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Explain the social construction of masculinity
Masculinity perception
Masculinity meaning in society
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Charlie Harper sits in his living room, he’s watching the boxing game and is about to call one of his many hookers. Charlie looks at the phone and then at the TV and says, “ This is the life!” This shows that Charlie values two things sports and women. Why? Simple, Women bring sex. Boxing shows a sense of bravery, getting into the ring and willingly putting yourself out there to get beaten up. Charlie Harper is not the only one who values these things but men in the 1920’s do as well. The Sun Also Rises is a story that takes place in the 1920’s and is written by Ernest Hemingway. The novel follows the life of Jake an American war veteran as he and his friends got to Pamplona, where there will be a Fiesta with a lot of bullfighting. These time periods maybe about 90 years apart but they still value the same ideals. In The Sun Also Rises the bullfighting scenes are central to the novel because they demonstrate the importance the characters place on sex and bravery. This characteristic and action personify their obsession with masculinity.
To commence, the bullfights show the heightened value of sex in the novel and how sex or the ability to have sex is a masculine quality. The roles in bullfighting parallel sex. Steers are castrated, they are useful to tame the bull but other than that they are rather pointless and not valued by people as Robert Cohn remarks “It’s no life being a steer” (Hemingway 145) The bull on the other hand is a majestic creature, an untamed savage beast. Everyone cheers for the bulls and are eager to see them. These roles in the bullfighting parallel the characters in The Sun Also Rises as well. Jake and Cohn are steers and Brett is a bull. Jake and Cohn are steers and it is demonstrated not only by thei...
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...e in the bullfighters style, how bullfighters are loved and lauded by their audience, as well as masculinity in being able to watch a whole bull fight.
All in all, the importance of masculinity in the novel is seen through sex and bravery through masculinity in the indispensable bullfighting scenes. As well as demonstrates the social norms in the 1920’s since being masculine made you socially accepted. This masculinity continues to be an important topic today because how masculine you are shows your gender role. Now depending on if a female or male is showing masculine traits, it can either be relatively normal for men or depicted as quite repugnant and not a part of the social norm for women. The amount of masculinity someone displays can show how acknowledged they are in society, and social acceptance continues to be a key value in various people’s lives today.
Bull is what psychologists call an alpha male. Bull Meechem has a self-confidence problem he must constantly establish his dominance over his family. When Mary Anne tries to condone Bull on his loss instead of saying thank your or just ignoring her he tell her “ Get out of here before I start knocking every freckle off your face” This comment was obviously unnecessary and offend Mary Anne deeply. Another horrible side to Bull is his physical abuse to Lillian and the kids. Countless times Bull has struck either Lillian or the kids. Though Lillian denies it Ben reminds her and the reader that Bull has struck her in the past. “‘Your nose was bleeding and that’s how I ruined this T-shirt. I’ve kept it, Mama, because I wanted it as proof. This is your blood, Mama. Your blood’” “ ‘He never hit me’ Lillian insisted”. These tantrums by Bull only alienate his children and his wife from him but he can still obtain their utmost respect and discipline.
His absence in the battlefield partly explains his untainted nature and contributes to the implied “unmanly” label he has earned for himself from Jake and the group. Hemingway strips away any semblance of masculinity in Cohn save his boxing talent. This is the extent of his masculinity. Cohn uses boxing to give him a “certain inner comfort in knowing he could knock down anybody who was snooty to him” (11). To combat his insecurity with his masculinity, he relies on boxing. However, Cohn still inevitably and obliviously throws in the towel in the fight of masculinity when Jake remarks that “being a very shy and thoroughly nice boy, he never fought except in the gym” (11). Cohn’s attempt at using the sport as a mechanism for practicing masculinity ultimately
A Proverb once stated, “Opposites attract.” Scientist, chemist, doctors, and even matchmakers around the world know this statement to be true. However in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, the relationship between Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn proves this statement wrong. Throughout the novel, Lady Brett has many types of relationships with a variety of people, most of whom are men. Some of these men include Jake Barnes, the narrator of the story, Mike Campbell, her supposed husband, and Pedro Romero. Lady Brett’s laid back, independent, and rather promiscuous life style creates many foil relationships with the various men she has affairs with. Brett’s foil relationships sometimes bring out the best qualities in people and other times unfortunately brings out the worst qualities. Throughout the book Lady Brett’s foil relationship with Robert Cohn bring out Cohn’s unpopularity, immaturity, and his possessive and obsessive control over Brett.
