Throughout The Sun Also Rises the reader has the point of view of Jake Barnes. Jake is in love with a woman named Lady Brett Ashley, who is a nymphomaniac, meaning she is addicted to sex. Brett Ashley is said to be a Catholic, although she did not seem very devout to her religion. Brett repeatedly says that she "must bathe" (Hemingway 80). For instance, when Brett comes back from San Sebastian, where she has a brief affair with Cohn, she tells Jake that she can't go out to eat with him and Bill because she "must clean herself" (80). This could be considered a parallel to baptizing, the reason she bathes so much is due to her desire to purify herself and cleanse her sins after being with Cohn or another man. In this way, Brett wants to use water as a method to get rid of her impurities.
Furthermore, water is used in other minor parts during the novel. When Jake and Bill go to Burguete they go on a fishing trip. When the two get to the river you can sense a bit of a change in Jake, he seems to become more and more relaxed around the water. This could be an example of the cleansing effect water has. Before they begin fishing they decide to "put the wine
in that spring..." in order to cool them down (123). After they are done fishing they start to drink the wine, Bill says that the wine isn't that bad, to which Jake responds, "the cold helps it" referring to the temperature of the water (126). After drinking the wine the two seem to revitalize and Bill becomes thoughtful. He starts to say things like "let us rejoice", "let us utilize", and "let us...give thanks" (126). The wines effects on them appear to make them more pensive then drunk, leaving the reader thinking that the water from the river may have purified it a bit.
An old African proverb says that filthy water cannot be washed, this may be because water itself is a purification tool. Hemingway does use water as a symbol of rinsing ones impurities, but in some cases, such as with Lady Brett Ashley, he may be showing that everything can't always be fixed with something as simple as bathing. Contrary to this is how Jake reacts to water, in Burguete he relaxes and it soothes him, but he doesn't see the water as a means to an end like Brett seems to. Water is an everyday object that most don't think twice about, but in The Sun Also Rises Hemingway makes you.
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