Critical Analysis – The Values
The theme of values is prevalent throughout the entirety of Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises. In the novel, Hemmingway speaks for the Lost Generations of Paris that followed World War I. The novel revolves around the three main characters which are Jake Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn. The Lost Generation (the people who lost their sense of direction and prior values toward life due to the effects of war) are portrayed by Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley, with Robert Cohn as the only character that has not experienced warfare. The Lost Generation spent their lives aimlessly, not knowing what they really want. During the prosperous 1920s, they would often visit clubs and bars to drink and party their nights away. As demonstrated in The Sun Also Rises, the devastation of war has a huge impact on mortality. The ethics that were once valued prior to World War I are lost. Traditional values of love, friends, religion, and respect had been betrayed, and it clearly shows in the novel by the moral indifference depicted by the characters.
Jake Barnes is the main character and the narrator of the novel. He is a veteran of World War I and he is the character who is wounded both physically and emotionally by the war. Jake is the perfect example of the Lost Generation as he spends his nights aimlessly drinking with “friends” whom he does not seem to care much for. Although Robert Cohn is his considered to be his friend, Jake speaks of him with such mockery, hinting that Cohn is a pathetic and ignorant man. When describing how Cohn has been reading “The Purple Land”, Jake says, “For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man ...
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... is that the values are always there, remaining for people to learn and relearn. It is true that traditional values of love, friends, religion, and respect had been betrayed, and it clearly shows in the novel by the moral indifference depicted by the characters. However, many actually hope for the past values to be found once again. Both Jake and Brett are aware that their values have changed and there are times where they want to find themselves once again. This is shown through Jake’s unwillingness to reject his religion even though he does not necessarily believe in it any longer. Brett, later in the novel, demonstrates some form of generosity to let go of those that she can possibly hurt if she was to hold on any longer. War has a tremendous impact on the values as seen in The Sun Also Rises, but knowing the values can help to relearn them over and over again.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
Although Jake was spared his life in the great war, he lost another part of his life and future. Jack tries to compensate his lack of any real future with Brett or any other women with his passion for bullfighing and other frivalties. In John Steele Gordon’s article, “What We Lost in the Great War” Gordon laments the loss of hope and future the generation of the war felt. The characters of the novel, and especially Jake, exemplify the lack of direction felt after the war. Their aimless drinking, parties and participation in the fiesta is an example of the absence of focus in their life.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, paints vivid picture of the lives of upper and lower classes together and their interactions during the Roaring 20’s. Fitzgerald does this by showing the readers the true nature and purpose behind the upper class and the manipulation they use against anyone lower than them. An example of this manipulation would be Tom Buchanan, a wealthy man married to Daisy Buchanan, lying George Wilson, a lowly poor individual running a mechanics shop, about selling a car, just to see the man’s wife. This poor man, Wilson, lives in “The Valley of Ashes”, an almost desolate area on the way to New York from West and East Egg. This valley is a representation of the manipulation and reckless behavior of the upper class. Through The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald paints a picture of the 1920’s by portraying the upper class as immoral and careless through their actions, and their opinions.
Throughout The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway paints a tragic picture of young adults being haunted by the lasting effects of post traumatic stress disorder onset by their participation in World War I and the restrictions it placed on their ability to construct relationships.
Joseph Goebbels once said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” (Goebbels). Joseph Goebbels along with the Communist Party used this to describe their propaganda scheme to draw a whole nation into their control. This action shows a lapse of responsibility and the ability to escape a problem. Like Goebbels, the characters of The Sun Also Rises and The Hollow Men use excuses to get away from the problem. The characters in The Sun Also Rises are also considered Hollow Men as the group continually refuses to care or make a choice because the characters constantly turn to escapism to forget their problems, seemingly cope with changes in their lives but fail to do so, and regularly flashback to the past show a focus on a life already lived.
