Theme Of Pain In The Sun Also Rises

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Many questions arise throughout the novel, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Some of them concern the character traits and issues, specifically how the main characters handle pain and sadness. Others question the price the characters pay at the end. Furthermore, some question the relationships between the characters and their functionalities. Without stating directly, the author answers all these questions within the story. In the novel, many characters are faced with pain, but since they are individual people, they deal with their pains varyingly and according to their sources of pain. One of these characters is Jake, and one of his sources of pain is from the previous war. There, he loses his ability to consummate and is depressed because it is …show more content…

It is mentioned when Mike says, “I had a lot of friends. False friends,” (Hemingway 141). This is the only time his old friends are mentioned in the novel. Since he seems very uncomfortable regarding the subject, it can be concluded that he feels pain concerning the topic of his friends Another undiscussed pain is from Bill, a war veteran who never speaks about any of his pains or problems. However, he jokes about the war on page 121 of the novel to explain that he cares about Jake. His joke was about how soldiers and everybody cared for one another very much, but it does not make them homosexual. After explaining this to Jake, he abruptly ends the conversation. This abrupt ending to the conversation hints at the undiscussed pain Bill has regarding the war and the conditions he was in. The third undiscussed pain is Jake regarding his family. Throughout the novel, he talks about all his friends and their relationships, but there is not any mention about his own family or relationships, other than the ones he has with Brett or Cohn. As Jake sits with the two newspaper men in the cab, Jake remains silent as they talk about their

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