Textual Analysis
Textual Analysis- The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway about a group of expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the bullfights. This book was written less than ten years after World War I, and just as nations were rebuilding themselves, individual people were trying to figure out how to live and find satisfaction and meaning of their lives (Blassi). On the surface level, The Sun Also Rises may appear to be a love story between two start crossed lovers, but it portrays a much deeper meaning. Hemmingway’s novel helped define this “lost generation” of confused young people profoundly affected by the war. The characters constant partying, and attitudes toward love, masculinity, and sex reveal their sense of disillusionment and fragmented identities caused by World War I.
For the characters in The Sun Also Rises partying and alcohol plays as an escape mechanism from the world that they are living in. However, Hemmingway’s characters are irresponsible and aimless, the alcohol seems to escalate situations, and allows them to avoid the pains of dealing with their dissatisfaction and identity crises caused by the war. In one scene in the novel the protagonist Jake proves what an artificial distraction drunkenness is when he states, “Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people,” (Hemingway 150). Here you see the true loneliness of Jake that he covers up with alcohol and partying. When he sobers up he will remember how much his friends “disgusted” him. Without having a true sense of whom the people he associates himself with Jake will never get a true sense of identity.
This group of friends also seems to define themselves based on the amount of partying they do, or how much they drink which seems to point to the fact that they surrender themselves to this lifestyle of disillusion. Jake explains that, “
The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway about a group of expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the bullfights. This book was written less than ten years after World War I, and just as nations were rebuilding themselves, individual people were trying to figure out how to live and find satisfaction and meaning of their lives (Blassi). On the surface level, The Sun Also Rises may appear to be a love story between two start crossed lovers, but it portrays a much deeper meaning. Hemmingway’s novel helped define this “lost generation” of confused young people profoundly affected by the war. The characters constant partying, and attitudes toward love, masculinity, and sex reveal their sense of disillusionment and fragmented identities caused by World War I.
For the characters in The Sun Also Rises partying and alcohol plays as an escape mechanism from the world that they are living in. However, Hemmingway’s characters are irresponsible and aimless, the alcohol seems to escalate situations, and allows them to avoid the pains of dealing with their dissatisfaction and identity crises caused by the war. In one scene in the novel the protagonist Jake proves what an artificial distraction drunkenness is when he states, “Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people,” (Hemingway 150). Here you see the true loneliness of Jake that he covers up with alcohol and partying. When he sobers up he will remember how much his friends “disgusted” him. Without having a true sense of whom the people he associates himself with Jake will never get a true sense of identity.
This group of friends also seems to define themselves based on the amount of partying they do, or how much they drink which seems to point to the fact that they surrender themselves to this lifestyle of disillusion. Jake explains that, “
Bibliography: Balassi, William. "The Trail to The Sun Also Rises: The First Week of Writing." Hemingway, Essays of Reassessment. Ed. Frank Scafella. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 1954. Print.