Beloved by Toni Morrison and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry tackle issues of masculinity. On pages 125 to 138 and 147 to 149, Morrison illustrations in Beloved how white power structures and the sexual fetishism of the black man’s body, which were established by American slavery, emasculates the black man. On pages 143 to 144 in A Raisin in the Sun, which takes place between World War II and the present, portrays a peculiar mindset of a black man, and his fight to define his masculinity within a matriarchal family structure, a product of American slavery. The language in Beloved and A Raisin in the Sun, underlines the products of the societal structures of slavery effect on black masculinity.
They are both very tired after spectating, stating that “[they] took a bull-fight very hard.” (Hemingway 243). Despite these feelings, it is implied that they are widely desensitized to this particular brand of horror, with Jake assuring Brett that “after a while you never notice anything disgusting” (Hemingway 183). Despite his assurances, Jake does avoid the parts of the bull-fight that he finds traumatizing or disturbing. He often sleeps through parts that he finds disturbing, although he refuses to admit that that is the the reason he does not participate in those portions of the
The fishing trip within Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises provides a pilgrimage of rejuvenation to the novel’s participating characters, Jake Barnes and Bill Gorton. Escaping the wasteland that is Paris, the two men “shove off,” (Hemingway, VIII), to Burguete, Spain, where they fish for trout on the Irati River.
Whatever we see in movies, television, video games, or any other source of entertainment, there will always be a male figure who symbolizes masculinity to the fullest extent. All that masculinity represents empowerment is what seems to appeal to men nowadays. In Michael Kimmel’s Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, the novel presents the irresistible desires that men seek in order to receive the approval of other men. An approval where men gain access to the concept of Guyland, where young men become masculine in order to fit in socially and to feel empowered. However, achieving absolute masculinity leans toward the use of violence that is presented in the media, presenting a message where violence is used for the purpose of getting what one desires.
Jake Barnes: "You're not an aficionado?" Spanish waiter: "Me? What are bulls? Animals. Brute animals... A cornada right through the back. For fun-you understand." (Hemingway, 67) Why does everybody hate Robert Cohn? At the beginning of Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes, the story's point-of-view character, wants us to believe that he has at least some appreciation for Cohn. He relates some of Cohn's life for us, how at Princeton he was a middle weight boxing champ, how despite his physical prowess he had feelings of "shyness and inferiority...being treated as a Jew," (Hemingway, 11) his turbulent career as a magazine editor and his failed marriage. It's easy to begin to feel sorry for this guy. The only mistake he made was falling for Lady Brett Ashley. Cohn's infatuation with this heartless wench, coupled with the jealousy and competitive nature of the novel's other bon vivant characters, lead to his disgrace.
The Sun Also Rises was one of the earliest novels to encapsulate the ideas of the Lost Generation and the shortcomings of the American Dream. The novel, by Ernest Hemingway, follows Jake Barnes and a group of his friends and acquaintances as they (all Americans) live in Paris during 1924, seven years after World War I. Jake, a veteran of the United States, suffers from a malady affecting his genitalia, which (though it isn't detailed in the s...
