The Sun also Rises by Earnest Hemingway

This review will take readers to a journey to understand how, a gathering among some friends creates a beautiful memory of undecided voyages packed with some exciting interactions along the way🏂

‘Migration’ as a contact between people in the novel “The Sun Also Rises”

‘The Sun Also Rises’ is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway, who wrote it when the couple moved to Paris and he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of modernist writers and artist of 1920s “Lost Generation” expatriate community. Hemingway’s writing style as he called it the iceberg theory coined by himself focused on surface elements rather than underlying themes which functioned to distance himself from the characters he created, the book was published by the publishing house Scribner’s and a year later London publishing house Jo Nathan Cape published it with the title of Fiesta. The basis for the novel was Hemingway’s 1925 trip to Spain where the unique and memorable setting, the café life in Paris and excitement of Pamplona festival is reflected and the characterization is based on 

real people of Hemingway’s circle and on real actions and events. He used his journalism experience to write fiction based on real events he distilled his own experiences and what he remembered. 

In 1923, Hemingway visited the festival of San Fermin in Pamplona and got fascinated 

by bullfighting and returned to Pamplona in 1924 enjoying the trip with his colleagues Chink  Dorman – Smith, John Dos Passos and Donald Oden Stewart. The book by Hemingway is set in mid-1920s and many writers like Hemingway were disappointed with the US where they founded less artist’s freedom than in Europe and during this period James Joyce ‘Ulysses was banned in New York. 

The term ‘Lost Generation’ was coined by Gertrude Stein referring to the post-war 

generation who were disoriented, wandering, directionless and the characters indeed were “battered” but were not lost completely. The term mostly applied to the writer’s experiences of world war1 and their autobiographies were based on their use of mythologized versions of their 

lives and also decadence and the frivolous lifestyle of the wealthy. The war shattered many people beliefs in values in love, faith, manhood and they suffered great moral and psychological aimlessness. The narrative style of Hemmingway is distinctive from that of other writers. In the novel Hemingway shows interaction between characters their travel, home, journey, basically 'Migration’ which becomes a contact between different cultures among different people. The 

protagonist and narrator of the novel Jake begins with an epigraph describing the generation that came of age during World War I and the threshold of adulthood which has seen fights, death which shattered their faith in traditional values like love, manhood, womanhood, bravery and 

without this values they found their lives meaningless and unfulfilling and their existence aimless. The novel opens with quoting stein with a biblical passage from Ecclesiastes contrasting human nature with eternal survival of nature. The ‘title’ of novel shows hope there is always a 

new generation after the aimless generation that populates ‘The Sun Also Rises’ but with bitterness he portrays that every generation is lost, the sense in each will eventually die. Jake Barnes(Narrator) narrates the story with the brief description of Robert Cohn who was born to a wealthy Jewish family in New York who faces anti-Semitism in Princeton and to overcome with his feeling of inferiority he threw himself into boxing and becomes middle 

weight boxing champion gets divorced from his wife and spent most of his time with literary crowd there he meets Frances Clyne, a manipulative status-seeker who urges him to join Paris the postwar crowd of expatriates at this time he had few friends one of them was the protagonist 

‘Jake’, Cohn finishes his novel in Paris and gets invited by the narrator for a weekend trip the idea of travelling abroad infects Cohn only when he finishes his novel and a publisher who praises his work, his reading of a romantic chronicle( The Purple Land) of an English gentleman travelling abroad urges his wanderlust and Cohn proposes Jake to travel to South America with 

him offering the payment himself furthermore he tells narrator he is not living life to the fullest which shows Cohn eagerness to escapes from life as they were very disturbed by the influence of 

World War I unlike the entire civilization and Jake joins him all the way up by responding that: 

only bullfighters love their lives but indeed he makes a remarking statement that one cannot run away from the reality of the life.

 ‘You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another’- Jake

The narrator talks about everyone revealing his observing mentality which only indicates that he gains insight into his characters by reading his reaction to other characters and in description of Cohn confronting with anti-Semitism atmosphere at Princeton perhaps reveal his own anti-

Semitism and later we came to know that Jake does not respect Cohn and regards him as a somewhat ignorant, inexperienced and pathetic man who is insecure and a shy person, who manipulates women which reveals his anxiety regarding his own masculinity. The lack which they want to figure out through travel like many characters in the novel, they want travel to fixate their problem but everyone in life suffers from Cohn’s feeling of discontent and must learn to live with it. In the entire novel, they identify problems but show their inability to solve them. 

Jake at dinner in a conversation with Robert Cohn offers him the proposal of the trip and tells him that a female guide will take them to places and he refuses Jake offer because it would make francs(wife of Cohn) uncomfortable, we can see female overpowering a weak male which 

appears as a broad theme of weakened masculinity later in chapter three Jake in café catches the eye of a pretty prostitute named Georgette and she there makes a pass at Jake and he refuses saying he is stick, later revealing the fact that he received a wound in the war and making such sexual dalliances is impossible for him. The World War I as a movement had a great impact over the civilization is it has become a hub for many artistic and business activities. In the club lady 

Brett Ashley arrives with a crowd of young men wearing jerseys and Jake meets them with hostility, Brett gets drunk Jake goes for a drink mean while Cohn immediately becomes infatuated with her and throughout the novel the characters have contacts with each other at different places and with different people. Brett and Jake both like each other but always Jake always get reminded of his wound during World War I which made him impotent, this again a theme of dissatisfaction leads all character to struggle and to discover their individual brands of happiness and their identity as lost souls.

The group of male expatriate creates an environment of rivalry, competition and mutual harassment challenging men about their masculinity at various points of contacts among them.

We can see that despite fights they come close through their travel journey like in Book two, Jake and bill moves to Burguete Spain for fishing on Irati River escaping the wasteland of Paris Hemingway seems to be a nature lover who describes about it briefly which show rest and peace 

in this world as compared to the other they move away from the city life corruption and women, this transportation to the other world excites them which they had been looking forward all over the winter. Jake and Bill feel comfortable with each other on their fishing trip and Jake accepts 

that he has no problem over his fish being smaller than Bills which can be interpreted as an admission of lesser sexual manliness (impotency). They feel rejoiced in the lap of nature and places which brings back their spirituality which was once lost due to the World War I. They no longer think about the sensual world, the description of Burguete journey is explained as: the bus 

was full of passengers but still Jake and Bill they enjoyed the beautiful scenery in chapter eleven the rocky hill, church, school-yards, white washed stone houses which depict a romantic escape from the injuries of the war and complicated life of the Paris. The weather was hot at day time 

and cold at night and to keep themselves warm they drank hot rum punch and wore sweaters. 

The fishing trip was balanced high in the Spanish mountains on one side it is plain Paris and on the other Pamplona.

We cannot ignore the religious power of the church which once lacked in the characters; the trip makes them to reconnect themselves to their deity. The trip significantly gives a refreshing experience to Jake and Bill and helps them to re-unite, spiritually, religiously which keeps them 

away from the sensual world. Jake never states that he and his friends lack meaning in their lives, which he reveals later the absence of meaning through his descriptions of their activities which 

he discussed in chapter three with her friend Georgette that this was a calamity for civilization. 

Georgette and Frances talks about Paris as Pleasant or clean or directly unpleasant, their schedule is generally waking up, work for few hours, lunch, drink meets friends, café, drink, go to a club, drink, go to house and sleep. They drink in any social appointment living a decadent lifestyle. Jake feels incapable of experiencing sexual desire and his anxiety regarding his 

masculinity become important which symbolizes emasculation of World War I, veterans unlike Jake other soldiers were confronted with the task of defining their masculinity. 

The novel acts like a point of render for many exchanges like religion to nationality character like Cohn who is a Jew living in Paris, now what can be seen here is Jewish is something which is not very native to Paris as the population of country mostly follows Christianity and as mentioned by the narrator in the introduction in which he introduces Cohn as a shy person who 

faces anti-Semitism and to combat his shyness he threw himself into boxing. The novel talks about many nationalist from an American character to a French, an English and a Spanish and there are several nationalities included in this novel like Mrs. Braddock who is Canadian having 

all easy social graces, Robert Cohn a Jewish personality, the narrator of the novel being 

American, Georgette, speaks in French in the novel to Jake like when she, calls a waiter in a hotel to bring a Pernod in French she says: (drink) Dites garcon, Un Pernod (French)- Tell the waiter, a Pernod and Jake introduces her as ‘Mademoiselle Georgette Leblane and later in the 

conservation with Mrs. Braddock’s she reveals that her real name is Mademoiselle Hobin and Jake in the excitement of talking French was liable to have no idea what she was saying and both Georgette and Mrs. Braddock laughs saying ‘He’s fool. Then Brett a Blonde join them, Mrs. Braddock brings up somebody and introduces him as Robert Prentiss (a writer) from New York by way Chicago having English accent. The language and names plays a very important role in making contacts between characters and their activities Robert Cohn asks Brett for a dance but she says I’ve promised to dance with Jacob, laughingly she says ‘You have a hell of a biblical name, Jake’. 

The name Jake Barnes and the person himself becomes the perfect embodiment of USA and Americans between the World Wars in Hemingway Narrative, his real name is Jacob Barnes which has been shortened to Jake like Michael Shortened to Mike in the Novel and the narrator 

uses Jacob in the entire book (just once) which adds to the allegations of Hemingway having anti-Semitic tendencies Jacob, for those who don’t know was the name given to the second born of Isaac who’s descendants would be referred to as Jew one day and would establish the Foundations of a nation by the same name. Hemingway portrayal of Jake is equally problematic for the Catholics as well constantly reminding the evidence of the purposelessness of religion in 

the lives of people of the Great War Survivors. The only spiritual encounter we can see is during the fishing trip. Jake is believed to be archetypal observer, who actually pay head to his observations and take them quite seriously. This idea of exploring the beauty acts as a contact between the seeker and what he seeks, they are trying to revaluate their values by living with their arms, their participation in bull fighting in Spain signifies that they want to re-live the violence and want to find out their lost values. So, their (travel) migration as a moment and Hemingway’s travel brings all the ‘cultures’ (literature) closer in geographical context.