Revista de Lenguas Modernas, N.° 35, 2022 / 155-175
ISSN electrónico: 2215-5643
ISSN impreso: 1659-1933
DOI: 10.15517/rlm.v0i35.44480
The Point of View Approach in For Whom the Bell Tolls and EFL Literature Teaching
El enfoque de punto de vista en For whom the bell tolls y la enseñanza de literatura en ILE
Jesús Antonio Gutiérrez Picón
Unidad Educativa Stella Matutina, Venezuela
Abstract
The works of Hemingway exhibit the use of categories of point of view (Lazar, 1993). In this inquiry of For Whom the Bell Tolls, the changes in the perspective of the narrator and the discourses of the characters have been analyzed, as constituents considered to discover changes in the perspective of the former, as well as in the categories of discourse and the thinking of the characters. As a result, the purpose of this research is the exploration for a connection between the author’s point of view choices and the sociopolitical aspects present in the novel, by means of the integration of different approaches. It represents a different viewpoint to the current analysis for the teaching of English as foreign language. The methodology is qualitative; the research design is documentary, at descriptive and correlational level. The author has employed the categories of the speech and thought presentation model and the sociopolitical approach for this research. The study demonstrated the existence of an intrinsic relationship between the sociopolitical approach and the different categories of the speech and thought presentation model, which represents a new approach for using literature in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL).
Keywords: Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Sociopolitical Approach, Point of View Approach, EFL
Resumen
Los trabajos de Hemingway demuestran el uso de las categorías de punto de vista (Lazar, 1993). Por esta razón, en el análisis de For Whom the Bell Tolls se han estudiado los cambios en la perspectiva del narrador y los discursos de los personajes como aspectos considerados fundamentales para descubrir cambios tanto en la perspectiva del narrador como en las categorías del discurso y pensamiento de los personajes. En tal sentido, el propósito de esta investigación es la exploración de una conexión entre las opciones del punto de vista del autor y los aspectos sociopolíticos presentes en la novela, mediante la integración de diferentes enfoques. Ello representa un punto de vista diferente al común análisis de textos literarios para la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. La metodología fue cualitativa, el diseño documental, el nivel descriptivo y correlacional. Se emplearon las categorías del modelo de presentación de discurso y pensamiento y el enfoque sociopolítico. El estudio demostró la existencia de una relación intrínseca entre el enfoque sociopolítico y las diferentes categorías del modelo de presentación de discurso y pensamiento, lo cual representa un nuevo enfoque para el uso de la literatura en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera (ILE).
Palabras clave: Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, enfoque sociopolítico, enfoque de punto de vista, EFL
Introduction
Ernest Hemingway is considered one of the most important writers in the literature of the English language (Lazar, 1993). The reasons for this recognition lie in the influence that he has had in the journalistic style of writing. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954, whose Committee highlighted his “mastery of the art of modern narration”. According to Baker (1971), there is hardly an important American writer who could have escaped totally from his influence, and the trace of his style can be seen in European authors like Jean Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. However, the importance of the work of Hemingway goes beyond his stylistic influence.
As Dearborn (2017) states, when For Whom the Bell Tolls was published in 1940, it became a resounding critical and popular success and helped to base Ernest Hemingway’s reputation as one of America’s foremost writers. Readers praised its realistic portrait of not only the political tensions in Europe that would soon erupt into World War II but also the complexities of the entire experience of war for the individual who found him or herself fighting for a cause. Hemingway had previously explored this theme most notably in his short story collection In Our Time (1924) and in the novels The Sun Also Rises (1926) and A Farewell to Arms (1929).
In a broader way, Hemingway was like a spokesman for the whole generation that came to consciousness after the First World War. His hard-mindedness, his preoccupation with the social and political issues, with the significance of violence and death appealed to the generation of the 20’s from the 20th century, known as the lost generation, as Baker (1971) states. He summarizes many of his paradoxical and contradictory ideas while calling Hemingway a fierce individualist who believes that the best government is the one which governs the least. Donaldson (1977) has found the consistent pattern of his political stance to be the ideas of a conservative Republicanism. In addition to that, he was deeply distrustful of a big government and a defender of the autonomy of a person as an individual.
After the Spanish Civil War, the most important statement of Hemingway’s political commitment was For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940, Baker (1971) explains. It was a very successful novel: in fact, more than a half million copies of the original edition were printed. The title of the work refers to the concepts of the human solidarity and the participation of every person in all mankind that is expressed in the extract printed in the first page which was taken from John Donne’s Devotion.
