Ernest Hemingway’s novels are frequently pointed to for providing a clear example of the “Tip of the Iceberg” style of writing in which only the barest of details are provided to a story, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps and understand for themselves the depth of meaning hidden between the lines. This was a common practice among Modern writers as they sought to interact more with their readers through their writing.
Hemingway’s book essentially tells a complicated love story in which one woman is desired by multiple men, including the main character, but it is she who decides the outcome thus taking on some of the traditional characteristics normally attributed to men in that time. Through the characters he portrays, Hemingway frequently explored the idea of what it means to be male – sometimes by showing what it means to be a handicapped male as he seemed to see himself and sometimes portraying what it meant to be the ideal male. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, the three main characters Jake, Robert, and Lady Brett Ashley reveal the sometimes contradictory roles of Hemingway’s male figure, demonstrating that none of them contain the ideal characteristics by themselves, but might when taken as a group.
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises explained with chapter summaries in just a few minutes! Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the th. The Sun Also Rises is a modernist novel written by Ernest Hemingway, which was published in 1926 and is widely considered to be one of Hemingway’s most distinguished literary achievements. This piece of historical fiction is about the life of Jake Barnes after World War I. He was in love with a woman, Lady Brett Ashley, he meant during the war. Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway’s novels are frequently pointed to for providing a clear example of the “Tip of the Iceberg” style of writing in which only the barest of details are provided to a story, leaving the reader to fill in the gaps and understand for themselves the depth of meaning hidden between the lines.
Hemingway begins his exploration of the ideal male versus the faulty male at the surface level of a character’s appearance. Jake Barnes and Robert Cohn could not appear more different from each other unless you gave them the female curves that come in with the character of Lady Brett Ashley. Jake appears as fragile, a shattered World War One veteran clearly suffering from emotional and physical scars. His most defining characteristic is that he’s an alcoholic as his life is dedicated to a never-ending series of “We went in the bar and sat on high stools and drank whisky” (Hemingway 236). According to Nielsen with the Mayo Clinic, alcoholism is a chronic and often progressive disease that includes problems controlling your emotions and will eventually begin to show in your appearance, such as in the form of burst blood vessels in the nose or ruddy cheeks. However, Jake gives off a confident, decisive persona which gains him attention and admiration from women. While Jake appears frail and hurt, Robert was the college football player and the boxer which means he likely has a strong, large physical appearance. This makes him a lady’s man because he provides a sense of protectiveness for his women. “He was an attractive quantity to women, and the fact of a woman caring for him and wanting to live with him was not simply a divine miracle” (Hemingway 15). Robert lives off of his father’s money and notoriety so the images that are portrayed of him seem immature or spoiled and he has a hard time dealing with the everyday problems of the common man. Lady Brett Ashley, on the other hand, purposely adopts a more male-oriented look without necessarily hiding her feminine curves. She announces this with her appearance with her bobbed hair. The novel states that “She [Brett] started all that” (Hemingway 30) referring to the hair style but also to everything that it represented. “This idea that Brett started the trend of short hair positions Brett as not simply a symbol of the New Woman, but rather as an influential symbol within the realm of the novel” (Yu 177). The masculine side of her appearance makes her challenge the masculinity in the men she encounters.
From their appearances, Hemingway also exploits his character’s personalities to demonstrate how they either support or refute the male persona. Jake suffers from a personality disorder that makes him try to always seem in control. He can be very convincing, but he is also dominant, reserved, hostile, and can be very touchy. Even though these are elements of his personality, Jake feels detached, like a spectator, isolated but not actually alone. At the same time, he suffers sexually because of the war. “His own private tragedy is a war wound that emasculated him” (Neilson). Proving that this isn’t just a fictional device, the Citizen Commission on Human Rights indicates this particular effect of war has been documented since ancient times. Today, they say, some 80% of vets are labeled with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is treated with psychotropic drugs which affects a person’s mental state. While other veterans are also treated with antidepressant drugs, many choose to treat themselves with alcohol or drugs as a means of coping with their feelings. Because he needs this crutch and is not sexually active, Jake is a failed man. While Jake is struggling with his issues, Robert is mostly shy and withdrawn. His spoiled and immature behavior causes the others to dislike him, mocking him and embarrassing him as often as they can. “I misjudged you, you’re not a moron, you’re only a case of arrested development” (Hemingway 44). Robert’s personality is shy, awkward, and apprehensive. Unlike Jake who lives in his experienced past, Robert lives out the various ideas he draws from inside a book somewhere. Even though he has the physique, Robert is a failed man because he never fully grew up to take on the role. Lady Brett’s behavior reinforces the idea that she is challenging male ideas of women as she deliberately ignores Jake’s warnings about not watching the violence of the bullfights. Although she does admit some nervousness, “I’m a little nervous about it … I’m worried whether I’ll be able to go through with it all right” (Hemingway 166), but she comes through it just fine. “In all of these examples, Brett asserts herself in the primarily male arena, which further connects her to the historical figure of the New Woman who also asserted herself in primarily male fields” (Yu 177).
