For Whom the Bell Tolls: Novel Summary: Chapter 30

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Chapter 30

Summary
Everything has been done, Jordan thinks. Andres has been sent on his way to Golz. Jordan sinks deeply into thought about his grandfather, who started him as a child on the study of war, and about his father's suicide. He thinks very favorably on the memory of his grandfather, a war hero, and realizes that while he understands his father, he is ashamed of him because he was a coward for committing suicide. Then he castigates himself for jumping the gun. How he will behave tomorrow evening will determine his own prowess. Perhaps he will be a coward himself. He knows then that he will have to blow up the bridge and feels more peaceful with the certainly.
Analysis
Gloominess and worry about the future infiltrate Jordan's mind. Will he carry out his mission with dignity like his grandfather or will he be a coward like his father and give into fear? Hemingway here strikes an autobiographical note. His own father did indeed shoot himself to death, as did the author himself at age sixty-one in 1961.