The Sun Also Rises: Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises

Slator Aplin

Ernest Hemingway is one of the pioneer’s in 20th century American Literature. Hemingway wrote most of his work between 1920 and 1950, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, and his first was The Sun Also Rises. In his “greatest work,” Hemingway describes the dissolute nature of the “Lost Generation” (the age of people during World War I who lost most of their morals due to the tragedy of the war).

The Sun Also Rises is narrated by Jake, an American WWI veteran who has moved to Paris. There he meets his friend, Cohn, who is restlessly wanting to leave his fiancee, Francis. In Paris Jake too finds his lost love that he met during the war as a nurse, Brett. Brett hops from man to man seeking love but never finding what she truly wants. She and Jake can never be together because during the war Jake suffered at accident that made him infertile. Brett continuously bumps into Jake and eventually tells him that she is leaving to San Sebastian, Spain to take a break from his presence. Jake’s good friend Bill then comes to Paris and they make plans to go on a fishing trip on Spain and later go to the fiesta at Pampaloma. Brett soon returns from her trip to Spain with her new fiancee, Mike. Mike is a continuously drunken Scott who is also a Great War veteran. Once Brett discovers that the boys are taking a trip to Spain and Pampaloma, she asks to accompany them. Jake, Bill, and Cohn then head off to Spain. They arrive in Pampaloma; and when Brett and Mike don’t show up to the hotel, Jake and Mike decide to go fishing in a small fishing town; Cohn chooses to stay at wait for Brett. The fiesta de Pampaloma begins, and it is a mixture of bullfighting, bull running, drinking and partying. They all go to see a bullfighting match and are blown away by Pedro Roberto, a new bullfighter who outperforms everyone in the arena. Brett especially is taken back by Pedro, and when they see him at the hotel nights later she urges Jake to introduce her to the talented fighter. Cohn that night breaks under all of the other mens’ banter againist him and punches Jake and Mike out cold. Jake finds Cohn later sobbing on his bed, where Cohn begs for his forgiveness. Cohn earlier punched Pedro in the face, but unlike Jake, Pedro doesn’t accept Cohn’s apology. Brett then “falls in love” with Pedro and they run off to Madrid. Cohn, Jake and Bill then head home after the fiesta. Jake decides to spend a few extra days in San Sebastian to fish and relax. There he receives a message from Brett to meet her in Madrid.

The Sun Also Rises has a writing style parallel to The Great Gatsby. It is simply written, but every action and every scene has an underlying meaning that supports the central theme. Hemingway uses the lost and immoral ways of the main characters to display the confused “Lost Generation.” Pedro is a foil to these characters because he has goals and a set path in life. He left the temptation of Brett for his ambitions and fame, where-as Jake just wants to go to fish, drink, and relax. The “Lost Generation” is shown with Hemingway’s complex simplicity. This generation is physically unfazed, but on the inside they are complex and transformed from the effects of war. This is what interests me the most about the novel, the author’s depiction of this dissolute race. I would highly recommend this book because hidden complexity (that I honestly didn’t fully comprehend and want to read the book again to fully understand it’s message).