One of Hemingway’s most distinctive and celebrated characteristics is his writing style. As he had worked as a newspaper reporter, Hemingway used a journalistic style in his fiction, featured to be economical, with abrupt descriptions of characters and events. His goal was to ensure that his words accurately described reality. The examples of his economical style are present throughout the novel. For instance, we could look at the end of the novel, as Jordan faces death. Hemingway (2019) provides a direct description of Jordan’s final moments throughout chapter 43, when he says his farewells to Maria and the other members of his group, and waits for the fascists
cavalry to arrive, which reflects Jordan’s stoicism and his acceptance of the inevitable.
According to Mueller (1935), there are some assumptions that support the relationship between literature and society. One hypothesis holds that literature ‘reflects society’; thus, it is supposed that literature has an influence or “shapes” society. In this respect, and for the goals of analysis of For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Speech and Thought Presentation Model can help us to determine the relevance of the major events in the novel taking into account the relationship of the characters in the social context. The development or changes in the perspective or point of view in the narrator and the character’s speech and thought should be studied carefully to uncover what they reveal for the purposes of the plot.
Next, it is convenient to make a connection between the choices which Hemingway has taken to represent character speech and thought and how these choices could affect point of view and express any sociopolitical concern. One of the purposes of the work is to find out the different categories or modes displayed in the novel and how these may convey different effects on the reader of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Besides, some other categories of the approach to point of view will be taken into account such as the spatial and temporal point of view, as well as the psychological.
As Simpson (1993) explains, the spatial and temporal point of view refers to the viewing position assumed by the narrator of a story, whereas the psychological plane refers to the ways in which the events told are “mediated through the consciousness of the
‘teller’ of the story.” Moreover, it is important to look at the reasons for the use of the different modes on Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, on the basis of providing support for students with material which enable them to read and analyze a wide range of original contemporary literary works.
As a matter of fact, the teaching of literature has been a topic of significant discussion in EFL. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway found a suitable way to represent the Spanish Civil War, an episode that marked the lives of contemporary society in Europe and worldwide. For that reason, it portrays some sociopolitical features that could be unveiled for an accurate analysis. In addition to that, literary texts provide an exposure to a variety of real language which is used in real communication (Carter and Long, 1991). On behalf of improving the level of proficiency in the use of the language, literature plays an important role in providing a language sample with a wide range of functions, vocabulary, grammar and other language features related to semantics and pragmatics, as the students are engaged in a genuine form of communication. These aspects are of special interest for pedagogical purposes.
Moreover, students are encouraged to develop competence in the understanding of literature taking into account that literature is a useful tool that helps to develop awareness of the language functions and literary discourse stylistics (Carter and Simpson, 1992). Some features can be useful for these purposes. For instance, the understanding and analysis of the different modes of speech and thought
presentation in a literary work may help in this respect.
Regarding the input literature may bring in terms of language use, language based approaches to literary texts aim to supply awareness to the way language works in specific texts (Carter and Long, 1991). The language model puts students in touch with creative uses of the language, as it very much happens in real life. One of the ways to confirm this fact is the study of some of these approaches, taking into consideration the point of view and the sociopolitical approach employed for the purpose of the interpretation of a novel, as a means to give us support in the study of underlying meanings created by Hemingway in his literary work that must be uncovered by the reader.
For that reason, this method of analysis may address to develop and encourage students’ interest in the study of the literary works, as the expression of the English language and culture in the social context of the 20th century, as well as with any other pieces of literature written in the English language.
Theoretical Framework
Literature and the EFL
A primary concern of this article is the teaching of literature in the EFL class. Nunan (2001) observes that English has covered different and diverse areas of society, where the use of functions is essential: “it is the language of business, technology, science, etc. Due to that fact, the language teaching had been focused on the functional use of language, as the author states. However, it is essential and relevant to make a reference of the role of literature as a major area of interest in the field of EFL. It seems that the use of literature in the EFL classroom had diminished in favor of the general English courses and the English for specific purposes (ESP), according to the British Council (2020). Nevertheless, it seems that the use of literature in the EFL class has increased steadily (Maley, 2001). The perspective of teaching literature has changed, and now some consider that may provide a wide variety of linguistic input and a cause of the rise of learners motivation as well.
In this regard, McRae (1997) establishes two levels in the use of language: referential and representational. The first level mentioned conveys the information that the text transmits, the words are employed only with their denotative meaning. Thus, the students do not have the opportunity to interact with the text to find out another meaning. In this case, the text has just one sense, the language mean what they say. For that reason, it does not require to be reflexive on the side of the student. On the other hand, the second level concedes the possibility to interpret the texts. It involves the reader in an interactive and creative interpretation of texts, as the words have a connotative meaning. The reading material at the representational level consist of language that prompts in the students the interaction with the text and the interpretation of messages exposed (McRae, 1998).
