欧内斯特·海明威（Ernest Hemingway）的小说《钟声为谁而鸣》（the Bell Toll）出版于1940年，讲述了年轻的美国游击队战士兼爆破专家罗伯特·乔丹（Robert Jordan）在西班牙内战期间策划在袭击塞戈维亚市时炸毁一座桥的故事。

与《老人与海》、《永别了，武器》和《太阳照常升起》一起，《钟声为谁而鸣》被视为海明威最受欢迎的作品之一，至今仍在美国的会话和英语课堂上被引用。

下面的引文举例说明了海明威在谈到西班牙内战的动荡和冲突时的口才和从容。

语境与环境

《钟声为谁而鸣》在很大程度上依赖于海明威作为北美报业联盟记者报道西班牙内战期间西班牙情况的亲身经历。他看到了这场战争的残酷，以及它对当时支持和反对法西斯统治的国内外战士所做的一切。

宗教在西班牙扮演了重要角色，尽管海明威故事的主人公一直在与上帝的存在作斗争。在第三章中，老游击队员安塞尔莫向乔丹透露了他的内心斗争：“但是在我们没有上帝的情况下，我认为杀戮是一种罪恶。夺走他人的生命对我来说是非常严重的。我会在必要时这样做，但我不是巴勃罗族。”

在第四章中，海明威巧妙地描述了乔丹远离巴黎时饮用苦艾酒的乐趣时城市生活的乐趣：

"There was very little of it left and one cup of it took the place of the evening papers, of all the old evenings in cafés, of all chestnut trees that would be in bloom now in this month, of the great slow horses of the outer boulevards, of book shops, of kiosques, and of galleries, of the Parc Montsouris, of the Stade Buffalo, and of the Butte Chaumont, of the Guaranty Trust Company and the Ile de la Cité, of Foyot's old hotel, and of being able to read and relax in the evening; of all things he had enjoyed and forgotten and that came back to him when he tasted that opaque, bitter, tongue-numbing, brain-warming, stomach-warming, idea-changing liquid alchemy."

损失

在第9章中，阿古斯丁说，“发动战争所需要的只是智力。但赢得战争需要天赋和物质。”但这一几乎轻松的观察在第11章中被掩盖了，当时约旦正在与人类能够犯下的恐怖作斗争：

"You only heard the statement of the loss. You did not see the father fall as Pilar made him see the fascists die in that story she had told by the stream. You knew the father died in some courtyard, or against some wall, or in some field or orchard, or at night, in the lights of a truck, beside some road. You had seen the lights of the car from down the hills and heard the shooting and afterwards you had come down to the road and found the bodies. You did not see the mother shot, nor the sister, nor the brother. You heard about it; you heard the shots; and you saw the bodies."

小说中期缓刑

在《钟声为谁而鸣》的中途，海明威以一种出人意料的方式让主人公从战争中解脱出来：平静的寒冷的冬天。在第14章中，海明威将其描述为与战斗一样激动人心：

"It was like the excitement of the battle except it was clean...In a snowstorm it always seemed, for a time, as though there were no enemies. In a snowstorm the wind could blow a gale; but it blew a white cleanness and the air was full of a driving whiteness and all things were changed and when the wind stopped there would be the stillness. This was a big storm and he might as well enjoy it. It was ruining everything, but you might as well enjoy it."

生死

其中一名游击队员在第27章中受了致命伤，被描述为“一点也不害怕死亡，但他对站在这座山上感到愤怒，这座山只能用作死亡之地……死亡什么都不是，他对死亡既没有想象，也没有恐惧。”

"Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond."

爱

也许《钟声为谁而鸣》中最令人难忘的名言不是关于生或死，而是关于爱。海明威在第13章中描述了乔丹和玛丽亚，一位年轻女子，与游击队战斗，走过一片高山草地：

"From it, from the palm of her hand against the palm of his, from their fingers locked together, and from her wrist across his wrist something came from her hand, her fingers and her wrist to his that was as fresh as the first light air that moving toward you over the sea barely wrinkles the glassy surface of a calm, as light as a feather moved across one's lip, or a leaf falling when there is no breeze; so light that it could be felt with the touch of their fingers alone, but that was so strengthened, so intensified, and made so urgent, so aching and so strong by the hard pressure of their fingers and the close pressed palm and wrist, that it was as though a current moved up his arm and filled his whole body with an aching hollowness of wanting."

当他们做爱时，海明威写道，乔丹“感觉到地球从他们脚下移开。”

Maria: "I die each time. Do you not die?" Jordan: "No. Almost. But did thee feel the earth move?" Maria: "Yes. As I died."