The pivotal character of Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises is Jake Barnes. He is a man of complex personality--compelling, powerful, restrained, bitter, pathetic, extraordinarily ordinary yet totally human. His character swings from one end of the psychological spectrum to the other end. He has complex personality, a World War I veteran turned writer, living in Paris. To the world, he is the epitome of self-control but breaks down easily when alone, plagued by self-doubt and fears of inadequacy. He is at home in the company of friends in the society where he belongs, but he sees himself as someone from the outside looking in. He is not alone, yet he is lonely. He strikes people as confident, ambitious, careful, practical, quiet and straightforward. In reality, he is full of self-doubt, afraid and vulnerable.
Many of the social normalities these people had before they left for war, were abandoned. People exchanged their proper ways for more relaxed ideals. In this new society people were more able to express themselves, how they wanted to. One of the best shifts that happened in this new era was with women. Before World War One, women were considered submissive to men. They did not have duties outside of daily house work, and children. However after World War One people returned to women who had taken on more manly roles. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway uses women to show these challenges of society. Take Brett Ashley, before the war she would have been considered a rebel, and unattractive to most men, but after the war he attributes take on a whole new light. Brett is in control of her surroundings and this control gives her options that many women before had not experienced. This independence can be seen in her promiscuity. When Jake confronts her about this behavior she makes no excuse but rather says “ Oh well. What if I do” (Hemingway 27). This reaction is something new. Post World War, many women began reject the social norms that had been set for them. Unlike the women in e.e. Cummings poem The Cambridge l...
Throughout Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, masculinity is a recurring theme that is present throughout the novel and is directly linked to the creation of Fight Club in the first place. After meeting Tyler Durden, the narrator’s masculinity and outlook on life starts to dramatically change. As a result of this change, the theme of masculinity becomes very disastrous throughout the novel very quickly because Palahniuk uses masculinity in order to explain the many problems the consumer driven males may struggle with. In this case, the narrator’s masculinity is constantly in question because of his struggles with insomnia, a consumer driven lifestyle, and Marla Singer. In our society today, the view of masculinity has changed a lot where it almost seems that femininity plays a big role in masculinity.
Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway's novels is the concept popularly known as the "Hemingway hero", or “code hero”, an ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a "man's man". In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancée for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate Hemingway's standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Each man Brett has a relationship with in the novel possesses distinct qualities that enable Hemingway to explore what it is to truly be a man. The Hemingway man thus presented is a man of action, of self-discipline and self-reliance, and of strength and courage to confront all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.
Love is a universal language; it is something that everyone understands. It does not necessarily have to be spoken of; instead it can be shown through people’s action. In most novels love is an unseen character yet it plays this strong force that moves the story along. Ernest Hemingway writes about a group of people who are trapped in a wearisome game of love. In The Sun Also Rises Jake Barnes, the protagonist, is a journalist whose war injury causes him to be handicapped. He is madly in love with Lady Brett who loves him in return. However, they cannot complete their relationship because of Jake’s injury. Therefore all he can do is helplessly watch as Brett dates other men. Their forbidden love is similar to the story of Romeo and Juliet, however this novel tells us about the scary ventures of love. Hemingway uses dialogue, imagery and omits description of the characters’ emotions to show the tragedies of love.
The novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is an example of how an entire generation redefined gender roles after being affected by the war. The Lost Generation of the 1920’s underwent a great significance of change that not only affected their behaviors and appearances but also how they perceived gender identity. Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes are two of the many characters in the novel that experience shattered gender roles because of the post war era. The characters in the novel live a lifestyle in which drugs and alcohol are used to shadow emotions and ideals of romanticism. Brett’s lack of emotional connection to her various lovers oppose Jake’s true love for her which reveals role reversal in gender and the redefinition of masculinity and femininity. The man is usually the one that is more emotionally detached but in this case Lady Brett Ashley has a masculine quality where as Jake has a feminine quality. Both men and female characters in the novel do not necessarily fit their gender roles in society due to the post war time period and their constant partying and drinking. By analyzing Brett, Jake, and the affects the war had on gender the reader obtains a more axiomatic understanding of how gender functions in the story by examining gender role reversal and homosexuality.