Coming into the second half of the novel, these notions of sexual undertones and inevitabilities begin to come together in certain scenes of interaction. Hemingway uses this to further expand these themes in an organic way. Everyone is inside their head; everyone is at dinner—Jake, Bill, Brett, Mike, and Robert. Mike and Robert had been in a heated dispute hours before, but now they are both acting formally—or for Mike, as formally as the alcohol will allow. Still, Jake says that this dinner reminds of certain dinners “from the war” (150). There is “much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you [can] not prevent” (150). The reader can infer that these images are in reference to sex, for there is a sort of timeline of
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Hemingway saw this as the human condition, and he decided to define it within the terms of a certain post-world war I generation. In this generation, there is a sense of meaninglessness and loss. God, by this time, had been declared dead. Disillusionment and melancholy set in with every new piece of information, as it faded and deadened under the notion that anything that is owned is liable to be lost. Therefore, Hemingway posits to the reader as early as he can, that the only thing that cannot be escaped or lost is thought—or perhaps better put, current thought or active train of thought. People can and will try to escape their thoughts through drinking and memory loss, meaningless sex and the combination of bodies, deep meditation or prayer, dreams, or constant travel, or through anything of that nature. But the fact is those things are transient and often result in disillusionment for the characters of The Sun Also Rises. These acts all play at the hidden truth and inevitability of death, and if their result holds any sort of telling to the result of death, then death is the ultimate disillusionment to these characters. Hemingway explores that dynamic through purposefully placed scenarios, which seem to always add another layer to the theme. This gives the reader a full and organic understanding by the end of the novel, even though the characters never really come out of their
Hemingway saw this as the human condition, and he decided to define it within the terms of a certain post-world war I generation. In this generation, there is a sense of meaninglessness and loss. God, by this time, had been declared dead. Disillusionment and melancholy set in with every new piece of information, as it faded and deadened under the notion that anything that is owned is liable to be lost. Therefore, Hemingway posits to the reader as early as he can, that the only thing that cannot be escaped or lost is thought—or perhaps better put, current thought or active train of thought. People can and will try to escape their thoughts through drinking and memory loss, meaningless sex and the combination of bodies, deep meditation or prayer, dreams, or constant travel, or through anything of that nature. But the fact is those things are transient and often result in disillusionment for the characters of The Sun Also Rises. These acts all play at the hidden truth and inevitability of death, and if their result holds any sort of telling to the result of death, then death is the ultimate disillusionment to these characters. Hemingway explores that dynamic through purposefully placed scenarios, which seem to always add another layer to the theme. This gives the reader a full and organic understanding by the end of the novel, even though the characters never really come out of their