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Chapter 7 marks the beginning of Jordan and Maria\'s love
relationship. Since this relationship will be one of the main
strands of the story, the chapter is particularly significant.
Robert Jordan is asleep in his robe beyond the mouth of the cave. He
is awakened by Maria. She protests a bit about getting into the robe
with him, but not much. After all, she came there of her own volition.
This is the first but not the last such episode of lovemaking for
these two. Maria reveals that she has been sexually used before-
\"things were done to me\"- by her Nationalist captors, but that was not
lovemaking. And she is not \"sick\" (from a sexually transmitted
disease).
Today\'s novels are filled with graphic descriptions of sexual
encounters. Hemingway couldn\'t go that far in 1940. Whether he would
have, if it had been possible, is an unanswerable question. Most
readers feel that his version is poetic and tasteful. It focuses
more on the lovers\' dialogue and feelings than on a clinical
description of lovemaking.
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NOTE: Some readers have pointed to this scene as wildly unrealistic.
Given the morals of the day and of the country, no single woman
would be so brazen as to give herself so openly to a relative
stranger. Others defend Hemingway\'s choice, saying that Maria\'s
behavior is necessary in order to accelerate the love affair between
them. Within the space of less than three days she must offer him a
love relationship that will help bring about a change in the way he
perceives the war and his role in it.
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