In the classic novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls," Ernest Hemingway uses the short period of three days to relay his message about the book. With the constant foreshadowing of impending doom, the readers along with the main character, Robert Jordan, become aware that his life will end at the end of these three days. Hemingway sets forth the idea that a lack of time can force a lifetime into that short period and people might do things that they would not normally have done. Jordan best exemplifies this idea in that through the course of three days his ideas along with the elements of his life change in ways he never anticipated.
             At the beginning of the story, Jordan has a flash back of a discussion he had with his commanding general. He sourly says to his general that he has no time for girls and has much to think about without them. He is very dedicated to his task at hand and does not want anything to differ his attention. When he first meets Maria at the guerilla camp, they both fall in love at first sight. Taken by surprise by his intense emotions, Jordan questions himself wondering if he is just feeling this way due to the urgency of his lack of time and the circumstances he has underwent. He discourages the thought and says, "There is nothing else than now...there is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow...there is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days if your life...this is how you live a life in two days...a good life is not measured by any biblical span." (ch. 13 pg.169) By realizing what possibly might be his fate, he is determined that he is doing all he can to make the best of it with Maria. Jordan's attitude toward love and priorities at this point in the novel differs much from what he originally had thought. In chapter 9, Pilar pressures Jordan to spend as much time as possible with Maria, while revealing that "there is not much time." (Ch. 9 pg.91) Conceiving that t...