The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story of passionate love through the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway uses his personal experiences to describe the true meaning and feeling of this book. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The neighborhood he grew up in was a diverse and strictly Protestant neighborhood. Hemingway began his literary career by publishing his work in his school magazine. Later in life, he enlisted in the army during World War II, but was rejected due to his left eye being defective since birth. Instead, he enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and remained on the lookout for opportunities to advance to the front lines. In 1918 he sailed for Europe to become an ambulance driver in northern Italy. There, Hemingway was seriously injured, and while in the hospital he fell in love with his nurse, Agnes Hannah Von Kurowsky. She was the model Hemingway used to portray Catherine Barkley in A Farewell To Arms. In 1919 he returned to Oak Park and won a medal for bravery in Italy. He and his wife had their first son, John, in October 1923. Three years later, in 1926, Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Unfortunately, on December 6, 1928, he learned that his father had committed suicide. Years later, during his divorce from his second wife, he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and the work was published in October 1940. The following month, Hemingway married his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. In 1944 he went to London and not only fell in love with Mary Welsh, but he was also involved in a serious car accident and was believed to be dead. In 1945 his third marriage failed and later that year he found himself in another serious conflict... middle of paper... brutality of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway's simplistic speaking style, war imagery, mountainous setting, and theme of a heroic protagonist all contribute to his personal experiences in life and during the war. Much of his style resembles the personal experiences he had in life of family, love and war. The imagery applied in this literary work reflects what Hemingway had seen and imagined during his service in Italy and his experiences during the relationships he maintained. The setting represents the region in which Hemingway had seen and imagined Spain. The different themes of this story describe Hemingway's political views on war and his view of the morality of life. In conclusion, the qualities that Ernest Hemingway possesses in his writing abilities are truly remarkable and they are obviously represented in this amazing piece of classic literature..