The Conflict of “Being Gypsy” in For Whom the Bell Tolls

In For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), Ernest Hemingway caricatures both Rafael and Pilar as “gypsies” in order to “assimilate” the experience of living in Spain for the American character Robert Jordan and for a Western, non-Romani readership. While this assimilated Spanish experience does not genuinely represent Romani culture or people, it does exemplify very real misconceptions and misappropriations between Romani and non- Romani. Such misconceptions are often espoused and carried through a non-Romani historical and literary tradition, which provides Hemingway with an imaginative blueprint for challenging both Robert Jordan and the novel’s audience with what it means to “be gypsy.”