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Victoria Harrington - Phelps

Literary Analysis of The Sun Also Rises

            “I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about” (Hemingway 152). The unprecedented novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway extraordinarily managed to capture the quintessence of an entire era through its exceptional development of varying, interrelated themes as depicted by the portrait of characters. It is the account of Jack Barnes’s struggling experiences of a flamboyant lifestyle, artificial friendships, inner turmoil, and the preconception of the inevitable doom from the pursuit of happiness as expressed entirely through his perspective and the fascinating exchange between the characters. A unique distinction of Hemingway’s novel is the limited or seemingly nonconsequential dialogue which actually facilitates the majority of the greatest and poignant advancements of both the plot and the multitude of personalities. With that in mind, the structure seems to therefore represent one of Hemingway’s main themes, an attempt to compensate for the lack of meaning in the characters’ lives through trivial and retrogressive means. While the usage of simplistic language is implemented to almost mask the indirect complexities and motifs, it again manifests itself as another two themes in the work, insecurity and inauthenticity. Considering Jake Barnes’s occupation of being a writer, the adoption of laymen terms by which the story is conducted seems to be paralleled with the previously mentioned self-hesitation. Hemingway wrote with such an extensive and beautiful connectivity of each endless interpretation identifying his novel not only as absolutely captivating but revolutionary.

            One of the most defining themes of not only the novel but the time was an amplifying sense of disillusionment. Though the characters attempt to replenish the empty voids in their lives, they are, instead, consumed with a worsening unhappiness, a loss of reality, and an unwavering objective to hopelessly find a sense of fulfillment. Jack Barnes says to Robert Cohn, a friend of his who is also a writer, in a conversation discussing Cohn’s own aimlessness, “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bullfighters” (Hemingway 18). Basically, Cohn discloses some of his inner emotions; however, Jake’s response is to accept the inevitability of discontentment because it is unescapable, a belief of his that actually metamorphoses as the novel comes to an end. Ironically, this statement and philosophy does not hinder any of the characters to continue their search for purpose, usually through the shallowest of means. For which reasons, the characters suffer an almost insurmountable crisis of moral decay both in themselves and around them. Sexual promiscuity and self-indulgence are the predominant issues affecting the characters’ ethical rectitude which seems to be a vicious cyclicality; a lack of meaning results in an increase of corruption which then leads to a more persistent emotional vagrancy. For example, Brett Ashley, the love of Jake’s life and a prominent cause of friction among the male characters and their friendships, is the picturesque illustration of someone who uses an excess of intimacy to feel connected and lively. But, as depicted by her conversation with Jake in regards to her relationships with men, she instead experiences a stronger intensity of loneliness and vapidity, “Oh, darling, I've been so miserable” (Hemingway 32). Not only the story but the generation at the time could be divided into two different groups: those who are Jakes and those who are Bretts. In other words, individuals will reach a crossroads in which they must either decide to acknowledge their despair brought on by their own actions and continue into the declining spiral of squalor, like the classification of Bretts, or self-aware and advance from the newfound enlightenment, like those of Jakes. And, through these particular characters, Hemimway was able to address the emotional quandaries ailing society in an unconventional manner.

            Unlike many of the themes in The Sun Also Rises, self-doubt is definitely the most subtly original and overlooked characterizations. Throughout the work, there is a preconceived notion of the importance of the embodiment of a man creating a vigorous struggle for the men to maintain their relationships. So, each of the different insecurities of Jake, Robert, and Mike, Brett’s finance, is proportionally related to them feeling like less of a man. Said thoughts allow the characters to be unfairly jealous and hostile toward each other. One of the most contentious exemplifications is through both the resentment of Robert, by both Jake and Mike, for having had sexual involvements with Brett and Robert’s own crazed neediness, “… [Robert Cohn] hit me and I sat down on the pavement… He knocked Mike down, too” (Hemingway 195). Provocatively, Brett’s qualities of independence and sexual liberation are quite reversed elements in the men who are actually stifled carnally or autonomically, specifically: Jake and his impotency, Robert and his girlfriend’s reign over him, and Mike and his bankruptcy. This untraditional view of women as depicted through Brett may be a representation of the rapidly changing views and restrictions placed upon gender but, more significantly, of the misogyny of male self-consciousness with female empowerment. Relating back to the original statement however, Jake’s personal disfigurement is probably one of the best examples for someone to feel unconfident about their manliness. Yet, despite his irreversible physicality, whereas the other male characters have rectifiable dilemmas, he is able to surmount his negative thoughts of self-worth by coming to terms with the reality of his situation, unlike Robert and Mike and even Brett, which leads us to the final point: masking one’s true nature and fleeting illusions.

            Mendacious self-identity is a prevalent theme among twentieth century, existentialist novels and, especially, among the fundamental personalities of this work. Due to the belief of a pointlessness in life, a state of despondency evolved into a demand to create a type of barrier in which dejection is no longer forced to be endured so momentously instituting a plebian artificiality. Although each of the characters suffers from some severity of disingenuity to atone for their lack of contentment, Brett and Mike tend to be the finest archetypes, almost existing in a world constructed entirely from their delusions. For instance, Mike is running a deficit by living an opulent lifestyle that he cannot finance; while, his counterpart, Brett exercises a complete lack of self-control and faithful virtue. It is not only their pretentious habits that constitute them as phony; rather, it is their willful repression of their irrefutable misery that condemns them further into desolation. Contrastingly, Jake, who shares primarily similar attributes as popularized by the time, is able to subjugate his fanciful pretenses. Most successfully, he does this through an exchange with Brett in response to her remarking the possibility that they could have had a beautiful relationship, “Isn’t it pretty to think so” (Hemingway 251)? The main reason implied to why Brett and Jake could never formally be together, despite their obvious affinity to each other, is his impotence and her love for sex. With that said, in this statement, Jake finally admits to himself the truth of their separation is not due to a lack of sexual involvement but, rather, Brett’s ineptitude to stay fully trustworthy with a partner and to sincerely love Jake correspondingly. At that moment, illusions shatter, and Jake finally, clearly understands and appreciates both the nature of Brett and their affiliation, recognizing him as one of the only characters to embrace reality.

            The boundless themes of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises further substantiates the belief that he illustrated a people through the manifestation of its ideas to its structure. Few proses have been so genuine and profoundly abstract as this work. His masterfully written novel undoubtedly epitomizes the inner tribulations of the Lost Generation through his accentuation of both categorically existentialist and nihilistic paramount concepts of ineffectuality, self-uncertainty, and magniloquence. Every character except for our protagonist succumbs in the end to the synonymous fate in which they began much like the unavoidable, repetitive succession of life, or as Jake proclaimed, “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another” (Hemingway 19).