Age of Innocence/sun also rises

A detailed Summary of Age of Innocence/sun also rises

Probably every living being has asked themselves whether or not they are content with their lives as it has enfolded before them. It's a natural part of life to question the past as one looks into the future, however, there are certain regrets that mark the passing of certain lives that most people would rather not have as a part of their own lives. To many, the need to conform to gender roles and society is such that they will go to any lengths to be considered 'normal' - including going outside the bounds of normalcy to do so. Others will conform regardless of their own wishes. In The Sun Also Rises, the former would apply to the male protagonist while in The Age Of Innocence the latter is true.

On the surface, it seems that the male protagonists in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and Edith Wharton's The Age Of Innocence are extremely different. Hemingway's Jake Barnes is a man who at one time was very much a 'Hemingway Hero' or a 'man's man': steeped in the masculine pursuits of adventure, women and a life of pleasure. Newland Archer, the protagonist of Wharton's Age of Innocence, is a hopeless romantic. His strengths lie in his sense of deep feeling and commitment to what his heart leads him to believe.

Jake is seen as a 'cripple' because of his inability to complete the sexual act, because he is hopelessly in love with a promiscuous female and because of the strong support he provides for her quest to fulfill her passion. Newland, on the other hand, is 'crippled' by his love of Ellen and his obligation to May. He is almost stereotypical in his total infatuation with Ellen - another aspect of the novel that leaves him with very little options. Both men allow others, specifically the women who they have fallen in love with, to dictate the way that they live - and, to a large extent, the way that they think and react to the world around them.

Newland is just as 'impotent' to influence his own world of manners and money. He may well have all the physical characteristics of the ideal man and the sensitivity of the modern man but he is unable to change the world in which his beloved lives and he is unable to change the way that she appears to see the world so that he might become a part of it. He is characterized as weak in terms of being a man in control of the situation, however, he is seen as being strong in his ultimate adherence to the social norms of the day - regardless that it goes against his own wishes in the matter.

Where Jake is sexually impotent, Newland is socially impotent. The reference to manly pursuits is different in each scenario. Jake is unable to be physically intimate with his wife while Newland is unable to be emotionally intimate with his. Where Jake no longer has the physical attributes of a typical hero, Newland no longer has control over the decisions made by a 'modern' woman. Both men live lives that are very much defined by the social constraints of the time; Newland by a conformity to the norm

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1178
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English