The Comparison of Two Nations
What makes a nation great is the atmosphere but also the people. The way people act highly influences the way others feel about a place they visit. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, the characters travel from Paris, the city of love and romance to the much more peaceful Basque region of Spain. The way the characters interact with the two nation's cultures changed the way they acted by giving them a different outlook on life. The way Jake lives changes from France to Spain. Paris is a city that is full of hustle and bustle where there are people awake at all hours of the day and night whereas the peaceful, secluded Basque region of Spain is a place where one can relax and reflect on life. When Jake …show more content…
The characters are addicted to spending money. When they have it they spend it, when they don’t have it, they look for it to then just spend it away. But the way the characters treat money is very different from Paris to the Basque Region. When staying in a hotel it is customary to tip in France. Staying in Paris, the group heads to the hotel and on the way in “Brett gave the concierge 200 francs” (61). To just give the concierge 200 francs and not even think about it crazy. Brett was fully drunk at this point and was not really in the right frame of mind. But to tip the concierge a sum that much really shows how foolish they all were with money in Paris. She tipped The people of the Basque Region are very different though. During their visit, the group was all out to dinner and as they were paying the bill they also left a tip. Everybody assumes that a tip is just the customary thing to do and that the waitress wouldn’t think anything of it if they gave a tip; it's just normal. However, this was not the case. Jake was out to eat and at the end of his meal he “gave the woman fifty centimes to make a tip ” yet she just gave it all back to Jake, thinking that maybe he “had misunderstood the price” (112). This inability for the people of the Basque to take money from others really showed the characters how important money was. It taught them that it is a big deal to earn money and it should not be …show more content…
This story could not run without alcohol and neither could the characters of the book. For especially Jake and Brett, alcohol is everything. There was rarely a scene when there wasn’t talk of any alcohol or even drinking. But the way the characters drank in Paris and the way they drank is Spain was different. In Paris, drinking was an hourly occurrence. The characters drank constantly. The group was saying that when they were drunk, they “didn’t care whether they ate or not” (50). The effect that alcohol has on them in Paris is the effect that it turns them to the side where they really don’t seem to care about others around them. It seems that the way they interact with eachother changes completely given the fact they are drinking. The Basque Region treats drinking very differently. Where the characters treated alcohol as only a liquid the change their state of mind, the people of the Basque see it as a form of art. The group was visiting some Basque natives and were invited to drink. When they didn’t bring out the drinks the group was used to, they were all very surprised. The way they drank was not similar to the drinking that goes on in Paris. Jake squeezed a “leather bag with his hand so the stream of wine hissed in his mouth” followed by swallowing the delicate wine “smoothly” (111). The big difference in the way each area treats alcohol is a real defining factor of the people. Alcohol in Paris is just a way to get you
What makes a nation great is the atmosphere but also the people. The way people act highly influences the way others feel about a place they visit. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises, the characters travel from Paris, the city of love and romance to the much more peaceful Basque region of Spain. The way the characters interact with the two nation's cultures changed the way they acted by giving them a different outlook on life. The way Jake lives changes from France to Spain. Paris is a city that is full of hustle and bustle where there are people awake at all hours of the day and night whereas the peaceful, secluded Basque region of Spain is a place where one can relax and reflect on life. When Jake …show more content…
The characters are addicted to spending money. When they have it they spend it, when they don’t have it, they look for it to then just spend it away. But the way the characters treat money is very different from Paris to the Basque Region. When staying in a hotel it is customary to tip in France. Staying in Paris, the group heads to the hotel and on the way in “Brett gave the concierge 200 francs” (61). To just give the concierge 200 francs and not even think about it crazy. Brett was fully drunk at this point and was not really in the right frame of mind. But to tip the concierge a sum that much really shows how foolish they all were with money in Paris. She tipped The people of the Basque Region are very different though. During their visit, the group was all out to dinner and as they were paying the bill they also left a tip. Everybody assumes that a tip is just the customary thing to do and that the waitress wouldn’t think anything of it if they gave a tip; it's just normal. However, this was not the case. Jake was out to eat and at the end of his meal he “gave the woman fifty centimes to make a tip ” yet she just gave it all back to Jake, thinking that maybe he “had misunderstood the price” (112). This inability for the people of the Basque to take money from others really showed the characters how important money was. It taught them that it is a big deal to earn money and it should not be …show more content…
This story could not run without alcohol and neither could the characters of the book. For especially Jake and Brett, alcohol is everything. There was rarely a scene when there wasn’t talk of any alcohol or even drinking. But the way the characters drank in Paris and the way they drank is Spain was different. In Paris, drinking was an hourly occurrence. The characters drank constantly. The group was saying that when they were drunk, they “didn’t care whether they ate or not” (50). The effect that alcohol has on them in Paris is the effect that it turns them to the side where they really don’t seem to care about others around them. It seems that the way they interact with eachother changes completely given the fact they are drinking. The Basque Region treats drinking very differently. Where the characters treated alcohol as only a liquid the change their state of mind, the people of the Basque see it as a form of art. The group was visiting some Basque natives and were invited to drink. When they didn’t bring out the drinks the group was used to, they were all very surprised. The way they drank was not similar to the drinking that goes on in Paris. Jake squeezed a “leather bag with his hand so the stream of wine hissed in his mouth” followed by swallowing the delicate wine “smoothly” (111). The big difference in the way each area treats alcohol is a real defining factor of the people. Alcohol in Paris is just a way to get you