The Sun Also Rises

By Ernest Hemingway
 About the title
‘The Sun Also Rises’
- It’s optimistic as it suggests nature always
regenerates as each generation falls.
- Life always continues.
 About the author
Ernest Hemingway was an American writer
and journalist, who joined WW1 as an
ambulance driver and awarded after that
for his bravery and service.
 About the novel
- ‘The Sun Also Rises’ is recognised as
Hemingway's greatest work.
- The characters are based on real people in
Hemingway's circle, and the action is based
on real events.
 Plot Summary
On the surface, the novel is a love story between
the protagonist Jake (a man whose war wound has
made him unable to have an affair) and Lady Brett
Ashley.
 Plot Summary
The novel ends with Jake and Brett in a taxi
speaking of the their relationship, however Jake
realises that it’s just a fantasy and they'll never get
back together.
 Main Themes
1. The Lost Generation
- A group of writers that survived WW1, however they were
effected emotionally, physically and psychologically.
- They found it difficult to adapt to modern day life
struggling to experience anything after the shock of the
war.
 Main Themes
1. The Lost Generation
- The characters struggled to understand the
meaning of life and felt so much senseless loss.
- The loss of identity, purpose and connection, as
there was a culture shift (travelling from US to
Europe which was very different).
 Main Themes
1. The Lost Generation
- To avoid the feeling of loss, the characters would spend
most of their time in cafes, drinking, having love affairs,
travel, bullfighting/watching bullfighters, or religion.
- However, they didn't always find themselves through
these things as they lost their touch with reality, trying to
find new meanings.
 Main Themes
2. Masculinity
- Jake's anger shows his self-hatred at his
inauthenticity and lack of masculinity. His sense of
masculine identity is lost, he is less than a man.
 Main Themes
2. Masculinity
- Jake embraces his weakness which he hides in
public.
 Main Themes
3. Femininity
- Brett is a twice-divorced Englishwoman with
bobbed hair and numerous love affairs,
represented the liberated new women of the
1920’s and changes gender roles.
 Main Themes
3. Femininity
- Brett is a woman who wants love affairs without
love while Jake can only give her love without an
affair. Although Brett sleeps with many men, it is
Jake she loves.
 Main Themes
3. Femininity
- By the end of the novel, although Jake loves Brett,
he appears to distance himself from her. He loses
[48]

his honour, faith, and hope. Jake is the person who

loses the most.
 Main Themes
3. Femininity
- Brett, with her short hair, is compared to a boy—
yet the ambiguity lies in the fact that she is
described as a "damned fine-looking woman."
 Main Themes
3. Femininity
- While Jake is attracted to this ambiguity, Romero is
repulsed by it. In keeping with his strict moral
code he wants a feminine partner and rejects Brett
because, among other things, she will not grow
her hair.
 Characters
Jake
- During his recovery he fell in love with his nurse, Brett
but because of his injury they cannot consummate their
relationship.
- Jake is disillusioned and depressed, like many young
people after the war.
 Characters
Jake
- To compensate for his impotence, Jake studies
traditionally masculine sports such as boxing, fishing
and bullfighting.
 Characters
Cohn
- Cohn wanted to reconnect through religion.
- He ruined his friendship with Jake by having an
affair with Brett.
 Characters
Cohn
- Jake depicts Cohn as childish, because he is easily
controlled by a woman like Brett.
- Jake disrespects Cohn for his perceived weakness.
- He also views Cohn as less than a real man because he
never served in the war and because he is Jewish.
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- She was a nurse in the war, she nursed Jake then,
and they both fell in love with each other, however
this didn't last long.
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- She lived a contradictory between her independent
and dependent self.
- She wanted to be independent, however she couldn’t.
- She would depend on men where she finds social
activity and financial comfort.
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- After she attracts men, she gets fed up when they start
loving her.
- Her beauty and her attractiveness, in-slaves the men
around her.
- They were driven by their desires, not by their minds.
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- They see her as an object of entertainment.
- She gave men an opportunity to consider their
opinions about her actions (when she danced).
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- She was modernising herself away from the traditional
woman know in the 1920’s, by having short hair but
being womanly at the same time.
- Romero (the bullfighter) didn't accept her as she was,
he wanted to change her in what he thinks is right.
 Characters
Brett Lady Ashley
- Trying to attract men through being different,
she never settled down with a man.
- She didn't want to get hurt again, and fairs of
being left so she leaves Romero first.
 Characters
Romero
- The 19-year old bullfighter, in Jake’s mind is the
only worthy match for Brett.
- Romero understands the bull more intimately than
any other fighters do, and he gives audience a real
thrill rather than the illusion of one.
 Characters
Romero
- Brett is immediately attracted to Romero’s passion.
- At the end of the novel, Romero tires to change
Brett into a more traditional women, so she leaves
him, claiming she is afraid of destroying him.
 Characters
Mike
- Brett’s fiancé.
- Despite being a perfect strong male, he is weak in love.
- He stays with Brett despite her constant cheating and
disrespect, even allowing her lovers to join them on
vacation.
 Characters
Mike
- For the most part, Mike ignores Brett’s dalliances with other
men, but her relationship with Cohn erase him.
- Partly because Cohn is Jewish and partly because Cohn
doesn't recognise when the fling is over.
- The rage boils over in Spain when Mike goads Cohn into a
fight, which Mike promptly loses.