In For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, Robert Jordan struggles to assign a certain value to human life, particularly his own life. This struggle reveals a weakness in Jordan's cold and calculated nature, a weakness that Hemingway poignantly describes through Jordan's conflicted attitudes towards his father and grandfather. While Jordan clearly admires and aspires to be like his grandfather, a brave soldier in the Civil War and Indian Wars, he tries to shed the image of his father's cowardly suicide, for which he shows great contempt. This conflict is intensified by Jordan's near-imminent death. The conclusion, at which point his conflict is resolved as he realizes the value of all life, provides insight into the changes he must endure to reach this stage. Through Jordan's noble death, a clear repudiation 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 highlight a discontinuity in his usually stagnant emotions and ultimately help him resolve his internal struggle regarding death and the value of life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Often in the novel, Hemingway returns to the theme of the meaning of human life, which he describes mainly through Robert Jordan's personal conflicts. Amid all the killing of the war, Jordan searches for meaning in the lives of the dead men. At times, his uncompassionate nature is strongest in this conflict, as in the passage where Jordan tells Agustín the difference between him and Kashkin: "'I am alive and he is dead,' said Robert Jordan. Then: Is that all?" does it mean to you now? It never meant much, he told himself truly. You tried to give it meaning, but it never happened" (289). It is clear, however, that Jordan was emotionally touched by the murders he committed: "How many did you kill?" he asked himself. I don't know. Do you think you have the right to kill someone? His commiseration for the men he killed is a sign of the breakdown of his usually rigid control over his emotions, a breakdown that results in internal conflict: "Listen, he told himself. You'd better stop. This is very bad for you and for your work. Then he himself replied to him: Listen, you see because you are doing something very serious and I have to 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 in making a change in his nature that will lead him to do just that. Robert Jordan's feelings toward his father contrast sharply with those toward his grandfather, another conflict that causes him to lose strict control of his emotions. For his grandfather, of whom Jordan is very proud, he has an admiration similar to the feeling one would have towards a role model. While he worries about the mission, Jordan wishes he could "talk to [grandfather] now and get his advice," illustrating his desire to be more like this man who he believes, as a model soldier, would know the meaning of life and of death ( 338). Jordan realizes, however, that "both he and his grandfather would be very embarrassed by his father's presence" (338). His contempt for his father borders on derision and arrogance, as he thinks that "maybe the good juice only came right after he moved on from that" (338). Jordan hardly even recognizes their real relationship. Instead, he makes his father less than himself: "he had suddenly felt much more..