The Sun Also Rises – Heroes Essay, Research Paper

The Hemingway Hero Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway’s

novels is the concept popularly known as the “Hemingway hero”, an

ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a “man’s man”.

In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted

as they engage in some form of relationship with 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.

Jake Barnes, as the narrator and supposed hero of the novel, fell

in love with Brett some years ago and is still powerfully and

uncontrollably in love with her. However, Jake is unfortunately a

casualty of the war, having been emasculated in a freak accident.

Still adjusting to his impotence at the beginning of the novel, Jake

has lost all power and desire to have sex. Because of this, Jake and

Brett cannot be lovers and all attempts at a relationship that is

sexually fulfilling are simply futile. Brett is a passionate, lustful

woman who is driven by the most intimate and loving act two may share,

something that Jake just cannot provide her with. Jake’s emasculation

only puts the two in a grandly ironic situation. Brett is an extremely

passionate woman but is denied the first man she feels true love and

admiration for. Jake has loved Brett for years and cannot have her

because of his inability to have sex. It is obvious that their love is

mutual when Jake tries to kiss Brett in their cab ride home: “‘You

mustn’t. You must know. I can’t stand it, that’s all. Oh darling,

please understand!’, ‘Don’t you love me?’, ‘Love you? I simply turn

all to jelly when you touch me’” (26, Ch. 4). This scene is indicative

of their relationship as Jake and Brett hopelessly desire each

other but realize the futility of further endeavors. Together, they

have both tried to defy reality, but failed. Jake is frustrated by

Brett’s reappearance into his life and her confession that she is

miserably unhappy. Jake asks Brett to go off with him to the

country for bit: “‘Couldn’t we go off in the country for a while?’,

‘It wouldn’t be any good. I’ll go if you like. But I couldn’t live

quietly in the country. Not with my own true love’, ‘I know’, ‘Isn’t

it rotten? There isn’t any use my telling you I love you’, ‘You

know I love you’, ‘Let’s not talk. Talking’s all bilge’” (55, Ch. 7).

Brett declines Jake’s pointless attempt at being together. Both

Brett and Jake know that any relationship beyond a friendship cannot

be pursued. Jake is still adjusting to his impotence while

Brett will not sacrifice a sexual relationship for the man she loves.

Since Jake can never be Brett’s lover, they are forced to create a

new relationship for themselves, perhaps one far more dangerous than

that of mere lovers – they have become best friends. This presents a

great difficulty for Jake, because Brett’s presence is both

pleasurable and agonizing for him. Brett constantly reminds him of his

handicap and thus Jake is challenged as a man in the deepest, most

personal sense possible. After the departure of their first meeting,

Jake feels miserable: “This was Brett, that I had felt like crying

about. Then I thought of her walking up the street and of course in a

little while I felt like hell again” (34, Ch. 4). Lady Brett Ashley

serves as a challenge to a weakness Jake must confront. Since his war

experience, Jake has attempted to reshape the man he is and the first

step in doing this is to accept his impotence.

Despite Brett’s undeniable love for Jake, she is engaged to marry

another. Mike Campbell is Brett’s fiancee, her next planned marriage

after two already failed ones. Mike is ridiculously in love with Brett

and though she knows this she still decides to marry him. In fact,

Brett is only to marry Mike because she is tired of drifting and

simply needs an anchor. Mike loves Brett but is not dependent on her

affection. Moreover, he knows about and accepts Brett’s brief affairs

with other men: “‘Mark you. Brett’s had affairs with men before. She

tells me all about everything’” (143, Ch. 13). Mike appreciates

Brett’s beauty, as do all the other males in the novel, but perhaps

this is as deep as his love for her goes. In his first scene in the

novel, Mike cannot stop commenting and eliciting comments on Brett’s

beauty: “‘I say Brett, you are a lovely piece. Don’t you think she’s

beautiful?’” (79, Ch. 8). He repeatedly proposes similar questions but

does not make any observant or profound comments on his wife-to-be. In

fact, throughout the entirety of the novel, Mike continues this

pattern, once referring to Brett as “just a lovely, healthy wench” as

his most observant remark. Furthermore, Mike exhibits no self-control

when he becomes drunk, making insensitive statements that show his

lack of regard for Brett and others. After Brett shows interest in

Pedro Romero, the bullfighter, Mike rudely yells: “Tell him bulls have

no balls! Tell him Brett wants to see him put on those green pants.

