The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises explores the conflicting emotions and values of

a post World War I group of expatriates. In many ways those expatriates resemble what

Gertrude Stain called The Lost Generation when she was talking to Ernest she said You are a

Lost Generation. (Hemingway, forward). Seeking the Bohemian lifestyle and rejecting the

values of American materialism, a number of individuals, poets, writers, and artists fled to

France in the post World War I years. (www.essortment.com, 1). These individuals became

known as the Lost Generation. Ernest Hemingway was one of the most famous of this group.

Ernest Hemingway was the Lost Generations leader in the adaptation of the naturalistic

technique in the novel. (www.essortment.com, 1). Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois.

His father, Clarence Edmunds Hemingway, taught him to enjoy nature and life outdoors. His

mother on the other hand would dress him in girls clothing as a child, for which he would never

forgive her for. In high school he published his early stories and poems in the schools

newspaper. After graduating in 1917 he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in Italy. In 1918 he

was discharged with a severe leg wound; and he was decorated twice by the Italian government

for his services (www.studyworld.com). Often times he allowed people to believe he got his

war wound in a more heroic way than he actually had. In 1921 Hemingway went to Paris.

While in Paris Americans drank immensely in bars and cafes, which they couldnt do in the

United States due to the prohibition on alcohol (paraphrase from Reynolds, chapter 1). Around

1925, Ernest started writing a novel about a young man in World War I, but had to stop after a

few pages, and proceeded to write another novel, instead. This novel was based on his

experiences in Pamplona, Spain. He planned on calling it Fiesta, but changed it to The Sun
Also Rises. (www.studyworld.com, 2). He spent the rest of his life writing and publishing

short stories and novels, he also began touring Europe with his wife.

Many of Hemingways own experiences helped shape The Sun Also Rises. He, like

Jake, was wounded in the war. He also was a writer in Paris, and he had an affair with a nurse

in an Italian hospital while recuperating. He also had a passion for bullfighting and traveling.

The Sun Also Rises is generally acknowledged to be Hemingways best novel.(Hays,

Ernest Hemingway, 152). The title of The Sun Also Rises comes from a passage from the

Bible, Ecclesiastics 1:4-7. Generations come and generations go, but the Earth remains

forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to

the south, and to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams

flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place where the streams come from, there they

return again. (Hemingway, forward).

Jack Barnes is the young American who tells the story, and is the only character who

keeps up standards of conduct. (www.theatlantic.com, 5). He is a writer living in Paris. He

once fought in World War I, but was discharged due to an injury. He loves to travel and watch

bullfighting. Barnes is a member of Lost Generation and Brett is the image of godlessness.

Barnes wants Brett but cannot have her. It also appears that he cannot have his old religion...But

Barnes is a religious man and continues to enter the house of the Lord. This Points to the

fact that he is religious and godless at the same time. (Grimes, 90).

Lady Brett Ashley loves to drink. She used to be a nurse in Italy, which is where she met

Jack while he was recuperating in the hospital. She also loves Jack, but will not be with him

because he cant satisfy her physically. The new womans radical challenge to the traditional

social structure is seen in Lady Brett Ashley Entering the public sphere without apology, she
dares to frequent places and events previously off limits to her, such as the bar and the bullfight.

(Wagner-Martin, 68).

Robert Cohn is a Jew who used to be the middleweight boxing champion of Princeton.

Cohn often gets bored with his life. I cant stand it to think that my life is going so fast and Im

not really living it.(Hemingway, 10). Cohn wasnt in the war, in fact Jack and many of the

others who consider him not to be one of them often make rude jokes about him never being in

the war and for still holding on to the pre-WW I values of romance and loyalty.

The Sun Also Rises is narrated by Jake Barnes. In the beginning of the story Jakes

friend Robert Cohn confides in him that he thinks that his life is going by too fast. To which

Jake replies, Nobody ever lives their lives all the way up except for bullfightersListen Robert,

going to another country doesnt make any difference You cant get away from yourself by

moving from one place to another. (Hemingway, 10 and 11). While another of Jakes friends

Lady Brett Ashley and Cohn are out of the country. Jake and one of his American friends, who

is also a war veteran, Bill Gorton, make plans to go to Pamplona, Spain for a fishing trip and to

attend a fiesta there. While there they fish, drink, and play cards for five days. They then go to

Pamplona to meet up with Cohn, Brett, and Mike, Bretts fianc. After a few days of preparing

the fiesta begins. Here there is more drinking and partying. A few days later Brett sees one of

the bullfighters named Romero. Romero is a nineteen year old bullfighting prodigy. She

believes that she has fallen love with Romero and convinces Jake to introduce her to him. That

night she and Romero spend the night together. That same night Cohn knocks out Jake and

Mike for insulting him and for not telling him where Brett was. He then goes and beats up

Romero when he finds the two together. The next day the last bull fight has ended, and

everyone is starting to leave. Brett leaves Mike to go to Madrid with Romero, leaving Jake,
Mike, and Bill in Pamplona as the fiesta draws to a close. The next day they rent a taxi, drive

out of Spain together, and each goes their separate ways. Jake decides to head back into Spain,

to San Sebastian to spend a few more days relaxing. There he gets a telegram from Brett asking

him to come to Madrid. He goes and finds her in a hotel room, alone. She says that she has

broken up with Romero so that she wouldnt ruin his career, and that she wants to go back to

Mike. As theyre leaving Spain Brett says that they couldve had a good time together. Jake

replies with Yes isnt it pretty to think so? (Hemingway, 247).

The Lost Generation was a group of writers that didnt agree with the post war society.

The Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebellious

against what America had become by the 1900s. (Tripoli and Gross, 1). These writers were

young, and believed that they had all the time in the world to spare. Full of youthful idealism,

these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs, and created

some of the finest American literature to date. (www.essortment.com, 1). The reason that the

Lost Generation was so important to our history is because it aided in the desire for a

cosmopolitan culture to be established and to exist in America Because when American

culture became more defined, European and other countries began to recognize a distinctive

democratic American culture. (Tripoli and Gross, 7).

The Lost Generation writers spent time over seas between the first and second World

Wars (Tripoli and Gross, 6). These writers all gained prominence in the 20th century. Their

innovations challenged assumptions about writing and expression, and paved the way for

subsequent generations of writers. (www.essortment.com, 2). One of the innovations that the

Lost Generation made with writing is used in Hemingways The Sun Also Rises. One aspect of

realism, in contrast to romanticism, was that individuals were depicted as the masters of their
fate, but rather as without control over their destiny, and The Sun Also Rises is a distinctly anti-

romantic book. (www.studyworld.com, 46). Almost everyone in The Sun Also Rises is devoid

of values. This also is one of the traits, it seems, of the Lost Generation. a simple

conclusion about life in the Lost Generation. That Brett drew in her off-the-cuff diagnosis of

Count Mippiopolouss values: You havent any values. Youre just dead, thats all. The

author also said; The Lost Generation is symbolic of a mode of existence bereft of heroes, fixed

values, and full of stuffed dogs. (Grimes, 91).

So it was to be the Lost Generation they grew to maturity during a period if violent

change It was lost first of all because it was almost wrenched away from its attachment to

any region or tradition It was lost because its training had prepared for another world than

existed after the war It had no trustworthy guides, and had formed for itself only the vaguest

picture of society and the writers place in it. The generation belonged to a period of confused

transition from values already fixed to values that had to be created. (www.theatlantic.com,

133). The Sun Also Rises explores the conflicting emotions and values of a post World War I

group of expatriates, who were called the Lost Generation. This generation was without heroes,

set values, and felt that it was out of place in the post World War I society.