As a result, the teaching of literature in an EFL class embodies representational material. In addition to improve the basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, it enhances the so called fifth language skill by McRae (1997), which is “thinking in English”. The teaching of literature embraces the involvement in the language to process the way it works and how it portrays meaningful ideas. Literary texts engages the imagination and cognitive abilities of students, along with cultural awareness. That is why the teaching of literature of an EFL class should become a significant pillar in the acquisition of the language.
The Point of View
The speech and thought representation analyzed by Leech and Short (1981) is a helpful model to understand how the narrator delegates perspective to the characters, through their speech and thought, changing the emphasis in the meaning of the text. As a result, authors’ choices affect meaning and point of view through the characters, in a way that cannot be achieved by other representations, where the narrator becomes too distant.
In addition to that, Carter (1992) has demonstrated that stylistic analysis can shed lights to linguistic aspects that may not be evident for students, but also relevant aspects for the understanding of a particular style of a narrator and cultural aspects. One method to carry out a stylistic analysis is through the speech and thought presentation.
The different kinds of speech and thought representation to analyze are classified by Verdonk (2002): direct speech, direct thought, indirect speech, indirect thought, free indirect speech and free indirect thought (being the last two considered forms of free indirect discourse) and stream of consciousness. This model seeks to demonstrate procedures of stylistic analysis that will support the carrying out of the literary interpretation.
As Short (1984) explains, direct speech and indirect speech differ in their linguistic form. For example in the sentence:
‘Pablo must have seen me’, Jordan said.
We can see there are inverted commas, it is called direct speech. However, the explicit grammatical subordination of the reported clause to the reporting clause is present in the indirect speech:
Jordan said that Pablo must have
seen him.
These sentences differ in their effects and functions. As the first sentence seems to reflect that Jordan actually said the words, in the second sentence the words of what Jordan said is apparently given to us by the words of a reporter. Thus, he could have used other words and then the second sentence could be still a reasonable indirect speech. Then while the direct speech represents the propositional content accurately with the words originally uttered, the indirect speech claims to represent the original propositional content, using instead the words of the person reporting the speech. There are modes of characters’ thought, which share the same relationship of being direct and indirect with the speech. If we change the speech act verb to a speech thought verb, we can see the thought presentation:
‘Pablo must have seen me’, Jordan decided.
Jordan decided that Pablo must have
seen him.
In formal linguistic terms the speech and thought presentation are the same, but they do not have the same effects. For instance, the direct thought looks to be conscious and shows determination, an aspect not present in the direct speech.
As Short (1984) states, one of the purposes of the narrative is to represent actions, perceptions, events and states, which occur in the works of fiction. These aspects are classified into the term narrator’s representation of action (NRA). This category accounts for sentences of physical description and action, where speech is not presented at all:
When a part of a passage can be seen as a summary of a longer piece of discourse, and there is more back grounded than an indirect speech would be, it is called the narrator’s representation of speech acts (NRSA). The latter connects with the narration of action events and states as in the sentence:
‘He thanked her many times.’
However, there is a more minimalist speech presentation, which occurs when a sentence tells us that speech occurred, and not specify the speech act involved, for example in ‘We talked for an hour’. This one is called narrator’s representation of speech (NRS).
There is one further mode which can occur: it is the free indirect speech (FIS). In a continuum, it comes between DS and IS. It receives the name of free indirect speech because it appears at first sight to be IS but also has DS features. A clear example could be the following sentence:
Maria asked how he was, and hoped he was better.
Here, in the first part of the sentence ‘Maria asked how he was’ there is IS, providing the propositional content of utterances but not the exact words Maria used. But in the second clause …’and hoped he was better’, even though it is not direct speech, it has some flavour of it. The reason lies in the fact that the reporting clause is omitted, which can be deduced from the context, ‘…and said she hoped he was better.’
As Short (1984) clearly states the categories used by the novelists to represent the thoughts of their characters are exactly the same as those used to represent character speech. As mentioned above, the categories of thought have roughly the same effects on the reader; nevertheless, we have to consider the different represented by the fact they are thought modes.
He spent the day thinking.
(Narrator’s Representation of Thought)
(NRT)
She considered his unpunctuality.
(Narrator’s Representation of Thought Acts) (NRTA)
She thought that she would be late.
(Indirect Thought) (IT)
He was bound to be late!
(Free Indirect Thought) (FIT)
‘He will be late’, she thought.
(Direct Thought) (DT)
Direct thought tends to be used for presenting conscious, deliberately thought. It has the same linguistic form as the soliloquy in drama, which is ambiguous as we do not know if the character is thinking aloud or talking to the audience. DT is quite often used in imaginary conversations that the characters have with themselves or others. That is why it has the flavour of consciousness. DT is often presented without quotation marks in order to distinguish it from DS presented with them. Other novelists reflect the internal/external world by using DS/DT contrast.
