational, emotional interpretation of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of an American demolitionist/teacher.

The book starts out with the main character Robert Jordan and his guide Anselmo searching for a local guerilla camp. Jordan starts out a unemotional hard man, with only his mission to destroy a bridge, containing fascist forces, in his head. As the novel Hemingway depicts the need for emotions and human contact, slowly changing Jordan into a man touched by true love.

In the novel Hemingway takes a well hidden stance against fascism, displaying the need for human freedom. Hemingway is able to describe just how hard people will fight for there freedom, and the true strength that people posses deep inside of them.

While Hemingway takes his firm stance against fascism he also describes some of the problems with the communists whom are helping to support the Spanish revolutionists. He does admit that the communists are great organizers when it comes to war, but he does not show any support of this form of government at all. In fact he points out some fo the unethical and cruel tactics used by the communists.

This book also focuses on individualism. The epilogue of this novel is a passage taken from a John Donne poem saying, "No man is an Island ... and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
This passage represents one of the books main themes of loneliness and seclusion. Hemingway depicts Jordan in the beginning of the novel much like an island, keeping to himself and not socializing with the other guerilla warriors. As the book progresses so does Jordan, finding his true love in the guerilla's guild and taking her as his one true love.

This is a life changing novel containing love and war, romance and death, history and fiction. It is one of the greatest novels of all time and i would recomend it to everyone.