Style Analysis of The Sun Also Rises
Hemingway employs a unique style of writing to enhance his work. Even though he uses simple and imperative sentences, connotative diction like “You are a case of arrested development” fills the whole novel (66). The novel comprised mostly of simple dialogues like “Brett was happy” (21). Repetition such as “Brett, you are a lovely piece,” was used to get the point to the reader (21). Hemingway used simile (”I slept like a dog”), irony (’”I wish to hell I was bankrupt ” said Bill.’ Bill was bankrupt) and sarcasm (”I would have thought you’d loved being a steer, Robert. They never say anything and they’re always hanging around about so.”) to give the story a deeper meaning than that expressed by his simple declarative sentences (119,131,145). Even though most of the novel was dialogues, in sentences the idea was first stated and then elaborated. The purpose was to make the reader fully aware of the environment. Disillusionment of society is the major theme of the story. Hemingway uses complex characters to show how people of the modern world after the war began to take a carefree approach to life because the war was over and there was nothing to worry about. Hemingway used drinking and fiesta as a symbol. Throughout the book, characters drink constantly as means of escape from reality. They are disillusioned because they think they can solve their problems simply by drinking. They deceive their own souls. The fiesta that lasted for seven days stands as a symbol on its own. It is nothing more than an orgy of drinking and parties. The fiesta serves as a false sense of hope for the characters. The Sun Also Rises captured the hearts of its readers because of its honest portrayal of theme prevalent at that time.
Conclusion
Hemingway spent his whole life writing stories to which the readers can relate. As he solved the problems of many others, his own life grew worse. Desexualized by the war, Hemingway married four times, but never found his true love. Due to severe depression and mental illness, Hemingway committed suicide in 1961. Hemingway has died but his works live for eternity.
Lady Brett Ashley remains a victim throughout The Sun Also Rises. She places herself in situations with men that lead to abuse such as harassment, rejection, and degradation. Her need to associate with those beneath her financial and social level gives the reader an indication that she has low self-esteem. She resorts to “slumming” to punish herself for her faults and gets drunk to numb the pain.
Hemingway developed this character with sensitivity. His portrayal would have been rougher and cruder if he thought the woman without endearing traits. Brett has a feline grace that overrides her undesirable ways, like the domesticated cat has more good than bad characteristics. Brett is a sympathetic character readers will find intriguing, if not fun-loving and likable. Everyone knows a drunk who’s enjoyable when intoxicated. Brett is this type.
Her physical attributes make her promiscuous behavior understandable. Beautiful, well-dressed women are popular and subjected to temptations the average woman need not contemplate. Brett doesn’t lead an ordinary life. She’s wealthy, titled, and high-class, with expensive taste in men. She acts as though she’s seen it all, but her vulnerability is still there. She protects herself from serious involvement with Jake Barnes for this reason. He’ll hurt her because she loves him.
Her callous exterior is a shell. She shields herself from further pain without cutting social ties. She lightens up, then hardens her demeanor. She does this to survive.
The loss of her first love may have caused her drinking problem or the effects of war could have led to an emotional crisis. Her relationship with Mike Campbell is a convenient standby. The man is a prop to keep her from feeling and appearing alone. Their commitment is superficial. Mike tolerates her infidelity and brags about her beauty. That she has chosen him as her official “someone” is a compliment.
Robert Cohn’s attachment after a short fling with Brett is excessive. He obsesses over her, irritating everyone. He wants her because he thinks he can’t have her, and the more he makes his feelings known, the more Brett turns away. He cries like a baby and humiliates himself by showing his weakness. Brett appears not to care, yet she’s concerned. Her association with Cohn is evidence that a bond formed during their short-lived affair.
Romero is Brett’s villain. He’s the tough, alpha man with charm and no qualms about hurting anyone he becomes involved with on his destructive path. He romances her, takes her away, then dumps her just as he conquers her. She claims to have made him go, but her Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancee for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate Hemingway s standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Each man Brett has a relationship with in the novel possesses distinct qualities that enable Hemingway to explore what it is to truly be a man. The Hemingway man thus presented is a man of action, of self-discipline and self-reliance, and of strength and courage to confront all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.
dramatic reaction dramatic reaction to the end of their entanglement strikes the reader as odd since she left him. Her words are bravado, a cover-up for what really happened. He left her.
Jake is Brett’s true love. They have the basis for a fulfilling relationship, but they choose not to pursue more than friendship. Their sexual attraction comes forth when Jake kisses her in the taxi. She pushes him away and tells him to stop because she can’t handle the emotions and physical sensations he arouses. Jake conveys the story through his eyes. He loves Brett and can’t get involved. Brett is suited to this man. Her choice of companions, lovers, and dates is disappointing when compared to the prospect of a romance with Jake. He is her savior.
She is a very strong woman (even wears a man s hat), and confronts situations that she might easily avoid. As he describes her eyes, Jake expresses his admiration for this quality, saying that “She looked as though there were nothing on this earth she would not look at, and really she was afraid of so many things.” Although he is clearly an extremely close acquaintance, Brett guards her relationship with Jake. Because a sexual relationship with him is no longer possible, Brett does not want to tempt herself into trying one again, telling him when he tries to kiss her: “You musn t. You must know. I can t stand it, that s all. Oh darling, please understand!” She is frustrated somewhat that she and Jake cannot be together. She can have any man she wants including Mike, Cohn and Romero except her first true love and the only man she really admires. Brett acknowledges this frustration (”I don t want to go through that hell again”), but when Jake futily suggests that they avoid each others company, she immediately protests, and even dares to ask Jake to kiss her “just once before we get there,” although she has previously discouraged him from doing so.
Lady Brett Ashley was also an allegory of the impotence after the war. She first appeared with a group of homosexuals, she wore a man s hat over her short hair, which gave her a masculine appearance, and she spoke of men as her fellow chaps . All completed the distortion of sexual roles and released her from her Hemingway 7 womanly nature (Bloom, 1985, p. 113). This is similar to Barnes condition. Brett stepped off of the romantic pedestal to stand beside her equals (Bloom, 1985, p. 118).
: I was having an arguement with one of my friends about this quote about Hemmingway’s novel “the sun also rises”.I think its very true. she didnt agree with it. what is anyones view???
: “No man embraces her (LAdy Brett Ashley) without being, in some sense, castrated…and when she leaves the 19 year old bull fighter, one suspects she is really running away because she thinks he might make her a woman”
: do you agree??…..or not??
I tend to agree. Near the end she is in the car with Jake and says,
“I’m thirty-four, you know. I’m not going to be one of these bitches that ruins children.”
Which leads me to believe that, aside from the young bullfighter, she gave herself the leeway to ruin
older men, men she knew she could toy with and still have a clear conscience.