The Sun Also Rises

1927

Special Collections PS3515 E37 S9 1927

New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons

The Fisher King reappears as Jake in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. In Grail legends, the Fisher King is wounded in his leg or groin, leaving him impotent and his land infertile, and he spends his time near his castle fishing. Yet the King and his kingdom can be healed if a questing knight asks the right question. Hemingway’s Jake was wounded in the groin in WWI, and his post-war life becomes meaningless. He is able to establish order in his life and potentially redeem and heal himself by going fishing.