The Sun Also Rises :: Essays papers

The lie Also RisesThis is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a neck but a whimper. (T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men) but a whimper., Eliot was writing of the Lost Generation. The period after World War I were people were disillusioned, wandering by means of their life lost, not sure what their goal was. In Ernest Hemmingways novel, The Sun Also Rises, the Lost Generation and their inability to cope with the change around them is the focus of the novel. The Sun Also Rises is a sightlyly written account of a generation lost in an unknown cause that leaves them abandoned in the end. Hemmingway wrote this story in a unique fashion. The book is written with no apparent plot, that is, there are not twists, intrigue, or goals for the display cases. The plot is simply the story itself. That is what Hemmingway treasured, he wanted the reader to read this story and recognize the loses and struggles the characters encounter through experiences they had. The Sun Also Rises takes place in France following the First World War. The main character and narrator is Jake Barnes a newspaper reporter and war veteran. His life corresponds directly to that of the Lost Generation, for he is the Lost Generation. Jake lives a real simple life, he gets up and eats, goes to work, goes out with someone for lunch, goes back to work, than goes out with friends to eat supper and drink the night away. Jakes life is very similar to all others of that time he is not an exception. To attest this Hemmingway shows the bars and restaurants packed at night with people just like Jake and his friends. Jakes long time friend and once lover, Brent Ashley is a very beautiful and unruly woman. She makes her first appearance in the novel as she walks into a bar to meet Jake, she is followed by a group of gay men. This point is very crucial to the novel because it strikes a major point of conflict between Jake and Brett. Jake had suffered an in jury in the war and was impotent because of it. Jake is self-conscious of this fact and was very mental unsoundness when Brett walked in with men that were not impotent and yet failed to take advantage of it.