NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway has been dead for over thirty years, but the amount of criticism on him and on his work only increases. Readers remain intrigued with this modernist who was the apparent contradiction of the dedicated and isolated artist-at-work. (Baker, p. 1) Yet Hemingway the writer outlives the countless other personalities the man adopted throughout his life and in his finely written stories and novels, Hemingway brought the essence of the disillusioned yet enduring modern vision to millions of readers around the world. Two of the main ways that Hemingway uses setting is portraying the post war generation and moving Jake to places of privacy in order to change the mood of the novel. Theme is also an important element in the story. In the novel The Sun Also Rises, we are presented a setting of a post-war era. The post war generation is very important in all aspects of the novel.
The wars impact is present throughout the novel. In Stanley Cooperman's Monarch Notes he says of the wars impact, "But although it is only mentioned a few times in the novel, it is ever-present in the power of its effect upon the individuals in the book. All the characters are suffering because of the war, directly or indirectly. " (Baker, 31) Jake Barnes has been made sexually impotent because of the war, Brett Ashley has lost her true love, and Cohn is unable to relate to those who have passed through the conflict. Each of their lives have been significantly affected by the war. Another area of setting that Hemingway uses effectively is how he is able to shift settings in order to make the novel flow more smoothly.
Arthur Waldhorn says of Hemingway's ability to do this, "When on occasion, the emotional strain becomes too great, Hemingway shifts the setting to the privacy of Jakes bedroom and lets him release his subjective feelings through an interior monologue. " (Lee, 42) This monologue is necessary to get inside his mind and also break from the emotional strain of the previous passages. Setting is very important throughout The Sun Also Rises. Another technique that Hemingway uses in the novel The Sun Also Rises is characterization. The sun also rises is filled with characters uniquely individual. Scott Donaldson says of the novel, "Yet The Sun Also Rises is much more a novel of character than of event, and the action would seem empty were it not for the rich texture of personalities that interact throughout the book. " (White, 29) Among these personalities include the narrator Jake Barnes.
Jake Barnes is a man who bears the wounds of the war in a profoundly personal way yet combines his disillusionment with traditional American values of hard work and just compensation. His betrayal and his failure to adhere to his own ethical standards demonstrate that Jake is flawed and indeed a very human male, despite his wound and despite his attempt to remake himself into a gentle stoic. Second is the character of Brett Ashley, Hemingway sets up a woman that is way ahead of her era. The book takes place in the early 1900 's, and Brett seems to be what is known as a "New Woman" in nineteenth-century fiction. (White, 92) She is portrayed by Hemingway as sexually liberated and freethinking, much more common in our day and age. Another character in The Sun Also Rises that is of great importance is Robert Cohn. In a way, he seems to represent the non-Hemingway man.
He receives many of his experiences by reading and by vicarious means rather than by confronting life directly. His wounds are both superficial and self-inflicted; he refuses to pay the price of self-knowledge because he has become an expert in the illusion-creating art of self-deception. Cohn is the last chivalric hero, the last defender of an outworn faith, and his function is to illustrate its present folly-to show us, through the absurdity of his behavior, that romantic love is dead, that one of the great guiding codes of the past no longer operates. (Baker, 21) At first glance, it seems as though the novel is going off in one direction, when in fact, it is going off in another. As a result of Hemingway's style in the novel, we do not see clearly the central issue of Jake Barnes until well into the book.
Next, we see that the novel does not have a traditional structure. It seems as though the action of the characters seem to pull us through the novel. Reynolds comments on this fact, "The structure becomes the natural motion or flow of the events: one thing leads us to another with little apparent effort on Jakes part. " (Lee, p. 34) In the novel we see a minimal plot, but the action is swift and continuous and we are moved forward by the internal narration that makes Jake Barnes actor as well as witness. Next, Hemingway uses a number of devices to create harmony throughout the book. One way he does this is his use of repetition. An example of this is the bar scene early in the book.
Jake tells details to Cohn about Brett's previous marriage and Cohn tells Jake not to insult her, and Jake replies "Oh, go to hell. " Next, Cohn tells Jake "You " ve got to take that back", thinking he means the remarks about Brett. Jake responds to this "Oh, don't go to hell. " Later in the novel we see this phrase come up again when Jake says that Cohn is insufferable and "can go to hell. " There are other examples of this religion and they all lead to us to a scene that Hemingway prepares us for throughout the novel. As Cohn asks that someone tell him where Brett has gone, he is told four times by Jake and Mike to "Go to Hell. " He explodes and starts a skirmish with Jake. It is this repetition that pulls us through the novel and makes it flow more naturally.
Wolfgang Rural says of this repetition, " Unconsciously, the reader picks up repetitions, associating certain images with individual characters. " (Lee, 82) All of these images seem to come together in the novels ending and although nothing has really been resolved, a kind of unity has been achieved by Hemingway. Bibliography: Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story. New York: Scribner's, 1969.
Baker, Carlos. Ernest Hemingway: Critiques of Four Major Novels. New York: Scribner's, 1962. Baker, Sheridan. Ernest Hemingway: An Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967.
White, William, ed. Studies in "The Sun Also Rises. " Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1969. Lee, A. Robert, ed. Ernest Hemingway: New Critical Essays.
Totowa, N. J. : Barnes and Noble, 1983.
Free research essays on topics related to: york scribner, brett ashley, sun also rises, ernest hemingway, jake barnes
Research essay sample on Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway
