Catholicism as a 'Comfort Zone' for Jake in The Sun Also Rises

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Catholicism as a ‘Comfort Zone’ for Jake in The Sun Also Rises

In reality, all people have a ‘comfort zone’ that they go to whenever a cycle of bad things happens to them. The same applies in the novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. A World War I veteran named Jake Barnes narrates of the story. Jake lost his ability to reproduce due to an injury from the war. With this problem, Jake loses faith in his religion. Throughout the novel, Jake finds himself coming back to his faith. In other words, Jake uses his religion as a ‘comfort zone’ in order to somehow escape the terrible aspects that he goes through. Jake believes in Catholicism and tries assiduously to reconnect with his religion. Hemingway uses Jake’s Catholicism to demonstrate the cyclicality of the novel by showing Jake’s attempts to be religious after the war.

        At first, Jake is not religious at all, but then starts to shows signs of some kind of belief. In the first couple chapters of the novel, there are no references to religion. Jake views his religion of Catholicism as an insignificant part of his life. The first instance that religion comes up in the novel is when Jake and Bill are on the train going to Spain. They start a conversation with a family and they talk about the Catholic Church. The man they are talking to states, “It’s a pity you boys ain’t Catholics.” Jake’s reply to that is, “I am” (93). This is the first time that Jake shows a religious side. Later in the novel, when Bill asks him if he really is Catholic, Jake’s response is “[t]echnically” (129). At this point and time, Jake is unsure about his faith. He does not know if he is a Catholic because he does not go to church and does not take part in all the religious exercises. Although Jake claims to be a Catholic, Jake demonstrates a weak representation at this time.

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        As the novel goes on, Jake becomes more and more religious as his relationship with Lady Brett Ashley suffers. The only problem with this improvement appears Jake critical of the way he tries to be religious. For instance, after being angry at Robert Cohn, Jake goes to the cathedral by himself. He prays for a great number of people and events in his life. He prays for Brett, Mike, Robert, Bill and himself. He also prays for the bullfighters, the bull fights and the fiesta hoping that all will turn out good. As he prays, he finds that he is, ...

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