Ernest Hemingway: Allegorical Figures In The Sun Also Rises

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Ernest Hemingway: Allegorical Figures in The Sun Also Rises

Thesis: Hemingway deliberately shaped the protagonists in The Sun Also Rises as allegorical figures.

OUTLINE I. The Sun Also Rises
A. Hemingway's novel.
B. Hemingway's protagonists are deliberately shaped as allegorical figures. C. Novel symbolizing the impotence after W.W.I. II. Jake Barnes.
A. Wound.
1. Damaged genitalia.
2. Can't make love.
3. Feels desire.
B. Wound is symbol of life in years after W.W.I.
C. Wound from accident.
1. Accidents always happen.
2. Can't prevent accidents.
3. “It was like certain dinners that I remember from the war. There was much wine and ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent.”
D. Condition represents a peculiar form of impotence.
E. Restrained romantic.
F. Private grief with Cohn's public suffering.
G. Strongly attracted to Pedro Romero.
H. Later, when Barnes says that he hates “homos” and wants to hit them. III. Lady Brett Ashley.
A. First appears with a group of homosexuals.
B. Wears man's hat on short hair.
C. Refers to men as fellow “chaps”.
D. All complete distortion of sexual roles.
E. The war has turned Brett into the equality of a man.
F. This is like Jakes demasculation.
G. All releases her from her womanly nature.
H. “Steps off of the romantic pedestal to stand beside her equals. IV. Robert Cohn.
A. Women dominate him.
B. Old fashioned romantic.
C. Lives by what he reads.
D. To feel like a man.
1. Boxes.
a. Helps him to compensate for bad treatment from classmates. b. Turns him into an armed romantic.
2. Likes authority of editing and honor of writing, but is a bad editor and a poor novelist.
E. Looks for internal strength in outward signs and sources.
F. Willing to suffer publicly and to absorb insults for sake of true love.
G. He is ready to fight for his lady and knocks down his opponent like a knight.
1. When he goes against Pedro for Brett.
a. Brett tells him off.
b. Pedro won't fall.
c. Brett stays with Pedro.
d. Cohn is left alone.
2. Romantic hero met his match.
3. Shows difference between physical and moral victory.
a. Pedro fights for dignity and his spirit is untouched by Cohn.
b. Cohn's spirit is crushed.
H. Cohn based his manhood on skill at boxing or on a woman's love, not on internal strength. V. Pedro Romero.
A. Manhood stands without women.
B. Reason Barnes is attracted to him.
C. “Cohn and Pedro are...

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...eration are weighed. From this point, Pedro can be seen as the real hero, man whose code gives meaning to a world where love and religion are defuncts, where the proofs of manhood are difficult and scarce, and where every man must learn to define his own moral condition and then live up to them (Bloom, 1985, p. 118).

Hemingway purposely shaped the main characters in The Sun Also Rises as allegorical figures. Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley were two lovers desexed by the war. Robert Cohn was the false knight who challenged their despair. Pedro
Romero personified the good life which will survive their failure.

References

Baron's Educational Series, Inc. (1984). The Sun Also Rises- The
Story. [WWW]. URL http://www.kidzone.com:/ecc/sunalso3.htm

Bloom, H. (ED.). (1985). Modern Critical Views: Ernest
Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers

Hemingway, E. (1926). The Sun Also Rises. New York: Charles
Scribners' Sons

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