University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila

Software Engineering Department

TECHNICAL AND BUSINESS WRITING

A Book Review

Book Name : The Sun Also Rises

Author Name : Ernest Hemingwa
Submitted To : Mam Fareeha Zaheer
Submitted By : Rimsha Mukhtiar (21-SE-67)
Alisha Khan (21-SE-91)
Faiqa Jabeen (21-SE-99)
 1

1 About the Author

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story

writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style which he termed the iceberg theory

had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image

brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between

the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

What kind of writer he was ?

Among many great American writers, Hemingway is famous for his objective and terse prose

style. As all the novels Hemingway published in his life, The Old Man and the Sea typically

reflects his unique writing style. The language is simple and natural on the surface, but actually

deliberate and artificial.

2 Introduction

2.1 Background of Book

The Sun Also Rises, first major novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1926. The novel

captures the moods, feelings, and attitudes of a hard-drinking, fast-living group of discouraged

expatriates in postwar France and Spain.

2.2 Summary

The Sun Also Rises follows a group of young American and British expatriates as they wander

through Europe in the mid-1920s. They are all members of the cynical and disillusioned Lost

Generation, who came of age during World War I (1914–18). Two of the novel’s main

characters, Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes, typify the Lost Generation. Jake, the novel’s
 2

narrator, is a journalist and World War I veteran. During the war Jake suffered an injury that

rendered him impotent. After the war Jake moved to Paris, where he lives near his friend, the

Jewish author Robert Cohn.

Jake’s former lover, Brett, also lives in Paris. Jake and Brett met and fell in love during the war,

when Brett, a volunteer nurse, helped treat Jake’s injuries. Although it is not said explicitly, it is

implied that they are not together because Jake is impotent and Brett unwilling to give up coitus.

When Cohn confesses his romantic interest in Brett to Jake, Jake cautions him against pursuing a

relationship with Brett, who is engaged to be married to Mike Campbell, a Scottish war veteran.

Both Brett and Cohn eventually leave Paris. Brett sets off for San Sebastian and Cohn for the

countryside. After few weeks, the writer Bill Gorton (another of Jake’s friends) arrives in Paris.

Together, Jake and Bill decide to go to Spain to attend the Fiesta de San Fermín in Pamplona,

Spain, to see the running of the bulls and the bullfights. Before they leave, Jake and Bill run into

Brett, who has recently returned from Spain, and her fiancé, Mike.

Bill and Jake take a train to the south of France, where they meet Cohn. Bill, Jake, and Cohn

travel together to Pamplona, where they are eventually joined by Brett and Mike. They stay at a

local hotel owned by a man named Montoya. The novel ends unspectacularly, with Jake and

Brett talking in a taxi in Madrid. In the final lines of the novel, Brett tells Jake she thinks they

could have had a wonderful time together. Jake replies, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?”

3 Significance of Book

“The Sun Also Rises” is about being uncomfortable in things that should be easy and

heartwarming, the action of bullfighting, trust in friendship, relief in a stiff drink, etc. The book

contains the lives and interactions of people who are constantly seeking fulfillment and happiness
 3

in fleeting things. One writer says the characters are searching for “happiness that doesn’t have a

hangover.”

4 Discussion

The Sun Also Rises is probably Ernest Hemingway's greatest novel, largely because it is more

inventive in its treatment of love and war than the other work that vies for this distinction, A

Farewell to Arms, published four years later.

4.1 Writing Style

This is a novel of great silence. This is An absorbing, beautifully and tenderly absurd,

heartbreaking narrative, a truly gripping story, magnificent. The quintessential novel of the Lost

Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic

example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst

of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most

unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant

Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal

bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy,

spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions.

The Sun Also Rises offers the reader two stories in one: a war story and a love story. What's

remarkable about this book truly radical, really is the fact that it features no scenes of battle

whatsoever (not even in flashback) and no love scenes. Hemingway took on an enormous

challenge when he wrote this, his first full-length novel.