On the other hand, free indirect thought contains a mixture of direct and indirect features. The typical effect of FIT is to make us feel close to the character and sympathize with his point of view. This effect is more or less the opposite of the feeling we experience with the FIS, the former conveying the access to the thoughts, which are never present at any moment. Normally, we can only infer what people might be thinking from their speech and actions. That is the reason why it constitutes a move toward the insight of the character, while FIS could be a move in the opposite direction.
When turning to the Free Indirect forms, Simpson (1993) affirms that the free indirect discourse is often used to cover both speech and thought which is presented in this mode. Its most important feature could be the impression it gives of character and narrator speaking or thinking simultaneously. The altered pronouns, distal deictics and backshifted verbs serve to join the reported material with the central narrative framework.
Literature and a Sociopolitical Approach
The discourse of literature is different from others as it is placed on the representational level. As Selden et al (1997) hold, if we assume the perspective of the reader or audience, a work of literature does not exist until it is read; the meaning of a poem ‘can only be discussed by its readers’ in a given society. In fact, it is the reader who applies the code in which the work of literature is written and activated or kept alive what otherwise could be only ‘potentially meaningful’. When considering the different ways of interpretation, the addressee (the reader) is constructing a meaning actively through the analysis of the language in the novel, short story, poem, etc.
In this respect, one might examine the active role of the readers embedded in society which affects literature, by means of their interpretation and their use of language in Jacobson’s model of linguistic communication explained by Selden et al (1997) shown in figure 1. The aspects discussed so far, could be added to express the relationship between language, literature and society.
Figure 1
Jacobson’s Model of Communicative Functions
Leaving aside other considerations from the reader-oriented approach, it can be obviously seen that the addressee (reader) is actively building a meaning. However, he works and lives in a social context that invokes his historical dimension at the point of the work production. Thus, he is influenced by his interpretations, attitudes and time. From the perspective of the reader-oriented approach, the meaning of the text is never self-made; the reader must work with the language present in a literary text to produce meaning. As Selden et al (1997) explain, the reader’s role of interpretation is brought about by providing sorts of blanks that must be filled with language so that a literary work makes sense.
However, we should raise the question about who the reader is. It is common to discriminate in detail the different kinds of narrator that we can find in a novel (omniscient, unreliable, implied author, etc.). It is also necessary to identify the different kinds of people to whom the narrator addresses his discourse. Prince, cited by Selden et al (1997), calls it the narratee. It differs from the actual reader. For example, the narrator may specify the gender of the narratee (‘Dear Madam’), class (‘lady’), situation (‘the reader in the kitchen’), race (‘white’) or age (‘young’). Clearly, the reader may coincide or not with the person addressed by the narrator. An actual reader may be a black, male, old factory-worker reading in bed. The narratee is also different from the ‘virtual reader’ (the reader the author has in mind) and the ‘ideal reader’ who is the one that understand every little move of the writer. It is thanks to the narratees that we can recognize the fact that people are able to make mistakes or be wrong. There are many signals –direct and indirect- which are sent from the narratee, that allow the narrator to attack, support, question, query, or solicit him. He will suggest that something is true or not without saying directly through the narratee’s character.
In fact, it is the work of the reader to identify values and susceptibilities in the discourse present in society. Even in a novel that does not seem to make any direct reference to a narrate, there are signals that encourage us to identify a kind of world familiar to our lives, that make us feel share a common language in the social interaction. Being part of the reader-oriented approach, it draws the attention to the way narratives produce their own readers, who may or may not coincide with the actual readers. The actual readers share different points of view in the society, and also share the common language, when constructing a meaning in a work of literature.
In the analysis of a contemporary novel, one of the aspects to consider is the concept of the unstable nature of signification. By introducing the term “speaking subject” or the “subject in process”, the poststructuralist approach consider language as subjective and embedded in the social context. As Selden et al (1997) set out, language-in-use (summed up in the word ‘discourse’) has to be considered in a context, and is the result from the human struggle and interaction, because at the moment every expression is said, it implies a dialogue and therefore a contested interpretation. When poststructuralists focus on discourse, they also refer to the idea that knowledge is formed by pre-existing discourses from our own experience. For instance, Barthes (1970) emphasizes the process of signification of things and not their meaning, which is present in literature. Hence, readers are free to open and close the text’s signifying process without respect for the signified. As the representational text encourages the reader to create meanings, it is useful to identify the different codes defined by the author:
These codes are the ones that can activate the one or more voices of the text. As Selden et all (1997) explain, the purpose is to organize the different types of meanings present in the text, because as the reader adopts different viewpoints the text’s meaning is produced in a multitude of fragments which have no inherent unity. There, a realistic work must also reveal the contradictions of a society (Lukacs, 1971). The use of language must show the underlying relations of the social order established. He insists on the material and historical structure of society. For example, a novel reflects reality of society, ‘not by rendering its mere surface appearance’, but by giving us a more complete, more realistic, and more dynamic ‘reflection’ of reality. In this matter, people ordinarily possess a reflection of reality, consisting on their consciousness not only of objects, but of human nature and social relations. A novel may take a reader to a deeper insight into reality, which transcends the common sense of apprehension of objects. A literary work reflects the process of life of society and cultural aspects, which is also useful for pedagogical purposes when analyzing a literary work in the EFL field.
