The Sun Also Rises – Painting Comparison

The Sun Also Rises was written by Earnest Hemingway in 1926. The beginning of the story takes place in Paris during the 20s as a group of authors manage their social lives by partying and drinking and occasionally writing novels. The main characters, Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn, and Lady Ashley (Brett), make up the main group of friends. Jake and Brett have a Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanon-like romance; they both love each other but cannot be together for an unknown reason. The reader is inclined to think that it is because Brett is of a higher class than Jake. 

I chose this painting to compare to the beginning of the novel because through many of the characters’ eyes, Cohn and Brett, Paris is “old news,” it is dull, bleak, and boring; however, through Jake Barnes’ view he sees the color. He sees the color of Paris during taxi drives going from one side of Paris to the other as he stares at the architecture, and he sees the color of Paris in the different people he encounters along the way, particularly in Brett. Jake is constantly trying to get away from the drama that surrounds the group, by walking off through Paris by himself and admiring what the city has to offer. Jake does admit that Paris has some bleaker and boring areas which are illustrated by the lack of color in the painting, but he chooses to focus on what color he can find. Similarly, in this painting the eye is not drawn to the grays and blacks, but rather it is drawn to the colors.