The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a story about love and war. The Sun Also Rises explores the post war journey of a group of veterans battling with their physiological demons. The group medicates these demons by traveling around the world, drinking to oblivion, and filling the void with countless relationships. They are all completely unsatisfied with themselves and every character is constantly searching for more throughout life, unable to grasp what more is. Jake is one of the only characters who sees why they are not able to achieve happiness in a conversation between himself and Cohn: “I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another”(19). Noting that in times of confusion one must look inward. One of the biggest takeaways from this novel is that self love is the strongest love of all. Jake strives for something outside the realm of materialistic goods because he sees that his current way of life is only digging him a hole harder to climb out of. Jake confronts spirituality a few times throughout the course of the novel as he characterizes himself a lousy Christian; although, he eventually finds himself in a church in Pamplona, Spain. During a strange, rambling prayer to God the reader sees that Jake is the only one who is trying to connect with something of a higher power to give his life meaning.
The characters were a part of the Lost Generation, an unfulfilled generation coming into maturity during a period of instability. Also characterized as the disoriented, wandering, directionless spirit of the survivors in the early post WWI period; the war destroyed many of the ideals of the generation. So, this novel follows the attempts at trying to piece together old ideals in new circumstances. Each character is in a constant trial and error battle; for Mike, staying sober did not help his cause, so he remains drunk for the entirety of the novel. Brett is involved in constant fleeting relationships with people unable to let herself love possibly as a defense mechanism to her previous abusive relationship. Jake so desperately loves Brett and drops everything to be with her again and again, even though they will never be together.
This book tells the story that sometimes what you are looking for in life does not come in the package you had hoped for. Jake does anything for Brett and he is the only person she trusts, however he will never have her. No one in this story has any sense of self identification or direction in life because everything they had known before was ripped away at the hands of the Great War.
The Sun Also Rises also gives an insight to the past. This novel depicts the raw truth of the world and what it was like for the Lost Generation to struggle. The novel sheds light to the realities of life; it is a novel with cheating, war horrors, money and gambling problems, debt, and alcoholism. A time where people needed to rebuild what they stood for. This novel teaches the reader that only those who have the capacity to look inward on themselves will be the ones to come out of the period of darkness. Hemingway does give us a ray of hope at the end. When Jake tells Brett “isn’t it pretty to think so?” the reader is inclined to think that he has started to put himself first and to realize that Brett cannot make him happy and perhaps he will start to move on.
Great American Novels 