Author: jstanke20

One of the major themes in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is love. Love can be seen throughout the novel and is seen as a good thing and a bad thing. Some of the main characters are searching for love but they never really end up finding a genuine relationship or true love. All of them use meaningless relationships to fill a void they’re feeling and most of them are scared to commit to someone. One example of love seen in the novel is through Lady Brett Ashley and Jake. Jake is in love with Brett Ashley and Brett has told Jake that she likes him. However, there are many other guys that Brett also likes and she can’t commit to a relationship with Jake because of his accident during the war. I think Jake and Brett would be good together because it would stop their cycle of pointless relationships in the past. 

Another major theme throughout this novel is identity. All of the main characters and wandering around from country to country and none of them really have a purpose in life or anything they really want to do. None of them have a job they have to go to, which helps them be careless in their everyday lives because they aren’t responsible to anyone. I think all of them use alcohol to fill the void of them not being able to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.

For this blog I am going to talk about quotes that stood out to me and ones that were interesting. The first quote is from Chigurh and he said, “1958. It’s been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it’s here. And it’s either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it.” This quote is from when he’s at the gas station and it’s the coin toss scene. I think it’s interesting how Chigurh notes when the coin is from and how he believes that it’s been traveling for twenty-two years. To Chigurh, every event in your life leads you to where you eventually end up. Another part of this quote that’s strange is how Chigurh is making the worker call it. He’s putting the life of the man into a coin toss, which is based just on luck. I think Chigurh justifies killing people if they pick the wrong side of the coin because he thinks that was fait and that person chose their life choices that lead them to that event.

Another quote I like from the novel is when Chigurh said, “If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule? This is the best deal you’re going to get. I won’t tell you that you can save yourself, because you can’t.” I liked this quote because I think it describes Chigurh perfectly. He doesn’t really care about other people’s feelings and that’s seen through this quote. He’s blaming the rule someone followed in their life and relating it to where it lead them now. Also he doesn’t sugar coat anything. In that quote he says how people shouldn’t even bother trying to save themselves because it’s too late.

For this blog post I decided to do a review on the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo. I thought it was interesting to read and kept you wondering what was going to happen next. One of the main themes in this novel is the fear of death. Babette and Jack are both very scared of death and often talk about who they think will die first. The quote, “All plots tend to move deathward. This is the nature of plots. ” This quote shows that they’re both afraid to die and that they’re always fearing death in the back of their mind. I think this theme is relatable to readers because most people are afraid of death.

To me, the most interesting part of the novel was when Jack set out to kill Dr. Gray. I was hoping that Jack wouldn’t follow through with killing him because Babette would have to raise the kids all alone. Eventually, Jack has a change of heart and doesn’t kill this man. I think this is because he realizes that the man is just human and doesn’t deserve to die. 

This blog post is a reflection on The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I enjoyed reading this novel because I learned more about what life was like during the Dust Bowl. Prior to this novel, I had never read anything that was based on life during that time period, so I was interested throughout. Even though this novel was just based on one family, The Joads, other families are seen briefly throughout the novel. The reader can see how difficult life was for these families, many of them having to completely pack up their lives and move out west in search of jobs and food. One quote I like from this novel is, “’I know.’ Ma chuckled. ‘Maybe that makes us tough. Rich fellas come up an’ they die, an’ their kids ain’t no good, an’ they die out. But, Tom, we keep a-comin’. Don’ you fret none, Tom. A different time’s comin’.” Ma is explaining to Tom how they need to keep working hard and that even though they’re struggling now, their lives will get better and good things are on the way. I think this quote really represents the theme of perseverance in the novel. No matter how many times the Joad family gets knocked down, there’s always someone there to keep them going. They go through so many struggles throughout the novel, including starvation and the struggle of finding jobs. Their will to persevere and survive is what eventually helps the Joad family find jobs and have a roof over their heads. 

