Religion in The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises follows the journey of Jake Barnes, a wounded American expatriate, and Brett Ashley, an unconventional woman who does not fear breaking social norms.  They journey to Spain and experience jealousy, displaced passions and a disillusionment that could only result from unrequited love.  Hemingway uses biblical allusions, explores Jake’s journey of “reconciliation” and portrays Catholic traditions to explore the way that Jake seeks religion to search for the meaning for life that he has lost.

Hemingway titles his novel The Sun Also Rises based on a biblical passage from Ecclesiastes which reads “one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever…The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to a place where he arose…all the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again” (Ecc.1:4-7).  The use of this passage in the title underlines the reason for the journey that Jake and Brett take to Spain; it is a journey that they hope will find them meaning in a world that seems absurd and uncontrollable.  Ecclesiastes is written by an author whose identity remains controversial, although the main narrator in the book is a Teacher, whose main concern is for the “rationality of existence” (Fox).  This same argument extends to say that the Teacher is unsure whether or not “it is possible for the wise to find the answers to their questions at all”  (Fox), reiterating the circular patterns of life and the fact that the same questions have been asked before and will be asked again.  Jake’s journey in this novel is not one of a certain destination, and not of hopelessness, but it is rather the beginning of his search for truth and reconciliation to God as he learns to live his life in a meaningful way by seeking morality and rejecting selfishness.  The imagery in this biblical passage reiterates the idea of a “lost generation” seeking wisdom in a world that is constantly changing, yet similarly problematic for generations past and future.  Brett and Jake are two of Hemingway’s characters who search for meaning because of what they’ve lost in a war that happened to occur in an absurd and uncontrollable world that isn’t so different from ours.                

Throughout Brett and Jake’s search for meaning on their voyage to Spain, Jake begins to pursue religion lightly, and although he doesn’t reject the church, he doesn’t necessarily want to be closely associated with it just yet.  Jake’s war wound affects him sexually, and Brett is too interested in sexuality to enter into any serious relationship with him other than a purely emotional one.  Jake pleads “Couldn’t we just live together, Brett?  Couldn’t we just live together?”  (48) She is honest about her desires and responds “I don’t think so, I’d just tromper (deceive/cheat) you with everybody.  You couldn’t stand it” (48).  Jake’s realization that he and Brett will never be together the way that he imagines is the source of his disappointment, and the reason that the relationship wouldn’t work is due to a wound that he never asked for.  Jake has no control over Brett’s emotions or over his abilities after the war, and it is perhaps this lack of control that drives Jake to seek religion as a possibility to gain more control over his life by becoming more religious instead of actually seeking God due to belief.  When Bill asks Jake if he is a Catholic, Jake answers “Technically” (108) indicating he is pessimistic, or at least skeptical of God due to his injury and hopeless relationship with Brett, and he is not willing to associate himself too rigidly with the Catholic denomination, although he does not reject it.  Jake’s viewpoint of religion, initially, is more that of traditions and facades, praying for things such as the “bullfight…fiesta…and fishing” (85).  He describes the cathedral, saying that it was “dim and dark and the pillars went high up and there were people praying and the smell of incense and…some wonderful, big windows” (85).  Although he doesn’t disassociate himself with Catholicism or reject the church, he also doesn’t mention God and he doesn’t seem to ask for any actual answers or pray for reasons as to his suffering, as one might expect, he only wishes that he “felt religious” (85) and leaves the cathedral thinking that Catholicism is a “grand religion”  (85).  He doesn’t seem to trust God initially, because of his poor circumstances, and even his attempts to seek religion seem to be drawn from the idea that maybe he can create meaning for himself by becoming more religious, not from a solid belief that God is good, trustworthy, or even there, at least not at the beginning of the novel. 

However, even through his skepticism, he continues to frequent churches in Spain and even attend mass, suggesting that he continues to search for meaning in religion through a journey of “reconciliation”.  Gertrude Stein labeled the generation of the 1920’s the “Lost Generation” indicating the struggles that this generation faced learning how to “act in a world divorced from the moral absolutes of the past”  (Helbig).  Jake declares, “Maybe as you went along, you did learn something.  I did not care what it was all about.  All I wanted to know was how to live in it.  Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about” (152).  This statement suggests that Jake’s viewpoint of his generation is very similar to that of Gertrude Stein.  He seeks religion as a lifestyle by which meaning might be found after he sustains a debilitating injury in the war and seeks to learns how to live in a fragmented society.  Brett and Jake have a conversation about religion at the end of the novel and Brett tells Jake that her decisions were “what we have instead of God”, and Jake responds, “Some people have God…quite a lot.” (215).  It is clearer in this conversation that Jake is beginning to identify himself with people who have God.  Helbig suggests that Jake’s story is one of “reconciliation…of his own conflicting feelings” about the church and his affiliation with it, and his own morality.  She suggests that Jake’s journey of reconciliation progresses in stages, from contrition to selflessness, and that he seeks the church throughout the novel, despite and because of his own imperfections.  Jake begins pursuing religion by praying, and Helbig suggests that this praying indicates a stage of “contrition” in which Jake realizes that he is sinful, and “the repetition of “I” in Jake’s statements underlines his inadequacies”  (Helbig).  She suggests that the final stage of his reconciliation journey is when he surrenders his relationship with Brett by realizing that he had been “having Brett for a friend…not thinking about her side of it…[and] getting something for nothing” (148).  Jake’s search for meaning in this novel is culminated by selflessly surrendering the one thing that he valued the most and that he thought was the relationship that would bring his life meaning.  Hemingway uses Brett and Jake and their subsequent relationship to represent two sides of a generation searching for meaning in traditional values and new ways of life that have yet to be reconciled in their society or their personal lives. 

            

Hemingway uses biblical allusions and explores Jake’s reconciling journey and his pursuit of religion through Catholic traditions to portray his search for truth and morality in a generation that is seeking a new way of life after a debilitating war.  Jake looks for meaning in religion and discovers that it is selflessness that will remove him from the rut of hopelessness that he had previously inhabited.  Hemingway uses Brett and Jake’s relationship to portray how a new generation was trying to reconcile old values with new ways of life and reflect on the same struggles that were inevitable for present and future generations.