Tell him Brett is dying to know how he can get into those pants!”

(176, Ch. 16). In addition, Mike cannot contemplate the complexities

of Brett and her relationships: “‘Brett’s got a bull-fighter. She had

a Jew named Cohn, but he turned out badly. Brett’s got a bull-fighter.

A beautiful, bloody bull-fighter’” (206, Ch. 18). Despite Brett’s

brief affair with the bullfighter, she will eventually return to Mike

who will no doubt openly welcome her again. Brett is a strong woman,

who can control most men, and Mike is no exception. She vaguely

simplifies their relationship when she explains to Jake that she plans

to return to him: “‘He’s so damned nice and he’s so awful. He’s my

sort of thing’” (243, Ch. 19). Mike is not complex enough to challenge

Brett, but she does go on and decide to accept his simplicity anyways.

Furthermore, despite his engagement with Brett, Mike betrays

Hemingway’s ideal man. Although he is self-reliant, Mike possesses

little self-control or dignity.

Engaged to one man and in love with another, Brett demonstrates

her disregard for the 1920’s double standards. Very early in the

beginning of the novel, she reveals to Jake that she had invited

Robert Cohn to go with her on a trip to San Sebastian. Cohn, a Jewish,

middle-aged writer disillusioned with his life in Paris, wants to

escape to South America where he envisions meeting the ebony

princesses he romanticized from a book. However, he cannot persuade

Jake to accompany him and then completely forgets about this idea upon

meeting Brett. Cohn is immediately enamored with her beauty and falls

in love with her: “‘There’s a certain quality about her, a certain

fineness. She seems to be absolutely fine and straight’” (38, Ch. 5).

Cohn is immature in his idealization of Brett’s beauty, as he falls in

“love at first sight”. Furthermore, like an adolescent, he attempts to

satisfy his curiosity about Brett by asking Jake numerous questions

about her.

After Cohn and Brett’s short-lived affair in San Sebastian, Cohn

is nervous around Jake: “Cohn had been rather nervous ever since we

had met at Bayone. He did not know whether we knew Brett had been with

him at San Sebastian, and it made him rather awkward” (94, Ch. 10).

Moreover, Cohn is scared that when Brett appears she will embarrass

him and so he does not have the maturity to behave appropriately in

front of Jake and his friend, Bill Gorton. Nonetheless, Cohn is proud

of his affair with Brett and believes that this conquest makes him a

hero. When Brett appears with her fiancee Mike, Cohn still believes

that they are destined for an ideal love despite her blatant coldness

to him. However, it is apparent that Brett simply used Cohn to

satisfy her sexual cravings: “‘He behaved rather well’” (83, Ch. 9).

Cohn does not understand the triviality of their trip to San Sebastian

in Brett’s mind and has become dependent on her attention and

affection. In his rampant drunkenness, Mike blasts Cohn: “‘What if

Brett did sleep with you? She’s slept with lots of better people than

you. Tell me Robert,. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor

bloody steer? Don’t you know you’re not wanted?’” (143, Ch. 13). Cohn

is like an adolescent, as he vainly ignores the truth and continues to

love Brett: “He could not stop looking at Brett. It seemed to make him

happy. It must have been pleasant for him to see her looking so

lovely, and know he had been away with her and that every one knew it.

They couldn’t take that away from him” (146, Ch. 13). Cohn

over-exaggerates the significance of his affair with Brett. He does

not understand that Brett simply used him and that their brief

relationship has no meaning to her. Moreover, Cohn cannot conduct

himself with dignity and he intrudes upon people and places where he

is obviously not wanted.

Naively, Cohn dwells on the fact that he has slept with Brett and

obsesses with her. When Brett begins to show signs of interest in

Pedro Romero, Cohn irrationally approaches Jake demanding to know

Brett’s whereabouts, punches him in the jaw, and then calls him a pimp

(190-91, Ch. 17). Later that night he encounters Pedro and Brett

together in their hotel room. His actions of knocking Pedro down

repeatedly until he eventually tires demonstrate a divergence from his

character. Cohn for the first time takes some action in what he feels,

rather than merely thinking about it or complaining about it. However,

despite his persistence, Pedro does not remain down according to Mike:

“‘The bull-fighter fellow was rather good. He didn’t say much, but

he kept getting up and getting knocked down again. Cohn couldn’t knock

him out’” (202, Ch. 17). Eventually, Cohn gives up on this pursuit, is

knocked twice by Pedro, and loses his battle for Brett. These events

show that Cohn’s boxing skills, a defense mechanism that he once used

in college, will no longer pull him out of rough situations. Cohn

fails to show the strength and courage needed to face the

circumstances like a man.

