Chapter 9: Barcelona and Madrid Summary and Analysis

The chapter devoted to Barcelona and Madrid marks his turn toward the politics of men and for what things they are willing to die and kill. Flying over a town he remembers as quiet and peaceful, having spent time there during a previous assignment, he daydreams about sitting in the café, listening to musicians. Flying further into Spain, he flies over a town he knows to be scarred by the civil war happening there and is struck by how, from above, there is nothing detectable about the war. Once he and his companion are on the ground, they start to see smoking churches and observe as they move from town to town how strangely this war is working itself out.

Divided between Communism, Fascism, Anarchism and Socialism, each town becomes harbor to certain camps at...