The Sun Also Rises opens with the narrator, Jake Barnes, delivering a brief biographical sketch of his friend, Robert Cohn. Jake is a veteran of World War I who now works as a journalist in Paris. Cohn is also an American expatriate, although not a war veteran. He is a rich Jewish writer who lives.
Finally, Hemingway reveals the nature of man in the lifestyles of his characters, showing how all of them fail to be proper men. Jake is a single man working as a journalist in Paris. He enjoys socializing and having drinks with his friends. He jumps from bar to bar from Paris to Pamploma trying to forget the horrible images he still carries with him from the war but is never able to get past them. Robert’s lifestyle reflects his continued dependence on his wealthy Jewish family. “Robert Cohn was a member through his father, of one the richest Jewish families in New York” (Hemingway 12). He was also the middleweight boxing champion of Princeton during his college years and tends to draw on that for his identity. Although he’d been married for five years and had three children, he is now alone since his wife left him to be with a miniature painter, further emasculating him. Lady’s Brett’s lifestyle is more comparable to the ideal man. Lady Brett emerges as more of a typically male predator as Jake or Robert, maybe more so. “Throughout the novel, Brett selects the men with whom she desires to have a sexual relationship and then pursues them only to later forcibly end the affair” (Yu 178). Although she insists she is not in control of her interests in pursuing the men she seeks out, it remains true that Brett, more than any of the other characters in the book, is in control of when her relationships begin and end, is more assertive in her actions, and is more a man than anyone else.
Thus, Hemingway demonstrates the fall of the masculine character and the rise of the feminine as the new masculine in his book. While all of the male characters have tragic flaws that keep them from being the ideal male candidate that Hemingway envisions, Lady Brett emerges as the most ideally male among them. However, she cannot be the ideal male for the simple fact that she is a woman who eventually does need some form of rescue from a man.
- Citizen Commission on Human Rights 1995-2014. Web. www.cchr.org/documentaries/html
- Hemingway, Ernest. “The Sun Also Rises:” New York, New York: Scribner, 1926 print.
- Neilson, Keith. Master plots, Fourth Edition; November 2010, p1-4 Web. http://www.Mayoclinic.org
- William, Martin. “War With End” Texas Monthly Article, Vol.42 issue 6 June 1, 2014. Print.
- Yu, Xiaoping. “The New Women in The Sun Also Rises.” English Language Teaching. Vol. 3, N. 3 September 2010. Print.
In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, women are a ubiquitous part of the story, and even central to the plot. They vary greatly in their character and role in life. They range from the prostitute Georgette to the anxious Frances to the cool and androgynous Brett. In all cases, they are depicted via their behavior, actions, and the opinions of others. The reader sees these women largely through the eyes of the narrator, a wounded WWI veteran.
Hemingway makes very little effort to surmise or hypothesize about their actual internal thoughts, feelings or motivations. These women represent three very divergent ways of being a woman, and presumably, their interior lives must reflect these differences. Despite the limited interior perspective that Hemingway provides, and his relentless focus, instead, on action, his women are nonetheless vivid and memorable characters
The four women who appear in greatest detail in The Sun Also Rises are Georgette Hobin, Frances Clyne, Mrs. Braddock (who is not introduced using her Christian, or given, name), and Lady Brett Ashley. Each one fits well into a different demographic category and niche in society. Although Hemingway is clearly trying to describe what he sees, he nonetheless seems to assume that his readers share a knowledge of what these women would look like or how they would behave, just based on their roles in society.
Georgette Hobin is a sex worker who catches the eye of a potential customer; in this case, Jake Barnes, the narrator, while walking the streets. Jake describes her as being ‘good-looking” and “rather pretty”. These value-laden words seemto breach of Hemingway’s own journalistic rules;he is renowned for showing rather than telling and avoiding words without specific meaning(Hemingway Chapter 3)[1].
The modern assessment of Georgette’s looks might be different. This suggests that he had some very definite ideas of what constituted good looks, which the narrator notes she preserves by not smiling and thereby revealing horrible teeth(Hemingway Chapter 3). This is perhaps a marker of social class[2]. Georgette is also apparently prejudiced against Belgian Flemish-speakers, and makes a joke about their dinner being better than what is available in Brussels (Hemingway Chapter 3).
As a real prostitute, an “actual harlot”, she constitutes a novelty Brett’s young male companions. However, Georgette’s big moment is recounted much laterabout the fight she gets into with the nightspot owner’s daughter, wherein she accuses her of being a prostitute as well (Hemingway Chapter 4). Although she has spirit and character, she seems to be woman as object, to be used as needed, whether for sex or companionship, and passed from hand to hand.