With the end of the first World War in the year 1918, many soldiers, young and old, came home to their families dark and cynical. Many famous authors of this time, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, wrote short stories not of their times at war, but of how material the world truly is. These were considered the “Lost Generation,” due to their lack of belief in humans in general and their dreary outlook of life in general. F. Scott Fitzgerald is famous for his book, The Great Gatsby which showed how he as an author viewed the Roaring Twenties, as one of the main themes is the idea that the American Dream is dead and humans are fickle and obsessed with material things, like money. On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, was the bright young generation, which “came into power” shortly after the Lost Generation. These young people were full of bright ideas and with the American Economy is a good place, everyone seemed to be happy. Art and fashion changed drastically, w...
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 American Dream and the decay of American values has been one of the most popular topics in American fiction in the 20th century. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises create a full picture of American failure and pursue its ideals after the end of World War I by portraying the main characters as outsiders and describing the transportation in a symbolic way. Putting the aimless journeys for material life foreground, Fitzgerald and Hemingway skillfully link West and men and associate East to not only money but women. As American modernists, Hemingway utilizes his simple and dialog-oriented writing to appeal to readers and Fitzgerald ambiguously portrays Gatsby through a narrator, Nick, to cynically describe American virtue and corruption, which substantially contribute to modernism in literature.
...is story, Hemingway brings the readers back the war and see what it caused to human as well as shows that how the war can change a man's life forever. We think that just people who have been exposed to the war can deeply understand the unfortunates, tolls, and devastates of the war. He also shared and deeply sympathized sorrows of who took part in the war; the soldiers because they were not only put aside the combat, the war also keeps them away from community; people hated them as known they are officers and often shouted " down with officers" as they passing. We have found any blue and mournful tone in this story but we feel something bitter, a bitter sarcasm. As the war passing, the soldiers would not themselves any more, they became another ones; hunting hawks, emotionless. They lost everything that a normal man can have in the life. the war rob all they have.
The novel ends with Jake in the pits of disillusion. He breaks ties with all friends unceremoniously. He has unfulfilled sexual desires, and the realization that he has misplaced his love in Brett grips him to the core. Yet these bitter realities, these dark bottoms of the ocean may be the saving gems he would need to regain his lost self, the very important guideposts that he would need to touch to be able to rise to the surface of the sea, to be able to see the light again and ultimately to know his true self again. Similarly if he Jake is the personification of the Lost Generation, it might just be that this utter disillusionment might be the very forces that would impel the Lost Generation to find itself once more and rise again.
Values -Everyone has them. Where do those values come from? In literature, one can find the answer to that question by taking a close look at characters and their values. They can be compatible to real life experiences. Look at the two stories, "Abuela Invents the Zero" by Judith Ortiz Cofer, and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. The main characters in the stories are Constancia from "Abuela Invents the Zero" and the Four March sisters, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth from Little Women. These two stories demonstrate how Experiences can shape, and change values.
The First character that is introduced into the novel is Cohn. He, as an outsider, is Jewish. Throughout the novel he is looked down upon in one way or another, but already he is separated from the rest which is shown when he is being described: "He had a hard, Jewish, stubborn streak" (p 18). This quote already shows that he is Jewish, and therefore different from the rest. Also, the fact that his streak is `hard [and] ...stubborn" shows that he is hard to deal with or be around. Even thought he is discriminated against, he is one of the very few that inform these people of the `lost generation' exactly how worthless they are when he says to Jake "You know what's the trouble with you? You're an expatriate. One of the worst type... Nobody that ever left their own country ever wrote anything worth printing. Not even in the newspapers" (p 120) and "Hello, you bums" (p50). He literally rubs into Jake's face what kind of a waste he has become once he left his country. It is rather surprising that the one who is much disliked and discriminated against sees the worthless characteristics of the others. The significance of the word `bums' used must be noticed since a bum is an idle worthless person by definition. This very well describes the `lost generation.'
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...
Jake and his friends (all veterans) wander aimlessly throughout the entire novel. Their only goal seems to be finding an exciting restaurant or club where they can spend their time. Every night consists of drinking and dancing, which serves as a distraction from their very empty lives. The alcohol helps the characters escape from their memories from the war, but in the end, it just causes more commotion and even evokes anger in the characters. Their years at war not only made their lives unfulfilling but also caused the men to have anxiety about their masculinity, especially the narrator Jake, who “gave more than his life” in the war (Hemingway).
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.