Methodology
The methodology was based on a qualitative research as it concerns the understanding of human’s behavior from the reader’s frame of reference. This is necessary to develop an understanding of the cultural system, as literature is embedded in it. This research emphasizes to look for the variables that interact in the natural setting in which they are found. Here, the variables are made up of all the literary elements discovered in the novel that fit with the appropriate literary model for analysis.
The design is at descriptive and correlational level, and is related to the documentary type. On the one hand, it seeks to describe what elements are present from the contemporary approaches to literature; on the other hand, it looks for determining the modes of presentation of speech and thought, which are found in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. It focused on perceptions of ideological values, with the sociopolitical focus, and the point of view that had an effect on the reader.
The research consisted of several stages. Firstly, it was necessary to conduct a documentary analytic search on the grounds of relevant writers of literature in English. This one was done considering the relevance of the authors in the area of literature and stylistics. From there, the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway was selected, considering the importance of the author in Contemporary literature in the English language. Secondly, there was a selection of the Sociopolitical Approach from different Contemporary literary approaches in order to study different elements shown in the novel from this perspective.
In order to carry out the research, literature about Speech and Thought Presentation model was selected regarding the different categories it offers for the literary analysis. Actually, it was necessary to establish what categories of Speech and Thought Presentation model are employed by the writer to accomplish the relationship between language and ideology. This model was used to analyze selected excerpts of the novel, which after careful selection were considered of relevance for the use of language and the development of the plot.
On the other hand, the selection of the corpus was carried out by examining different factors: its relevance for the plot, the sociopolitical characteristics shown in it, and the presence of categories of speech that the characters employ to achieve significance. Therefore, the corpus was chosen from raw samples of the novel made up of excerpts from different chapters throughout the novel. Then there was a look for the repeated patterns throughout the excerpts. It was based on the connections found in the set of extracts and the categories of presentation of speech and thought. The extracts from the text were examined to determine the modes of speech and thought present in the novel. Then, it was necessary to identify any of the categories of speech and thought presentation displayed in the extract. Once the excerpts were filtered taking into consideration meaningful patterns and trends that were present in the novel but were unseen, the data was cleaned from mistakes. It was necessary to free it from erroneous data; for instance, an extract where no category is present.
The different types of presentation of speech and thought have been classified by Verdonk (2002). The categories used by this model are those mentioned in Table 1, together with their abbreviation in English and their respective indicator. However, for the analysis of the psychological plane and to establish how the commitment of the sociopolitical characteristics affects in the novel, the different categories established by Simpson (1993) found in the novel were examined, with respect to the psychological plane.
The categories of Speech and Thought Presentation, as well as their indicators, were accounted for the analysis in the table below (Table 1).
Table 1
Categories of Speech and Thought Presentation Model
|
Category |
Indicator |
|
Narrator’s Representation of Speech Act (NRA) |
The text contains sentences of physical description and action, where speech is not presented. |
|
Narrator’s Representation of Speech (NRS) |
The text tells the reader that the speech occurred without any indication of what was said.v |
|
Narrator’s Representation of Speech Acts (NRSA) |
The text lets the reader know what speech acts are performed and the topic that characters talk about. |
|
Direct Speech (DS) |
The text shows that the characters speak directly without the intervention of the narrator. |
|
Indirect Speech (IS) |
The text tells the reader that the characters speak through the narrator’s intervention. |
|
Free Indirect Speech (FIS) |
The text contains elements from DS and IS; it indicates a move towards narrator’s control and viewpoint; reader feels distance from character. |
|
Direct Thought (DT) |
The text presents conscious, deliberative thought which is not filtered by the narrator. It is used to represent imaginary conversations characters have with themselves. |
|
Indirect Thought (IT) |
The text tells the reader that the characters express their thoughts through the narrator’s intervention. |
|
Free Indirect Thought (FIT) |
The text involves a mixture of DT and IT, which makes the reader feel close to the character |
For the analysis of the psychological plane -defined previously as a restriction of narrative information in relation to the knowledge of the narrator-, and in order to establish how it affects the commitment of sociopolitical features in the novel, the author has examined the different categories established by Simpson (1993) found in the novel. The categories of the psychological plane are indicated in table 2: zero targeting (narrative where the narrator knows more than the characters), internal targeting (narrative with a restrictive field, only performed in an inner monologue narrative) and external targeting (narrative where the narrator says less than what that the character knows). Then, the discovered categories were portrayed with the meanings accomplished which related to each category. The following table shows its categories and indicators.