Frances Clyne is Robert Cohn’s ‘almost’ fiancée. She is described as good-looking and tall; more value-laden terms, as well having been possessive and exploitative of Robert Cohn, at least earlier of their relationship. At this point, she is desperate to get Robert to formalize their relationship.
She has burned her bridges with her first husband, and now worries about lonelinessand impoverishment. In her view, Robert aims for celebrity authorship for the accompanying sex with literary groupies. To a modern reader, her assessment of Bob’s situation, and aims, seems quite accurate.
However, Hemingway depicts Frances’ listing unpleasant truths about Bob, for example, his self-interestedness, his weepiness over his own cavalier treatment of his wife/girlfriends, his exploitation of his personal affairs as material for his next novel, his cheapness, and so forth, as highly negative(Hemingway Chapter 5). In that era, a modern reader might infer, a woman was culpable for publicly giving her fiancé blunt feedback about himself.
’ implacable critique makes the narratorflee in order to avoid hearing more(Hemingway Chapter 5).She reminds the reader of the Furies, pursuing Cohn relentlessly until and unless paid off to go away. Hemingway does not mention her again for most of the novel. She seems to be woman as irritant.
Mrs. Braddocks, whose husband is also introduced without a given name, is described as Canadian, and possessing the “easy social graces” that Hemingway associates with that nationality. She misses Jake’s joke of introducing Georgette under a more elegant, French-sounding name than Hobin, to Anglophone ears, suggesting that she is either dim or poorly informed(Hemingway Chapter 3)Mrs. Braddocks seems to be Hemingway’s image of the little woman; happy wife to a relatively happy husband.
Lady Brett Ashley is the most crucial female figure in the novel. She is an odd mixture of sexiness and androgyny, affection and withholding, sexual promiscuity and integrity, class and degradation.This “remarkably attractive woman “ (in spite of an awkward nose) (Hemingway Chapter 13)has some attributes that suggest gender ambiguity to a modern reader.She wears revealing clothes that are not necessarily girly, like a man’s felt hat (Hemingway Chapter 13), and often calls herself “chap” (Hemingway Chapter 3).
Although engaged to the absent Mike Campbell, she is generous with her sexual favors (Hemingway Chapter 5). She has been involved (at a minimum) with her deceased true love, Lord Ashley,Campbell, Cohn, and Romero,and lusted after by Gorton, Barnes, and much of the Basque region. Jake is “sick” from the war, and cannot engage in intercourse, so he is ruled out as a potential husband (Hemingway Chapter 3).
Each man treats her very differently. Lord Ashley threatened her physically. Robert Cohn worships her. Pedro Romero wants to tame her into a more traditional woman. Jake pines for her helplessly and gets her out of trouble. Her fiancée calls her “a piece” but accepts her infidelities as long as he approves of the men(Hemingway).
This seems more complimentary than Robert Cohn calling her Circe [3](Hemingway Chapter 13),which suggests that she appeals to the worst in men and makes the worst of men. It is also more complimentary than the villagers hanging garlic around her neck (Hemingway Chapter 15) suggesting vampire-like sucking of life from men, or a “sadist”.
However, her behavior suggests that these are accurate characterizations. Her self-centered approach to life can be summarized by her assertion that her fling with Romero made her feel “quite set up”, which sounds exploitative in any era(Hemingway Chapter 19).
By novel’s end, she has left Romero with a shattered face and lost credibility amongst his serious supporters and colleagues(Hemingway Chapter 19), Cohn with a shattered spirit(Hemingway), Campbell with embarrassment, and Barnes with despair and his continuing alcohol abuse problem, with a bottle of wine for, “good company” (Hemingway Chapter 17)She seems to be Hemingway’s idea of woman as a deity with the power to attract as well as to destroy.
Hemingway employs the impact and perception of his characters on and by those around them to paint their images in the reader’s mind. This allows the reader to infer their internal motivations and thoughts. This technique works well, despite almost a century of distance from the very specific social environment in which the action of The Sun Also Rises takes place.
His female characters are no exception. They represent a range of options for female identity, fromtraditional wife/would-be wife, to the most marginalized street-walker, to a woman who seems liberated (although liberated for what, one might ask). Hemingway represents his women with implicit assumptions about their roles and appearance, but manages to make them living people nonetheless.
Works Cited
Athabasca University. “Ernest Hemingway.” 2013. Athabasca University. Web.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Akso Rises. New York: Cherles Scribner’s Songs, 2006. Print.
Footnotes
- “Say what you see not what you’d like to see. Be brief, be vigorous, be smooth, be positive. Avoid the use of adjectives like “splendid,” “gorgeous,” “grand.” Write short sentences, and use short first paragraphs.” (Athabasca University)
- Many Europeans at that time might have displayed the results of worse dental health than Americans, due to war and all the disruption of nutrition and health care
- Circe was the frightening sorceress in The Odyssey who transformed visiting sailors into pigs.
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IvyPanda. (2019) 'Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises'. 23 May.
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