 4

4.2 Major Themes

Hemingway investigates the themes of love and death, the revivifying power of nature and the

concept of masculinity. His spare writing style, combined with his restrained use of description

to convey characterizations and action, demonstrates his "Iceberg Theory" of writing. Other

major themes were :

 The Aimlessness of the Lost Generation. World War I undercut traditional notions of morality,

faith, and justice.

 Male Insecurity. World War I forced a radical reevaluation of what it meant to be masculine.

 The Destructiveness of Sex. Sex is a powerful and destructive force in The Sun Also Rises.

4.3 Character Analysis

Jake Barnes the protagonist and narrator of the novel, Jake is a young American expatriate

working in a Paris newspaper office. He is a veteran of WWI and has an injury from it which, it

appears, has left him impotent. He desires Brett, with whom he developed a relationship while in

the war hospital. His other passion besides Brett is bull-fighting.

Brett (Lady Ashley) although the true antagonist in the novel is the lack of values and direction

of the Lost Generation, Brett comes closest to personifying this malaise and provoking it in

others as she consistently manipulates Jake and makes him undermine his sense of self. Brett is

the strongest, most conventionally "masculine" character in the novel, dominating her lovers and

manipulating them like a bull-fighter.

 5

Robert Cohn a Jewish novelist from Princeton, Cohn the only central male character not a war

veteran, and perhaps because of this he is the only one whose values have not been fully

compromised. He represents American pre-war romanticism and idealism, and it is often painful

to watch him pitted against a world that has lost these beliefs.

Pedro Romero although Romero appears only briefly in the novel, his presence is crucial, as he

is the only man who seems capable of manipulating Brett. His appeal to her, beyond his beautiful

appearance, is clear through the parallels Hemingway draws between bull-fighting and sexuality.

Mike Campbell who is Brett's fiance, Mike has gone bankrupt through business associations

with "'false friends.'" He often gets drunk and grows possessive of Brett. Though he supposedly

doesn't mind that she has affairs openly, he hates Cohn for his fling with her.

Bill Gorton who is Jake's writer-friend, Bill seems to waste his literary talent on witty, ironic

quips and drunken socializing; he may represent Hemingway's fellow Lost Generation writer, F.

Scott Fitzgerald, or Hemingway's own worst tendencies.

Count Mippipopolous the count becomes friends with Brett in Paris. He is wildly rich and

generously throws around money. He is proud of his war scars, arrow wounds through his

stomach and back.

Belmonte a legendary bull-fighter, Belmonte has come out of retirement but is not the fighter he

used to be, and is overshadowed by Romero. A shell of his former self, he represents the

decaying values of the Lost Generation.

 6

Montoya the head of the hotel in Pamplona that Jake and his friends stay at, Montoya is a friend

of Jake's and a fellow aficionado of bull-fighting. He wants to protect Romero from foreigners,

and seems upset when Jake introduces Romero to his friends.

Georgette a slightly disreputable girl Jake picks up at the café, Jake is somewhat hurt when

Georgette dances with the homosexual men in a club.

Frances Clyne who is Cohn's girlfriend in Paris, Frances seems to be using him. She is upset

when he wants to have different romantic adventures, and insults him in front of Jake.

Harris an Englishman Jake and Bill befriend while fishing at Burguete, Harris is a veteran and

enjoys buying them drinks and their camaraderie together.

Edna who is Bill's friend, they meet Edna in Pamplona.

Marcial Lalanda a bull-fighter, Marcial is a lesser talent than Romero and Belmonte.

Braddocks who is Cohn's "literary" friend in Paris.

Mrs. Braddocks the wife of Braddocks, she is Canadian and somewhat naïve.

Robert Prentiss an up-and-coming and somewhat annoying American writer Jake meets in

Paris.

Harvey Stone who is Jake's friend in Paris, he asks to borrow money from Jake.

4.4 Major Situations

 7

The Sun Also Rises follows a group of young American and British expatriates as they wander

through Europe in the mid-1920s. They are all members of the cynical and disillusioned Lost

Generation, who came of age during World War I (1914–18). Two of the novel’s main

characters, Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes, typify the Lost Generation. Jake, the novel’s

narrator, is a journalist and World War I veteran. During the war Jake suffered an injury that

rendered him impotent. (The title obliquely references Jake’s injury and what no longer rises

because of it.) After the war Jake moved to Paris, where he lives near his friend, the Jewish

author Robert Cohn.

