Shifting Gender Roles in The Sun Also Rises

1417 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: American literature after World War 2

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Chicago, Illinois. Hemingway was an American author and journalist. Kemen Zabala author of “HEMINGWAY: A STUDY IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY” states that Hemingway was commonly known for portraying the sterile and disillusioned environment created by the massive human loss of World War I. Perhaps, his exposure to the atrocious nature of war as a Red Cross ambulance driver in the Europe during World War I aided and further influenced his literary capturing of warfare and how it had affected the “Lost Generation”. Hemingway himself popularized this term, it indicates the coming of age generation during World War I. Ashley Torres, author of “Gender Roles Shift in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises” claims that the “Lost Generation” mirrors the disenchanted and hopeless attitudes generated by the war. Although the war resulted in the loss of millions of men, changing the social and cultural customs, the youths of the “Lost Generation” were “battered but not lost” (Gerald, Kennedy “American Literature Vol. 63” (Jun. 1991), p. 192). As a result, the strict gender roles set by the preceding Victorian era, did not apply anymore, as women now took on many jobs meant for men. With a newfound sense of experimentation, the men and women of the “Lost Generation” could reverse gender roles freely. This paper will analyze the shift in gender roles found predominantly in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises was first published in October of 1926. As a new and enduring modernist novel, it had received mixed reviews upon publication (Gerald, Kennedy “American Literature Vol. 63” (Jun. 1991), p. 187). In this work, Hemingway thoroughly represents the gender experimentation...

... middle of paper ...

...arnes and "Masculine" Signification in The Sun Also

Rises." JSTOR. Duke University, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.

"Gender Role Reversal as a Critique on Sex: Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises." Worldpress.com. World Press, 15 Sept. 2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.

Gerald Kennedy, J. "Vol. 63, No. 2 (Jun., 1991) , Pp. 187-207." American Literature. No. 4 ed. Vol. (Vols. 1-71). Durham: Duke UP, 2000. 187-207. Print.

Newlin, Keith. Critique of The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Pasadena, CA: Salem,

2011. Print.

Torres, Ashley. "Gender Roles Shift in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises." Electronic

Archive - Ernest Hemingway. Electronic Archive, 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 13 Mar. 2014

Zabala, Kemen, "HEMINGWAY: A STUDY IN GENDER AND SEXUALITY" (2007). Honors Scholar Theses. Paper 27. http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/27

Show More
Related

  • Indian Camp and Soldiers Home Young Women as Objects

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Ernest Hemingway's short stories "Indian Camp" and "Soldier's Home," young women are treated as objects whose purpose is either reproduction or pleasure. They do not and cannot participate to a significant degree in the masculine sphere of experience, and when they have served their purpose, they are set aside. They do not have a voice in the narrative, and they represent complications in life that must be overcome in one way or another. While this portrayal of young women is hardly unique to Hemingway, the author uses it as a device to probe the male psyche more deeply.

    Read More

  • Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield

    2508 Words  | 6 Pages

    Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

    Read More

  • ray bradbury

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    6th ed. New York: St. James Press, 1996. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • The Growth of Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    2959 Words  | 6 Pages

    " American Literature 58.2 (May 1986): 181-202. Wright, Richard. A.

    Read More

  • Theme Analysis of Killings by Andre Dubus

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.

    Read More

  • Barn Burning

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Bibliography:.. Works Cited Meyer, M., Ed., (1999). Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5th Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin.

    Read More

  • The Contrasting Views of Roger Williams and John Winthrop

    626 Words  | 2 Pages

    Franklin, Gura, Klinkowitz, Krupat, Levine, Loeffelholz, Reesman, Wallace. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Seventh Edition Volume A. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 2007.

    Read More

  • The Historical and Cultural Aspects in The Plague

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    2nd ed. of the book. New York: St. James Press, 1995. Literature Resource Center -. Web.

    Read More

  • Oedipus the King: Does Oedipus Satisfy the Definition of a Good Man?

    1412 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman.  A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.

    Read More

  • Women's Roles in Hills Like White Elephants, by Ernest Hemingway

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    Through this brief anecdote, Hemingway presents the readers the social dilemma of male domination over his counterpart. The women's fight for equality changed some "old traditions" but there are still many Jigs in our society that shouldn't be treated as inferiors. Women are the most beautiful beings in life, but they are not to be possessed ,but loved and admired.

    Read More

  • The New Idea of Modernism

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • A Feminist Perspective of The Lady of Shalott

    2170 Words  | 5 Pages

    Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.

    Read More

  • Essay On Ernest Hemingway

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    The birth of American writer Ernest Miller Hemingway on July 21st, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois occurred during the progressive era and mere months before the Philippine-American war. Raised in the conservative suburbs and vacationing in northern Michigan the young Hemingway enjoyed the outdoors at his family’s cabin and his experiences there led him to become a sportsman partaking in fishing, hunting, and thrill-seeking. His initial writing skills were divulged when he began writing for his high school newspaper “Trapeze and Tabula” where he took interest in the sports section which would later play a large role in his professional writings as his focus on masculinity and social theories.

    Read More

  • The Subjects of Love and War Shine in Hemingway’s Writing Style

    1723 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novel, A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway creates a moving and intense portrayal of love between Catherine Barkley and Frederic Henry, which is set mainly on the Italian Front during World War I. The novel was originally published in 1929, after Hemingway himself served as an ambulance driver for the Italian Red Cross. Due to this experience, Hemingway is able to show great detail and description when writing about the scenes of war on the Italian Front. Additionally, he draws on his experiences with a nurse and similarities can be seen in the events in his novel and in the events in his life leading up to the writing of A Farewell to Arms. While a select few of the initial reactions claim that this particular novel is a disgusting, salacious, and a violent account, the majority of reviews written shortly after the novel was originally published commend Hemmingway for his detailed picture of the war, the intensity of the love story, and the craftsmanship and talent of his writing style. This leads most to claim that A Farewell to Arms is one of Ernest Hemingway’s most successful and masterful works.

    Read More

  • role of women in for whome the bell tolls

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Hemingway’s novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, the role of women is something one can not avoid noticing. Although only two women appear in the book, the distinction of their characters, and their influence on the situation are apparent from their introduction.

    Read More

More about Shifting Gender Roles in The Sun Also Rises

Open Document