‘It’s really an awfully simple operation, Jig,’ the man said. ‘It’s not really an operation at all.’

Much of Hemingway’s body of work grows from issues of male morality. In his concise, “Hills Like White Elephants,” a couple discusses getting an abortion while waiting for a train in a Spanish rail station bar. Years before Roe v. Wade, before the issues of abortion rights, mothers’ rights, and unborn children’s rights splashed across the American mass consciousness, Ernest Hemingway assessed the effects of abortion on a relationship, and, more specifically, he examined a man’s role in determining the necessity of the procedure and its impact on his psyche and his ability to love. The Sun Also Rises continues the investigation of the morality of being a man in longer, more foundational form. Rather than dealing with such a discrete issue as “Hills Like White Elephants,” the novel discusses questions of masculinity on a large scale by testing an array of male characters, each perfect in some traditionally masculine traits, with a woman perfectly designed to cut t

Consequently, a reading of The Sun Also Rises that examines the failures of its male characters as a study of qualities men ought to have inevitably proves anemic—all of them suffer from flaws the author purposely highlights. Hemingway cannot deny the importance and existence of heroic acts even within a novel containing no complete hero. Rather, the defects of the men with whom Lady Brett cultivates relationships throughout the book represent the obstacles that all men must overcome as the necessary action of heroism. His story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” follows the full cycle of this process, from the emasculation of its protagonist when his wife witnesses his flight from a lion on safari, to his murder as a result of conquering his fear. Noticeably, though, the heroic completion of Francis Macomber who grows, “‘awfully brave, awfully suddenly’” immediately precedes the death he suffers not in the fangs of his previous adversary but at the hands of his wife, society’s representative on that plot of savannah.

Pedro Romero even maintains his composure during his first encounter with Brett: “He felt there was something between them. He must have felt it when Brett gave him her hand. He was being very careful.” That night, he sleeps with her. Romero accomplishes the task which Jake can never match, but he conquers a smitten Brett whereas Jake would have to deal with a calculating woman. However, though all of the bull-fighter’s successes would challenge a normal man, such as Jake, Romero exists as a god on earth. When nature, Cohn and Brett, flaw him, Pedro succeeds with even greater glory. Hemingway creates in Romero an acknowledged idol who, “had the greatness,” but did not earn it—rendering his heroism either synthetic or fleeting.

In his essay on The Sun Also Rises, Arthur Waldhorn theorizes that Romero has simply not met his challenge yet. He refers to Romero’s battered bullfight, noting, “moments before Romero thrills the crowd, the aging, fistula-plagued matador Belmonte—once as stirring in the arena as Romero, now a silent harbinger of Romero’s future—draws catcalls for his cautious handling of the bulls.” If Pedro Romero’s destiny contains such indignity, such emasculation, then he will fall to humanity, like Jake, Belmonte, and, the first man, Adam, and then he will receive his opportunity to become a hero.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jake Barnes’, Lady Brett, Jake Barnes, Sun Rises, Essentially Barnes, Max Eastman, Pedro Romero, Sun Rises’, Ernest Hemingway, Romero Brett’s, sun rises, jake barnes, lady brett, pedro romero, ernest hemingway, count mippopopolous, jake barnes’, lady brett ashley, brett ashley, jake recalls “he, recalls “he, stood head, jake barnes pedro, “hills white elephants”, barnes pedro romero,
Approximate Word count = 3048
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)