"From one church to another" religion and ritual in the fiction of Ernest Hemingway
"FROM ONE CHURCH TO ANOTHER" RELIGION AND RITUAL IN THE FICTION OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY. (April 2002) Laura Seals Department of English Texas A&M University Fellows Advisor: Dr. David McWhirter Department of English This thesis traces the representation of religion and the development and subsequent decline of ritual as a replacement for religion in the lives of Hemingway's fictional characters. The author's own experiences with religion and ritual during his youth as well as various cultural studies of ritual are presented as a basis for the study of religion and ritual in In Our Time, The Sun Also Rises, Death in the Afternoon, and For 8'horn the Bell Tolls. The rituals of these works evolve from extremely personal rituals, performed in isolation as a way for the character to control and avoid the tragedies they face, in the early works In Our Time and The Siin Also Rises to more communal rituals like the bullfight in Spain in The Sun Also Rises and Death m the Afternoon, and finally to the dismissal of ritual as a viable replacement for religion in the later work For 8%om the Bell Tolls.