cHARACTERIZATION IN THE sUN aLSO rISES

A detailed Summary of cHARACTERIZATION IN THE sUN aLSO rISES

Hemingway presents and illustrates the image and thoughts of the lost generation in his novel The Sun Also Rises. The character Jake Barnes represents a man that has just come back from an unforgettable experience. Jake ultimately represents a disillusioned man representative of the lost generation.

To begin with, Hemingway at the beginning of the novel presents Jake as being a suave man that disbelieves in romanticism in his life. Thus, by utilizing characterization of a character's actions, Hemingway establishes Jake Barnes as a realistic man who views the quest of romanticism absurd. The reader sees this in the example of Cohn's idea of taking a trip to South America, " 'Would you like to go to South America, Jake?' he asked, No'" (Hemingway 17). Furthermore, as the book progresses, Hemingway gives Jake as drunken personality and his obnoxious behavior that he exhibits shows a broken man. "I had picked her up because of a vague sentimental idea that it would be nice to eat with some one. It was a long time since I has dined with a poule, and I had forgotten how dull it could be" (Hemingway 24). However, whenever Jake interacts with Brett Ashley, he loses his previous ideas of romanticism being absurd. Since their pre

vious relationship of being lovers had failed they now tried a relationships of being best friends. As this new relationship develops, Jake and Brett draw back when the other becomes too emotional. "The street was dark again and I kissed her. Our lips were tight together and then she turned away and pressed against the corner of the seat, as far away as she could get. Her head was down" (Hemingway). The reader thus concludes that Jake contains an internal conflict between his behavior around his friend Cohn and his friend Brett, which he wants to further the relationship.

Thus, regardless of his physical impotence, Jake's true weakness is the impotence of his will and the supposed hero of the novel is flawed due to his failure to adhere to what he believes is right and wrong. Hemingway thus refrains from presenting a true hero in his novel. With the absence of a leading male ideal, Hemingway betrays the larger socio-cultural assumptions about men and masculinity and questions the conventional means in which they are defined in his society.

In spite of the characterization of actions used by Hemingway for Jake, one must also consider the thoughts that go through Jake as well. Jake's view of life consists of a more sophisticated and complicated than that of Robert Cohn's. Jake, after all, has been through a war and has lost his adolescent idealism and Cohn still conducts himself like a boy. At the opening of the novel, Hemingway illustrates the differences between the values of Jake and Cohn. The differences involve a contrasting view of sports and their functions, C

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Approximate Word count = 1070
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English