For this post, I decided to reflect on the novel, No Country For Old Men. I really enjoyed reading this novel because it was very intriguing. Cormac McCarthy wrote this novel in a very specific way. His writing style is unique because it is written like it was designed to become a screenplay. For example, “He switched off the light and stood. He walked out slowly to where the other bodies lay. The shotgun was gone. The moon was already a quarter ways up. All but day bright. He felt like something in a jar.” This quote shows the style of writing throughout the novel. The sentences are short and due to this, the plot is moved along very rapidly. Along with the writing style, another interesting thing in this novel in Ed Tom Bell’s soliloquies. These are at the beginning of each novel and Ed Tom Bell describes a certain event that has happened to him in his life. These soliloquies add a lot of context to the novel because they give the reader insight into his life and things he has gone through in the past.

After reading the whole novel, my favorite character was Chigurh. I liked him throughout the novel because he was very mysterious and it was hard to predict what he was going to do next. The reader never knew when he was going to kill someone or blow something up, which was the novel intriguing and it kept me wanting to read more.

The Sun Also Rises is an insightful novel written by Ernest Hemingway. Throughout this novel, the reader can learn many lessons about life. There are many themes in this book that teach the reader and give insight to what life was like after World War I. The main ones being love, identity, and partying.

The first theme I’m going to talk about is love. All of the characters in this book are struggling to find real love. An example of this would be Jake and Brett. Jake, the main character and narrator, is madly in love with Lady Brett Ashley. Brett is unable to commit to Jake and this causes major conflict throughout the novel because Jake is never able to fully get over Brett and will always love her. Brett is the character who struggles with real love the most over the course of the novel . She is in a major dilemma because she ends up liking many guys and has many relationships to balance. At one point she is engaged to Mike, but she also likes Jake and Romero. Also, she spent time with Cohn and all of these relationships make her situation even worse. Not only is this bad for Brett, it causes a lot of drama between the guys because they all love the same woman. At one point, Jake asks Brett if she still likes him and she says, “I’m a goner. I’m mad about the Romero boy. I’m in love with him, I think.” The “I think” that Brett added at the end of the sentence just shows that Brett doesn’t know what real love is because she doesn’t even know if she truly loves Romero. When Brett says this, it’s really difficult for Jake to handle because he wants to be with her. The theme of love is constant throughout the novel and the main characters never end up finding real love. All of them use pointless relationships to fill a void, instead of trying to find actual love.

Another major theme in this novel is identity. All of the characters struggle with self-identity and finding their purpose. They are constantly in a battle with themselves trying to figure out who they are. They all are a part of the “Lost Generation” which is people who came of age during World War I or shortly after. Due to this, they are aimlessly wandering around different countries without a purpose or goal. Even though they all struggle with identity, this battle can be seen clearly through Jake. Jake was injured during the war and was left impotent. Jake struggles with his masculinity throughout because he feels like his injury makes him less of a man and it’s the reason that Brett doesn’t want to commit to a relationship with him.

The last major theme present in the novel is partying. Most of the characters are constantly drinking to excess in order to fill a void and escape the reality of what their lives are like. Jake said, “Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy.” This quote shows that Jake is using alcohol to cope with the war and everything that is happening in his life. All of this drinking allows Jake and his friends to cover up their feelings. When they’re all drunk, they don’t have to worry about their emotions and can just avoid knowing how they truly feel. Robert Cohn is the only one in the friend group who isn’t constantly drinking. Also, he wasn’t in the war so I think this is a way to show the difference between those who were in the war and those who weren’t. It shows how the alcohol is covering up the pain that a character like Jake felt due to the war. The only time the characters are friendly is when they are all drinking. This just again shows how much they all rely on alcohol to escape the reality of their lives.

The themes in this book of love, identity, and partying teach the reader many lessons about life throughout the novel. Also, this novel shows the reader a little bit of what life was like post World War I and how many struggles people in the “Lost Generation” had to go through.