Table 2
Psychological Plane. Indicators
|
Category |
Indicator |
|
Zero focalization |
Narrative where the narrator says more than any of the characters know. |
|
Internal focalization |
Narrative with restrictive field, only realized in narrative of interior monologue |
|
External focalization |
Narrative where the narrator says less than a character knows. |
Based on the characters and the categories of speech and thought presentation model. The sociopolitical aspects present in the work are defined and examined on the characters present and the categories of the speech and thought presentation model. Similarly, the analysis was conducted continuously and compared with other factors, such as psychological level and linguistic characteristics, until emerging patterns were found. As a result, the selected corpus consisted of nineteen extracts. It was essential to explore the characters who take part in the novel in the light of their relevance for the conveyance of sociopolitical meanings and effects.
For the analysis of the sample, which was composed of the chosen extracts, it was divided into groups that had similar characteristics. These sets were divided into subsets, and so on, until these final subsets were small enough that significant patterns and relationships could be found within the extracts. Each subset was placed in a category according to its predominant characteristic. In the end, the different extracts were recognized and classified into different groups according to the sociopolitical characteristics found, which are depicted in table 3.
Table 3
Features of Sociopolitical Approach. Indicators
|
Feature |
Indicator |
|
Political Participation vs. Fascism |
An excerpt with presence of elements from political participation contrasting a totalitarian regime. |
|
The Act of Killing vs. Ideology |
An excerpt with considerations about moral values that forbid killing against establishing a political ideology. |
|
The Republic vs. Their Enemies |
A text connected to a system of government that is elected by people. Enemies to be faced. |
|
The Superstructure |
A text connected to the social, political and ideological systems that support a society. |
|
Dialectical Materialism |
A text that represents a literary text related to the concrete, as a part of larger structure of society. |
|
Totality |
A text that provides a description of what a literary work means in a social situation. |
|
Literature as a Social Symbolic Act |
A text which portrays a set of symbols that convey meanings through binary oppositions. |
Results
Throughout this section, there is an exposition of the aspects found that may enable us to understand in a broader way how sociopolitical features are embedded in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. It considers the relationship between them and the different categories of speech and thought presentation in the excerpts chosen for that purpose, identifying the psychological plane for each case.
As a representative sample, one of the extracts chosen for the analysis of the novel belongs to the feature labeled as “political participation”. It starts with Jordan, the main character, stating his political definition; he is not quite a communist, but he is showing himself to be an antifascist. In this conception, people should govern by themselves (“I believe in the people and their right to govern themselves as they wish”). Jordan also manifests the necessity of a solid political participation against a totalitarian regime. At the same time, he avoids any specific position, but suggests being more democratic, which is portrayed through direct thought.
Furthermore, he has realized that a fascist victory in Spain would prevent the achievement of the goals of the proletariat, a society without classes and an economy system ruled by the State. The topic of love is also inserted here as a human feeling and not as an imposed matter from society (chapter 26, page 289):
“(1) All right, he told himself. Thanks for all the good advice and is it all right for me to love Maria?
(2) Yes, himself said.
(3) Even if there isn’t supposed to be any such thing as love in a purely materialistic conception of society?
(4) Since when did you ever have any such conception? himself asked. (5) Never. And you never could have. You’re not a real Marxist and you know it. You believe in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. You believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. (6) Don’t ever kid yourself with too much dialectics. They are for some but not for you… If this war is lost all of those things are lost.”
The extract above has been written in direct thought, which is used for presenting conscious thought. This episode starts with two statements in direct thought that contain features of direct speech because of the use of verbs tell and say. It can be seen that the sentences have both a reporting clause (“he told himself”, “himself said”), but without quotation marks in (1) and (2). In this way, the narrator is so even less visible.
The narration starts in third person (“All right, he told himself…”, “Yes, himself said…”), and the use of “Yes” is reminiscent of direct speech. In order to draw the attention of the reader, the sentences mentioned are followed by a free form of direct thought, without quotation marks and reporting clause in (3). Next, there is a direct thought which does not have any reporting clause in (4) and finally, there is direct thought in the group of sentences labeled with (5) which, as well as (3), carry the freest form of direct thought, without any reporting clause or quotation marks.
