Analysis Of The Sun Also Rises By Ernest Hemingway

World War I was the largest and deadliest war the world had ever seen at the time. Due to this many began to suffer from conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and or disillusionment after seeing so much death and experiencing traumatic situations during the war. This is shown in characters such as Jake, Mike, Brett and Bill from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is able to portray these characters as lost by making them wander aimlessly from place to place and also by filling the empty voids in their lives with alcohol and other meaningless activities to block out the outside world. One major way Hemingway is able to show that the characters are lost is through them drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. Infact …show more content…
The way the characters wander without purpose from place to place like they are always on one huge vacation is an implication of how they are part of the “Lost Generation”. Characters such as Jake left Paris and went to numerous cities for weeks at a time without any concern of returning. This is a prime example as to how their lives are empty and that they believe moving from one to place to another will eventually lead them to finding some meaning in their lives. While the characters are away they usually attend a great deal of parties or in Brett 's case have a lot of affairs. Infact the characters spent one full week dedicated to partying during the festival of San Fermin. It was a week packed with fireworks, music, dancing, and bullfighting. The characters were mainly haphazard throughout this fiesta and never planned on doing anything except drinking and partying. Brett is also shown to be lost by how she is able to go from man to man without feeling any real emotion for any. When Count Mippipopolous asks her “You don’t remember anything about a date with me at the Crillon?”(Hemingway 54) and she replies “No. Did we have one? I must have been blind.”(Hemingway 54). This shows how she has been through so many that she is beginning to lose track. She manages to go from being married and abused to having an affair with Cohn in San Sebastian, to almost becoming Mike 's future wife and …show more content…
If they were to live in America they would feel like strangers due to the fact that they went to war and they would be surrounded by those who have not. However in Paris they are able to surround themselves by others in the same mental condition making them not feel out of place. Furthermore in Paris the characters are allowed to go from one bar to another and drink their days and lives away due to the nightlife scene in Paris. While they would also be able to do this in American cities, they would be seen as a drunkard 's by those who have not gone to war. But in Paris since everyone is drinking and partying in excessive amounts no one bats an eye. Since they are able to do this it gives them an escape from all that is going on in the world and this corrupts the characters since they no longer have to deal with things normal people would have to. They were able to discard the old values from before the war and were able to start again with new values. Due to their terrible experiences in the war such as Jake becoming impotent after suffering an injury, Brett losing the love of her life to dysentery, and Bill and Mike seeing a lot of death makes the endless drinking and partying ok to them and is in accord with their values. This is how life in Paris corrupts the lost characters.
Jake, Bill, Brett, and Mike all wandering aimlessly around Europe and drinking nonstop allows them to be portrayed as