"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is a tale of young, traveling expatriates in Europe in the 1920s.
The book opens with remarks on a man named Robert Cohn, a Jewish fellow who clearly seemed to be a frank and simple person. He was someone who never picked fights unnecessarily (which you will soon find ironic) and lived a quiet, shy life. He is an author who is initially struggling to break off his too-close-for-comfort relationship with a woman named Frances.
The narrator, Jacob (Jake) Barnes, is an American who stays in Paris as a journalist and has a close group of "literary friends" who write books and work for newspapers (Robert Cohn and Bill Gorton). In the start of the book, Jake invites a stranger over to join him for a Pernod, and follows by inviting her along to an after-dark dance party at a local place in Paris. Here, we are introduced to another important character, Lady Ashley, also known as Brett. Brett is quite a dashing lady, and quickly catches the attention of young men in her proximity. At the party, Robert Cohn shows great interest in Brett. Jake's stranger tagalong soon abandons hims for some new friends she meets. Later, Jake and Brett take off in a taxi cab, where their rather close relationship is revealed.
Inside the cab, Brett tells Jake of how miserable she's been, and from there, the reader realizes that Jake and Brett truly do love each other. However, Brett has been and messed with several other young men who all seemed to love her, yet she never truly wanted to return that love. She tell Jake of how sorry she is for "the hell she's put chaps through".
"It's funny," I said. "It's very funny. And it's a lot of fun, too, to be in love."
"Don't you think so?" her eyes looked flat again.
"I don't mean fun that way. In a way it's an enjoyable feeling."
"No," she said. "I think it's hell on earth."
"It's good to see each other."
"No. I don't think it is."
"Don't you want to?"
"I have to."
Throughout the novel, we see Cohn break off from Frances and become overly attached to Brett, who is to marry a man named Mike Campbell. Mike is a bankrupt Scottish man who joins Brett in her adventures across Europe. Although Mike is to marry Brett, Brett's nature drives her to be with many other men, including Cohn, who joins her on a trip to San Sebastian. Brett later confides in Jake and tells him how she has no feelings for Cohn, but Cohn does not get the message.
Jake decides to take a fishing trip with Bill and Robert, and Mike and Brett suddenly decided to join in. Jake, Bill, and Robert leave together and take a stop along the way. They get a telegram stating that Brett and Mike would be arriving later than expected, and that they should go on. However, Cohn suspiciously decides to stay (to join and follow Brett, of course), not aware that Jake knew of his trip to San Sebastian.
The first thing a young American reader would take note of is the amount of drinking in the novel. Beers before breakfast, wines at noon, cognac during supper, and liqueurs after dinner. Much like today, alcohol played the role of a social drink in times past as well. It seems that the only comfort in the novel comes from the characters' drinking. Mike especially is quite a drunkard, requesting several beers and calling drinks on him although he is bankrupt. Mike's character turns into a very nasty person once drunk, insulting Cohn for following Brett around when unwanted.
Another noteworthy behavior is Brett's on-and-off love interests. She travels with various men, and she eventually almost destroys the career of a Bull-fighter, Pedro Romero, due to the distraction and conflict she brings in (Robert attacks Romero out of jealousy the night before a big bull-fight). I guess one could say she cycles through people, changing her interests and abandoning those who were passionate about her. The most surprising aspect of this is that Jake stands by her side throughout her complicated love life. Readers understand that due to a war injury, Jake may never be with Brett. Once he returns home in France from a long journey in Spain, he receives a telegram from Brett telling him to meet her in Spain. He left for Spain the same day he received the telegram.
Going back to how Hemingway ends his novel, we realize that Brett is dazzled and confused in her love adventures, and Jake remains aimlessly by her side, knowing that she will never settle down with him successfully.
Analyzing these things cannot be done without putting the book in context of the time frame it was written and published (1926). The generation that came during World War I is often referred to as "The Lost Generation", for everyone's life had been affected by the combat. "Lost" refers to those who were disoriented and directionless. We can see this in The Sun Also Rises as the characters' lives are filled with drinking and travel. "The Lost Generation" is epitomized by Brett's aimless love interests that she pursues and abandons like yesterday's front page news headlines.
The title of the novel comes from the Ecclesiastes. It's meaning lies in the fact that people and generations come and go, times can change, yet the Sun will always rise and the Earth stays constant.
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