From now on, the narration has suddenly changed to second person from third person, which puts the reader in a close distance to Jordan, who is in dialogue with himself. As it can be perceived, direct thought has the same soliloquy form, being ambiguous as to whether the character is thinking aloud or talking directly to the reader. Jordan uses “you” so as to share his inner beliefs with the reader; the personal pronoun “you” is used instead of “I”, creating a sensation of proximity to the reader. It is working as an interactive marker and it looks as if Jordan were talking to the reader while talking to himself (“You’re not a real Marxist and you know it. You believe in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. You believe in Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...“).
The sentences have a mixture of direct and indirect features, and are in past tense. In (1), (2) and (4) are contained reporting verbs. However, the reader seems to be closed to character, which is caused due to the fact of accessibility to his thoughts: it constitutes a move from the narrator towards the character. On the other hand, the group of (5) has the modal verb could, which is related to Jordan’s viewpoint. As a consequence, the conditional in (6) helps to recapture the importance of winning the war for the character, as the reader is appealed by this emphatic statement.
However, Jordan does not feel comfortable with the fact that the means might justify the ends. There is a discrepancy between appearance and reality. If the ideas of the Republicans match with his ideal of freedom and justice for the majority of people, he is also critical about the use of the same methods of the fascists in order to win the war. At first, Jordan tries to justify his actions, but then he feels he has made personal decisions and ‘being forced’ by the circumstances to work in the same way as well. As a human being, he is also reluctant to use people from his group in blowing the bridge (chapter 13, page 157):
“(1)...he started to think of all the things that could have happened and that might go wrong. (2)Stop it, he told himself...(3) You mustn’t worry. You know the things you may have to do and you know what may happen. Certainly it may happen.
(4)You went into it knowing what you were fighting for. (5) You were fighting against exactly what you were doing and being forced into doing to have any chance of winning. (6)So now he was compelled to use these people whom he liked as (7) you should use troops toward whom you have no feeling at all if you were to be successful.”
Here, there is a change in the narrator’s point of view. Firstly, the passage starts with the narrator in third person (‘he started’) in (1). This clause fits in the category of indirect thought because it presents conscious thought, and the use of the modal verbs (‘could have happened’ and ‘might go wrong’) makes the reader feel close to Jordan. In fact, having access to his inner ideas and feelings also contributes this effect. The use of the reported clause -in this case an imperative expression- in (2) without quotation marks (‘Stop it’), and the existence of the reporting clause (‘he told himself’), serve to add new linguistic features that make the reader feel near the character. As a result, the clause in (2) portrays the free form of direct speech.
Next, there is a transition from the third person (‘he told himself’) in (2), to the second person in (3), including another modal verb: (must and may). Again, it might seem that Jordan is speaking to himself, but the verbs worry and know denotes thoughts of Jordan, so this clause is in direct thought. In this particular case, it does not have either a reported clause or quotation marks. In (4) and (5) Jordan is portraying the circumstances of the external world he has faced. The use of the second person ‘you’ as a reference for himself, helps to keep the connection with the character, creating an effect of the reader being involved in his troubles while he addresses himself but might also talk to the reader’s personal experience (‘You were fighting against exactly what you were doing...’). The clauses (4) and (5) are in a free form of direct speech and the narrator is less present than the traditional direct speech with quotation marks.
For these reasons, this may be the most important moment in the excerpt, when Jordan expresses his disappointments (‘You were fighting against exactly what you were doing and being forced into doing to have any chance of winning’). However, there is a transition towards a third person in (6), which prompts the reader to feel more distanced to Jordan so the narrator establishes a gap with the previous clauses (‘...now he was compelled to use these people whom he liked’).
The use of the adverb of time ‘now’ in (6) may provoke the attention of the reader in so far as it refers to the present tense. Furthermore, this clause belongs to a narrative report of speech acts category, since the reader is only given an indication of the topic but not how he was forced to use the people from his guerrilla (‘now he was compelled to use these people’).
From this point, there is another movement towards the use of the second person ‘you’ in (7), ‘you should use troops toward whom you have no feeling at all if you were to be successful’. This constitutes a free form of direct speech. Once more, there is a modal verb next to the pronoun ‘you’ (this time is should) to say what is the right thing to do according to the character’s opinion, which triggers off the reader to interact with Jordan by means of creating an I-you relationship.
In these excerpts, the category of focalization is internal in order to display Jordan´s viewpoint in favour of the political participation against fascism. It is realized through the monologue itself; the thoughts of Jordan are provided to the reader (for example, “You believe in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity…”) as well as his feelings. The narrator, who is Jordan in these situations, is a character inside the story who reveals his internal world and is therefore much more relevant than an external narrator’s appearance. Accordingly, the transition from third person to first person, a device employed along the text with the use of modal verbs in order to gradually call the attention and put awareness on the reader, inasmuch as the characters express their point of view.