Jake’s former lover, Brett, also lives in Paris. Jake and Brett met and fell in love during the war,

when Brett, a volunteer nurse, helped treat Jake’s injuries. Although it is not said explicitly, it is

implied that they are not together because Jake is impotent and Brett unwilling to give up sex.

When Cohn confesses his romantic interest in Brett to Jake, Jake cautions him against pursuing a

relationship with Brett, who is engaged to be married to Mike Campbell, a Scottish war veteran.

Both Brett and Cohn eventually leave Paris: Brett sets off for San Sebastian (a small beach town

in Spain) and Cohn for the countryside.

A few weeks after their departure, the writer Bill Gorton (another of Jake’s friends) arrives in

Paris. Together, Jake and Bill decide to go to Spain to attend the Fiesta de San

Fermín in Pamplona, Spain, to see the running of the bulls and the bullfights. Before they leave,

Jake and Bill run into Brett, who has recently returned from Spain, and her fiancé, Mike. Brett

and Mike ask to accompany Jake and Bill to Pamplona. In private Brett reveals to Jake that she

spent the last few weeks in Spain with Cohn.

Bill and Jake take a train to the south of France, where they meet Cohn. Bill, Jake, and Cohn

travel together to Pamplona, where they are eventually joined by Brett and Mike. They stay at a
 8

local hotel owned by a man named Montoya. Montoya is a bullfighting enthusiast, and he is

eager to introduce the foreigners to the sport. Brett and Jake are especially captivated by the

bullfights, and Brett is captivated by a 19-year-old bullfighter named Pedro Romero. While

Mike, Cohn, and, incidentally, Jake spar over Brett, Brett runs off to Madrid with Romero.

After the festival ends, Jake, Mike, and Bill leave Pamplona. After a night in the south of France,

Jake decides to return to Spain. He soon receives a telegram from Brett asking for help in

Madrid. Jake immediately goes to Madrid, where he learns that Brett sent Romero away for fear

of corrupting him. The novel ends unspectacularly, with Jake and Brett talking in a taxi in

Madrid. In the final lines of the novel, Brett tells Jake she thinks they could have had a

wonderful time together. Jake replies, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?”

5 Conclusion

In the last words of this novel, Hemingway delivers a memorable and hard-hitting diagnosis of

his generation: "Isn't it pretty to think so?" The speaker, Jake, is referring specifically to the idea

that he and Brett, his romantic interest, could have had "a damned good time together."

The novel tells about the generation who came of age during World War I experienced trauma

and a loss of innocence that left them feeling cynical and without a sense of who they were and

how they fit into the world.

It is about being uncomfortable in things that should be easy and heartwarming: the action of

bullfighting, trust in friendship, relief in a stiff drink, etc. The book contains the lives and

interactions of people who are constantly seeking fulfillment and happiness in fleeting things.

How this novel is relevant to our society ?

The isolation of the lost generation in The Sun also Rises not only represents the failure of the

society, but, paradoxically, the fulfillment of certain tendencies implicit in it as well.

 9

There are many threats in life that rival humanity’s ability to reach genuine happiness. Several of

these are depicted in The Sun also Rises brought out through the actions of its characters and the

arc of their development through the story. Characters are otherwise lost and unfulfilled in the

world if they are not able to abandon self-destructive behavior and find solace in relationships

with others. The driving theme in the novel is the difficulty of human connectivity; it also shows

how this challenge can be overcome, which Jake is able to do at the end of the book. Essentially,

connections with others is vital in being genuinely happy and having a fulfilling life. Hemingway

achieves this theme by painting it as a fundamental human truth.

 10

References

Hemingway, E. (1995). The short stories of Ernest Hemingway. Simon and Schuster.

Hemingway, E. (2014). The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition. Simon and

Schuster.

Meyers, J. (2003). Ernest Hemingway. Routledge.