In the following essay, Rudat briefly explores Hemingway's satirization of macho posturing in For Whom the Bell Tolls.

In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway presents us with a strange dialogue between Fernando and the gypsy woman Pilar, whose praise of melons from the Valencia region draws this reply:

"The melon of Castile is better," Fernando said. "Qué
va
," said [Pilar]. "The melon of Castile is for self
abuse.
The melon of Valencia is for eating." (85, italics,
except for the Spanish, added)

Why does Hemingway have Pilar recommend the melon of Castile as an object for self abuse for the male Fernando and thus as an object of vaginal signification? Is this one of the numerous seemingly meaningless obscenities in Hemingway's Spanish Civil War novel, some of which appear to serve no other purpose than providing comic relief? Hemingway offered an explanation when he remarked in...