Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Before that, he won the Pulitzer Prize of 1952 for his novella The Old Man and the Sea.
Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. and he died on July 2, 1961. He was influenced by Mark Twain and famously appreciated him in 1935 and said “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn. It’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”
Like Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, Ernest Hemingway also created a fictional character named Nicholas Adams for his short story collection published by the title In Our Times which was published in 1925. He married four times and he was a heavy alcoholic. He served as an ambulance driver during the First World War on the Italian front. He was influenced by the effects of the World War and became an active member of the literary circle Lost Generation. The Lost Generation was the social generational cohort that was in early adulthood during World War I. "Lost" in this context refers to the "disoriented, wandering, directionless" spirit of many of the war's survivors in the early postwar period. The term “Lost Generation” was popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it in the epigraph for his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises: "You are all a lost generation".
Characters: Jake Barn is an American expatriate veteran of World War 1 who lives and works as a journalist in Paris. Robert Cohn is also an American expatriate novelist living in Paris. A neighbor of Jake Barn but Robert Cohn didn’t fight in World War 1. Lady Ashley Brett is a British expatriate living in Paris. She nursed Jake when he was injured during World War 1. Jake loves her and she loves him in return but their relationship could not be consummated. Brett is already twice divorced and promiscuous in nature. Bill Gorton is another journalist friend of Jake Barn who didn’t fight the war but he did cover the war as a correspondent. Mike Campbell is a Scottish alcoholic war veteran, a fiance of Brett. Pedro Romero is a 20-year-old attractive matador with a good future in bullrings. Montoya is a hotelier in the town of Pamplona, in Spain's Basque country.
Summary of The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is a story about a group of young American and British expatriates wandering in Europe during the late 1920s after the First World War is over. The war had a deep impression on these groups of people most of whom took an active part in the war. These people are cynical and disillusioned and are part of the group called Lost Generation. Jake Barn and Lady Ashley Brett are prime examples of the Lost Generation.
Jake Barn is an American who left America for Europe and joined World War 1. During the war, he got injured and was treated by Lady Ashley Brett, a British lady who worked as a nurse during the war to take care of the injured soldiers. Jake and Brett develop an emotional relationship as they fall in love with each other. However, the injury leaves James impotent unable to consummate his relationship with Brett. Despite their emotional bond, they get apart because Brett couldn’t give up the idea of sex.
After the war, James decides to move to Paris to work as a journalist. In Paris, Jake lives near his old Jewish friend named Robert Cohn who is a novelist. Somehow, Brett also reaches Paris and starts living there. She meets Cohn and Jake and Cohn confesses his feelings for her to Jake. Jake cautions him against pursuing a relationship with Brett because he is in love with her and he knows that she has been engaged to Mike Campbell, a rich Scottish army veteran. Brett becomes the cause of the tussle between Cohn and James. After some time, both James and Cohn leave Paris. James goes to San Sebastien, a small beach town in Spain. Meanwhile, Cohn moves to the countryside.
After a few months, James returns to Paris and finds that his other good old friend Bill Gorton has visited Paris. Jake and Bill enjoy their memories of the old days and then decide to go to Sapin to attend Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona to see the running of the bulls and bullfights.
Before Jake and Bill could leave Paris, they accidentally meet Brett and her fiance Mike Campbell who are also going to Spain. Brett and Mike insist Bill and Jake should visit Pamplona along with them. During their journey, Brett gets some private time with Jake and she reveals that she had been with Cohn in Spain for the last few weeks.
Bill and Jake meet Cohn in Spain and together, the three decides to go to Pamplona. In Pamplona, they meet Brett and Cambell again. All of them decide to stay at a hotel owned by a man named Montoya. Montoya is a bullfight enthusiast and he is very eager to tell and teach everything about bullfights to foreign visitors. Jake is very interested in bullfighting and Brett is captivated by a young 19-year-old bullfighter named Pedro Romero. So there are three men with emotional and romantic feelings for the same woman who is taking much interest in a young lad. One night, Mike, Jake, and Cohn get involved in a heated argument over Brett, and incidentally, Brett happens to listen to all of it. She gets upset and runs off to Madrid with Romero.
After some time, the festival ends and Jake, Mike, and Cohn decide to leave Pamplona. Jake returns to the south of France where one day, he receives a telegram from Bett. Brett demands his help in returning from Madrid. Jake immediately reaches to Madrid to help her out where he learns that Brett decided to send Romero back as she didn’t want to spoil him and ruin his future. Jake and Brett take a taxi in Madrid to return to her Fiance Mike. In the taxi, Brett tells Jake she thinks they could have had a wonderful time together. Jake replies, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?”
And the novel ends.
Analysis
Ernest Hemingway was accused of antisemitism for the depiction of Robert Cohn as an unlovable jew. However, the novel has no antihero. Furthermore, at times, it appears as if Ernest wanted to depict James as the hero, at other places, it appears as if Robert Cohn is being projected as the hero, and at some other places, Pedro Romero appears to be the hero of the novel. The title of the novel “The Sun Also Rises” obliquely refers to Jake’s injury that he suffered during World War 1 and what no longer rises because of it. The novel is an example of roman a clef (a novel with a key) in which Hemingway represented some real-life events with a facade of fiction. Brett is a promiscuous lady who wants sex without love but she truly loves James and trusts him too. She is vulnerable, forgiving, independent, and to an extent, immoral too. Jake is in love with her and most often understands her, but at times, he gets bitter against her as once he says, "Send a girl off with a man... Now go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love."
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards.
No comments:
Post a Comment