The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway Presentation by Mr. Pisano

Novel Represents the Lost Generation!! Notes on Lost Generation:

 Gertrude Stein (mother figure) was befriended by Hemingway.

 Had Salon in Paris where they would discuss arts. Wanted to move arts into 20th century. She coins the phrase “lost generation.” Because young people do not know where they fit in lots of emptiness and no purpose.

 The writers and artists tried to define new values of America for their generation (by going to Paris). Americans had to go to Paris to figure things out.

 Expatriates: Hemingway and his buddies leaving their country to visit new country.

Book was written in the modern period: early 20th century…follows realism. Reaction towards Victorian style writing.

Motto for modernisn made by Ezra Pound: “Make it new.”

Style of writing: Minimalism: Short simple writing and sentences. Not a lot of complex dialogue.

WWI happens: People are profoundly changed. Go off to Europe and see arts of Europe and death/disullsionment of war. Come back to small town America. Ideals seem small and pointless because of the things they have seen and experienced. Many young people took refuge in Paris. Can live cheapily (good for artists).

Hemingway Story “A Clean Well Lighted Place”: Old man who does not want to leave a bar and go home. Two waiters watch him. Young waiter wants to go home. Old man has nothing and likes the order of the clean, little area. Old waiter gives a prayer to old man called the Nada prayer where all important words are replaced with the word nada (emptiness and loneliness).

Notes on Sun Also Rises Book:

 Strongly autobiographical. Trips based on real trips experienced by Hemingway and then fictionalized.

 Book is a search for meaning. Book is precursor to existentialism (universe is chaos, we are trying to find order in chaos; existence is everything, live up your life  HOLLA!).

 Aimlessness is a theme. Characters are restless and wanderless (look to fill the void in affairs, drinking, food) Using this to fill the huge emptiness  rejected everything family, country, morality.  On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a parallel to this book set in the 1950s after WWII.

Hemingway Code Hero

Philosophy of life emerges from experiences: Hemingway code hero  a critic looked at body of Hemingway’s work. (LOOK AT PAPER HANDOUT)

1) General loss of faith in conventional morality (reject morals)

2) Ability and desire to do his job well (take pride in what you do)

3) Never let his suffering show (always surface at night though); Jake alone at night (has doubts and fears at night).

4) The world is a generally cruel place (characters are not optimistic; (Sewalls tattoo)

5) Men and women can find moments of meaning and happiness

6) Respect for individuals who demonstrate the virtue of (grace under pressure) (Bull fighting in Pamplona  def of grace under pressure).

7) A respect for Individuals who can drink heavily without showing outward signs of drunkenness (very common)

8) A belief that death is inevitable and that the only thing that matters is how a man lives and how he dies.

9) A belief that a man does not talk about what he believes in; he is man of action rather than a man of theory (Jake never talks; very simple conversation)

10) Intense loyalty to a small group because he cannot accept abstract things (Jake and friends)

11) Visceral pleasures are the only true rewards in a life (Jake  lots in book)

Always look for further meaning than on the page (read between lines)

Example: Fishing  religious event, process of rebirth and discovery, find peace in chaos

Discussion Paper:

Cohn represents Romanticism (19th century ideal)  runs off somewhere vs Jake who is harshly real. Don’t really mix (aka fight at end). Creates a lot of tension.

“It is pretty to think so.” Rejection of Romanticism; Jake is a harsh Realist.