Pedro Romero, on the other hand, comes closest to the embodiment

of Hemingway’s hero. Brett is almost immediately enchanted by this

handsome, nineteen-year-old, a promising matador. Pedro, a fearless

figure who frequently confronts death in his occupation, is not afraid

in the bullring and controls the bulls like a master. Pedro is the

first man since Jake who causes Brett to lose her self-control: “‘I

can’t help it. I’m a goner now, anyway. Don’t you see the difference?

I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to do something I really want to

do. I’ve lost my self-respect” (183, Ch. 16). In contrast, Pedro

maintains his self-control in his first encounter with Brett: “He felt

there was something between them. He must have felt it when Brett gave

him her hand. He was being very careful” (185, Ch. 16). Brett falls in

love with Pedro as a hero who promises new excitement. In the scene

between Pedro and Cohn described previously, Pedro demonstrates his

confidence and strong will. Knocked down time and time again, Pedro

rises each time refusing to be beaten. His controlled and dignified

demeanor in an unusual situation contrast sharply with Cohn’s fear and

weakness.

Soon Pedro and Brett run off together but when he demands too much

from her, Brett asks him to leave. “‘He was ashamed of me for a while,

you know. He wanted me to grow my hair out. He said it would make me

more womanly.” In addition, Pedro “really wanted to marry” Brett

because “‘he wanted to make it sure [Brett] could never go away from

him’” (242, Ch. 19). Pedro will not compromise his expectations for a

woman and will not accommodate Brett’s character even though he loves

her. In his affair with Brett, he has performed according to his rules

and when he discovers that his ideals are impossible for Brett to

accept, he leaves willingly. Pedro has been left untainted by Brett,

sustaining his strong-willed, correct behavior. Moreover, Pedro leaves

without sulking like Cohn or whining like Mike.

Brett’s acceptance or rejection of particular qualities in each of

the four men she becomes involved with help define Hemingway’s male

hero. Mike is not dependent on Brett but does not maintain his dignity

and self-discipline in his drunken sloppiness. Cohn is a complaining,

weak, accommodating adolescent who has little understanding of others

or himself. Pedro is the near perfect embodiment of strength, courage,

and confidence. Jake is the lesser version of this perfection as the

hero of the novel. Hence, Hemingway’s ideal hero is self-controlled,

self-reliant, and fearless. He is a man of action and he does not,

under any circumstances, compromise his beliefs or standards.

Jake, as the supposed hero of the novel, is challenged by his

emasculation in the deepest sense possible, because the traditional

ways in which masculinity are defined are insufficient and impossible

for him. Jake needs the strength and courage to confront his impotence

because he has not yet adjusted to this weakness. It is ironic that

Cohn, a character least like the Hemingway man, has slept with Brett

while Jake will never be able to accomplish this feat. However,

because Cohn so inadequately fulfills the roles of a true man,

Hemingway implies that the sexual conquest of a woman does not alone

satisfy the definition of masculinity.

Nevertheless, Jake fails to fulfill other requisites of the

Hemingway man as he deviates from his own ethical standards. Jake

sees that Brett is mesmerized by Pedro’s skillful control and

extraordinary handsomeness and recognizes the possibility of

furnishing her carnal desires with the most perfect specimen of

manhood that he can offer in place of himself. Jake thus betrays

the aficionados of Pamplona and the trust of a long-time friend,

Montoya, who fear that this rising star may be ruined by women. Thus,

regardless of his physical impotence, Jake’s true weakness is the

impotence of his will and the supposed hero of the novel is flawed due

to his failure to adhere to what he believes is right and wrong.

Hemingway thus refrains from presenting a true hero in his novel.

With the absence of a leading male ideal, Hemingway betrays the larger

socio-cultural assumptions about men and masculinity and questions the

conventional means in which they are defined in his society.