For this blog post, I decided to choose artwork that represents The Sun Also Rises. I chose this image because I think it represents The Lost Generation, which is what The Sun Also Rises is about. “The Lost Generation” became adults during or shortly after World War I. This generation is known for rejecting traditions of older generations. Also, this generation is seen as aimless and don’t really have a direction in which their lives are going. This can be seen throughout this novel because Jake and all of his friends live this lifestyle where they are traveling the world and they’re always drinking and partying. They are using alcohol as a way to cope with all the bad things that have happened, such as the war. Jake, Brett, and the others don’t seem to believe in a lot. They all seem to be lost in some way and don’t really know who they are as people. The characters are always wandering and moving around and don’t stay in one place for very long. They’re all expatriates, away from their home and this makes the reader feel like Jake and his friends don’t belong anywhere. Many of them have jobs in writing, but none of them have a set schedule or a boss and this results in them partying even more. I think through the image you can imagine what “The Lost Generation” was like because the lady is dancing and everyone looks like they’re partying and having a good time.

This blog post is a reflection of the section I just read of The Sun Also Rises. In this section, some pretty interesting things happen. There’s a lot of fighting happening between Brett and Cohn, Romero, Mike and Jake. Most of the main characters are still in Pamplona, Spain. Lady Brett Ashley falls in love with yet another guy. This guy is Romero, who’s an up-and-coming bullfighter. This causes a lot of drama between Jake and Brett because Jake still loves Brett. When Jake asks Brett about being in love with him she said, “I’m a goner. I’m mad about the Romero boy. I’m in love with him, I think.” Brett currently is engaged to Mike but she is in love with Jake and Romero. She also spent time with Cohn in San Sebastian. This causes conflict between all the guys because they’re all in love with the same woman. Reflecting on this, I think it’s interesting that Heminway wrote it this way because it keeps the reader guessing what’s going to happen and who Brett’s going to end up with at the end of the novel. Another conflict that was apparent in this section was that the characters kind of all start disliking each other. After spending so much time with each other, everyone gets mad easily. At one point, Cohn calls Jake a pimp and they get into a huge fight over this. Also, Cohn starts fighting with Romero when he fights out that he’s been with Brett. Reading this was intriguing because it kept me wondering what was going to happen next with all of them.

For this post, I chose two images that relate to The Grapes of Wrath. This first image represents the Dust Bowl. It really reminded me of the first chapter of the novel when John Steinbeck describes what the land looked like during that time. One quote that really represents this is, “The dust from the roads fluffed up and spread out and fell on the weeds beside the fields, and fell into the fields a little way.” When I read this quote, I imagine huge clouds of dust that spread all over the country and ruined the farmer’s crops. Looking at the image while reading that quote gives the reader a good visual of what life was like during the Dust Bowl and what people had to face. Another quote that stuck out to me was, “Men stood by their fences and looked at the

ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust.” In the image you can see how dry the land is and it reminds me of the Joad family because they were farmers and had to watch their land dry up.

This next image is also during the Dust Bowl and reminded me of the Joad family. One quote from the novel that represents this image is, ““How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children?” This quote relates to the image because the woman and her son are starving and appear depressed. This reminded me of the Joad family because for a majority of the novel they were starving and it was really difficult to provide enough food for the whole family.

This blog post is a reflection of what I’ve read so far in my novel, The Sun Also Rises. I’ve read a little over a third of the novel and I like it thus far. The novel is written from a first person point of view, from the main character and narrator, Jake Barnes’ perspective. I like that the novel was written in this point of view because the reader sees everything through Jake’s perspective. Although, it can be hard to read at times because you only know the other character thoughts based on the way Jake describes them. When describing how other characters feel, he could be wrong about what actually happened. This is sometimes hard because I have to reread parts to fully understand what is going on. The plot so far is interesting because you don’t know much about the characters past. You only know what Jake decides to tell you about them and there’s never really any part where the other characters describe their lives.  I also reflected a little on the writing style of the novel because Ernest Hemingway wrote this novel in the “iceberg” style. This style is where the author writes it so the deeper meaning of the story isn’t evident. In The Sun Also Rises it seems like there’s some gaps in the story which makes the reader have to connect things. I haven’t ever read a book that was written this way so it took a little getting used to. Reflecting on what has happened so far makes me curious to finish the novel.