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"The Sun Also Rises," by Ernest Hemingway, takes place after World War 1 and follows the life of Jake Barnes, a war veteran, and his circle of friends, as they try and continue on with their lives after the harsh cruelties they had experienced during the war. Jake's circle of friends include Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell. Most of them live their lives as expatriates, spending a majority of their time drinking and partying. This leads to the opening up of conflicts as they suffer internal struggles throughout the course of the story that were also a result of the war.
The conflicts that are present throughout the book are opened up by the company's interest in Brett. Jake fell in love with Brett during the war and was still in love with her after the war ended. Brett held mutual feelings as well, but because Jake had suffered an injury during World War 1 that rendered him unable to have sexual relations with women, Brett was unwilling to commit to a relationship due to her keen interest in sex. Having said this, Brett had a huge case of promiscuity and had affairs throughout the story along with relations with Robert Cohn, Mike Campbell, and Pedro Romero. Robert Cohn is a close friend to Jake. He is a Jew who falls victim to anti-Semitism but still holds a sense of superiority within himself. Despite his "superiority," he gets sucked into the scandalous acts that engulfs the group's well being. Mike Campbell is a war veteran who is a heavy drinker who was in a relationship with Brett, and who constantly made prejudice and unkind comments to Cohn as a result of Cohn's interest in Brett. Pedro Romero was a promising young bullfighter who was one of the last men to have had relations with Brett. Aware of Romero's bright future, Brett reluctantly left him because she felt that she would have posed as a distraction that would as a result ruin his career. Upon ending this relationship along with the interactions with the other men, the story comes to a close as Brett tells Jake that they could have had a "damned good time together." Jake then responds with, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
This story revealed many hardships that took place after World War 1. The characters initially held traditional morals and beliefs,but after the war, that way of thinking was abandoned due to the conditions and circumstances that they had been held under. The war was very detrimental to the lives of these characters because they could not find meaning in their lives thereafter. They resorted to excessive drinking and partying to have a fun time, but they were still not satisfied with themselves, and they could not find peace. Hemingway skilfully displayed how World War 1 destroyed the views of society and the harmfulness it posed on the people who fought in the war. It even caused men to suffer in terms of masculinity, the most prominent example in the story being Jake, who cannot even perform sexual activities because of his injury, which was a huge strike to his manhood. All in all, the story was well thought out and the relationships displayed in the story reflected aspects of life involving the generation, masculinity, sex, communication, and ways of relaxation such as drinking and partying. There are so many hardships in life that make it hard to move on, and most of the time, many people feel lost because of this. That was well represented in the book, and I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in stories that took place around wartime, and that enjoy dramatic and scandalous relationships that lead back to the internal struggles that people go through day by day.
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ReplyDelete"The Sun Also Rises": A Review by Reniel Nuqui
ReplyDelete"The Sun Also Rises," by Ernest Hemingway, takes place after World War 1 and follows the life of Jake Barnes, a war veteran, and his circle of friends, as they try and continue on with their lives after the harsh cruelties they had experienced during the war. Jake's circle of friends include Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell. Most of them live their lives as expatriates, spending a majority of their time drinking and partying. This leads to the opening up of conflicts as they suffer internal struggles throughout the course of the story that were also a result of the war.
The conflicts that are present throughout the book are opened up by the company's interest in Brett. Jake fell in love with Brett during the war and was still in love with her after the war ended. Brett held mutual feelings as well, but because Jake had suffered an injury during World War 1 that rendered him unable to have sexual relations with women, Brett was unwilling to commit to a relationship due to her keen interest in sex. Having said this, Brett had a huge case of promiscuity and had affairs throughout the story along with relations with Robert Cohn, Mike Campbell, and Pedro Romero. Robert Cohn is a close friend to Jake. He is a Jew who falls victim to anti-Semitism but still holds a sense of superiority within himself. Despite his "superiority," he gets sucked into the scandalous acts that engulfs the group's well being. Mike Campbell is a war veteran who is a heavy drinker who was in a relationship with Brett, and who constantly made prejudice and unkind comments to Cohn as a result of Cohn's interest in Brett. Pedro Romero was a promising young bullfighter who was one of the last men to have had relations with Brett. Aware of Romero's bright future, Brett reluctantly left him because she felt that she would have posed as a distraction that would as a result ruin his career. Upon ending this relationship along with the interactions with the other men, the story comes to a close as Brett tells Jake that they could have had a "damned good time together." Jake then responds with, "Isn't it pretty to think so?"
This story revealed many hardships that took place after World War 1. The characters initially held traditional morals and beliefs,but after the war, that way of thinking was abandoned due to the conditions and circumstances that they had been held under. The war was very detrimental to the lives of these characters because they could not find meaning in their lives thereafter. They resorted to excessive drinking and partying to have a fun time, but they were still not satisfied with themselves, and they could not find peace. Hemingway skilfully displayed how World War 1 destroyed the views of society and the harmfulness it posed on the people who fought in the war. It even caused men to suffer in terms of masculinity, the most prominent example in the story being Jake, who cannot even perform sexual activities because of his injury, which was a huge strike to his manhood. All in all, the story was well thought out and the relationships displayed in the story reflected aspects of life involving the generation, masculinity, sex, communication, and ways of relaxation such as drinking and partying. There are so many hardships in life that make it hard to move on, and most of the time, many people feel lost because of this. That was well represented in the book, and I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in stories that took place around wartime, and that enjoy dramatic and scandalous relationships that lead back to the internal struggles that people go through day by day.