Throughout Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, Robert Jordan struggles to ascribe a certain value to human life - especially his own life . This struggle reveals a weakness in Jordan's cold and calculated nature, a weakness that Hemingway poignantly depicts through Jordan's conflicted attitudes toward his father and grandfather. While Jordan clearly admires and aspires to be like his grandfather, a brave soldier of the Civil War and Indian Wars, he struggles to shake off the image of his father's cowardly suicide, for which he shows a great disdain. This conflict is intensified by Jordan's near-imminent death. The conclusion, how his conflict is resolved as he realizes the value of all life, provides insight into the changes he endures to reach this point. Through Jordan's noble death, a clear rejection of his father's suicide, Hemingway makes a statement about the immense difference between the will to die and the desire to die. Jordan's conflicting feelings toward his father and grandfather reveal a discontinuity in his usually unshakable emotions and ultimately help him resolve his inner struggle regarding death and the value of life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Often throughout the novel, Hemingway returns to the motif of the importance of human life, which he depicts primarily through Robert Jordan's personal conflicts. Amidst all the massacres of war, Jordan searches for meaning in the lives of the dead. Sometimes his callous nature is strongest in this conflict, as in the passage in which Jordan relates the difference between himself and Kashkin to Agustín: "'I'm alive and he's dead,' Robert Jordan said. means to you now? It never meant much, he told himself honestly. You tried to make sense of it, but it never happened” (289). However, it is clear that Jordan was emotionally affected by the murder he committed: “How many did you kill? . But I have to do it" (303). His commiseration towards the men he killed is a sign of a breakdown in his usually strict control over his emotions, a breakdown that results in an internal conflict: "Listen, he says -he. You better stop that. It's very bad for you and for your work. So he himself replied: You listen, you see? see that you understand it all the time” (304) Although Jordan has not yet realized the value of life, this conflict is the first step toward a change in his nature that will cause him to do exactly that. this Robert Jordan's feelings towards his father contrast sharply with those towards his grandfather, another conflict which causes him to lose strict control of his emotions. For his grandfather, of whom Jordan takes great pride, he feels a. model-like admiration While worrying about the mission, Jordan wishes he could "talk to [Grandpa] now and get his advice," illustrating his desire to be more like that man. who, according to him, as a model soldier, would know the importance of life and death (338). Jordan realizes, however, that “he and his grandfather would be extremely embarrassed by his father’s presence” (338). His contempt for his father borders on derision and arrogance, as he thinks that "perhaps the good juice didn't arrive until he passed through that one" (338). Jordan barely acknowledges their real relationship. Instead, he makes his father less than himself - "he had suddenly felt so much older than his father and sorry for.