Consequently, the results obtained show the need to analyze literary texts in a more holistic way: the study should not be limited to a single methodology, but rather to use all those available that allow to be more acute and precise in the approach to teaching of English language literature. That would help in providing a wider perspective in the analysis of text in the EFL class. The emergence of dissimilar relationships in the findings could be transformed into a contribution in the communicative approach by relating the context with the linguistic aspects. And by being more aware of all the factors present in the study of the literary text, other models could be established that stimulate the continuous improvement of the process of teaching English as a foreign language within a communicative context.
Conclusions
In For Whom the Bell Tolls, the point of view is employed by Hemingway to convey the political meaning and encourage the reader to take part actively in building up the text. For that reason, there is a particular concern in the relationship between the Speech and Thought Presentation Model on the one hand, and the Sociopolitical Approach, on the other hand. Hemingway is well known for his objective narration with the presence of Direct Speech where the narrator knows less than the characters, as it can be seen in his different works, and in the excerpts chosen from the novel for the purpose of the analysis.
In this novel, his style has revealed a predominance of bare sentences with a limited intervention of the narrator. Having considered this aspect, it can be evidently expected the direct speech to be one of the categories that is
frequently found in the novel. Another category found in the novel is direct thought. It is noticeable that Hemingway employs direct thought as one of the main categories to display most of the sociopolitical meanings in the novel. The speeches of Jordan and Anselmo are clear examples of the presence of direct thought in the novel. Throughout the choices used by the author, it can be underlined that the direct thought is related to sociopolitical features.
As it might be appreciated, the relationship between language and ideology is intrinsic with the use of the Speech and Thought Presentation Model. In this respect, the tragedy of war has mostly been displayed in the novel through the use of direct thought and the matching of relation patterns. These are highly symbolic so that the discourse denotes differences, similarities, repetitions, and the explanation of the nature of circumstances that has prompted characters to make decisions. In this way, through the use of direct thought, the reader feels very close to the narrator, who is at the same time the character.
The effect caused by the transition from third person to first person is motivated by the structure in form of dialogue, the use of interactive markers and the absence of quotation marks. While a character thinks, it seems that he/she is addressing to another person, in this case the reader. In fact, the character thinks and displays a political commitment so that the reader comes across his ideology, which is uncovered from within of the conflicts of the novel.
Eventually, it is essential to mention that literary texts provide students with exposure to a variety of actual language which is used for communicative purposes in the teaching of literature. In the context of the EFL, the relevance of this study lies on providing some hints that might help to trigger out the improvement of the competence in the use of literature the English language with students. The results confirm that the integration of approaches for literary analysis in the EFL class is an effective method to enrich the process of language teaching, as Carter and Long (1991) claim. As a matter of fact, the teaching literature may play a major role on providing a language sample with a wide range of functions, vocabulary, grammar and other language features, which exert the analysis of the literary works; subsequently, it could have a positive effect in the rise on the competence of students in the EFL courses. The appendix contains some relevant extracts which might be useful for this intention.
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APPENDIX
Excerpts from the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls
From Chapter 13, page 158
If the Republic (is) lost it would be impossible for those who believed in it to live in Spain. But would it? Yes, he knew that it would be, from the things that happened in the parts the fascists had already taken.
(…) all people should be left alone and you should interfere with no one. So he believed that, did he?
Yes, he believed that.
And what about a planned society and the rest of it?
That was for the others to do
From Chapter 13, page 158.
(…)He fought now in this war because it had started in a country that he loved and he believed in the Republican that if it were destroyed life would be unbearable for all those people who believed in it. He was under Communist discipline for the duration of the war. Here in Spain the Communists offered the best discipline and the soundest and sanest for the prosecution of the war.
From Chapter 13, page 159
He believed in the Republic as a form of government but the Republic would have to get rid of all that bunch of horse thieves that bought it to the pass it was in when the rebellion started. Was there ever a people whose leaders were as truly their enemies as this one?
‘…Enemies of the people. That was a phrase he might omit. That was a catch phrase he would skip.”
From chapter 26, page 288.
I believe in the people and their right to govern themselves. But you mustn’t believe in killing, he told himself. You must do it as a necessity but you must not believe in it. If you believe in it the whole thing is wrong.
But how many do you suppose you have killed?
I don’t know because I won’t keep track.
But do you know?
Yes.
How many?
You can’t be sure now many. Blowing the trains you kill many. Very many. But you can’t be sure.
But of those you are sure of?
More than twenty.
And of those how many were real fascists?
Two that I am sure of.
And you did not mind that?
No.
Nor did you like it?
No. I decided never to do it again. I have avoided it.
Recepción: 06-11-20 Aceptación: 27-05-21