Symbolism In The Sun Also Rises By Hemingway

They say that war separates the men from the boys. Yet, in reality, glory only comes to those who kill and die with honor. Many of the young soldiers during World War I returned home wounded both emotionally and physically; some even psychologically emasculated by battle. Ernest Hemingway’s debut novel The Sun Also Rises provides a voice for the Lost Generation of devalued men through the American expatriate Jake Barnes. Just as the sun invariably rises and sets, Jake feels trapped in a cycle of sexual inadequacy which Hemingway alludes to by referencing “Henry’s bicycle” as a metaphor of impotency and using the symbolic imagery of a “bicycle ride” which Jake’s physical abnormality prevents him from truly enjoying.

Bill Gorton is probably Jake’s

Hemingway’s allusion of “Henry’s bicycle” is a reference to the American writer Henry James whose experiences echo those of Jake. The story says that he didn’t serve in the Civil War because of an “obscure hurt” which rumor attributes to a biking accident which led to his alleged impotence (Crawford and Morton 1). James, like Jake and Hemingway himself, was an expatriate and a writer who like Jake became impotent. Bill tries to change the subject by telling Jake that he’s a “hell of a good guy” but Jake can’t take the compliment. The story could have involved anything other than a bicycle, but on a subconscious level Jake identifies with James. Despite the fact that Jake did indeed serve and Henry did not, Jake finds neither glory nor artist inspiration from his wartime experiences. He has no stories to tell like Mike and unlike Bill he’s unable to readjust after the war, his insecure manifesting itself in his feelings of