Ernest Hemingway Essay, Research Paper

In this paper, I will describe what critics have to say about Ernest

Hemingway^s novel The Sun Also Rises and his short story A clean

well-Light Place. First I will describe the basic plot of the story,

then go one to describe each of the characters by what the critics have

to say about them. I will start off with the main character and

narrator Jake Barnes. Then go to Lady Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, Pedro

Romero, and finally I will fish off that section with a little about

Bill Gordon. Then I will describe a little of how Ernest Hemingway^s

characters fit into what critics have to say about the story. After

that, I will then go into describing how the four American Themes were

used in the novel. After that, I will evaluate the criticism of the

book using one or two quotes from the book. >From there, I go into my

next literary work. I describe the basic plot of A Clean Well-Light

place. Then I describe the themes of the story. I then go on to

describing the criticism, or at least what I could find on the short

story. I continue with my evaluation of the criticism of the book.

Also using one or two quotes. I conclude my paper by giving my

evaluation of each of the works, and evaluating the author^s style,

content, and themes. In The Sun Also Rises, meet Jake Barnes, the main

character and narrator of the novel. He and his friend Robert Cohn

meet a lady named Lady Brett. Here is the story of their adventure.

In The Sun Also Rises, a group of young Americans move to Paris after

World War I. Jake Barnes, a newspaperman who is in love with Lady

Brett Ashley, Robert Cohn, a Jewish former Princeton student who was

outcast, Lady Brett Ashley, an older Englishwoman who also love Jake

Barnes, but can^t consummate their love because he was wounded in his

genitals. As they travel through Paris drinking and sitting at cafes,

they met up with Brett^s fianc Mike Campbell and his friend Bill

Gorton. Jake plans a trip to Pamplona, Spain for a festival full of

bullfighting and the running of the bulls. Before everyone got to

Spain, Mike, Brett and Robert already being there, Mike and Brett

decided to take a side trip to San Sebastian. Robert followed them

like a lovesick puppy. While in Spain they met up with a bullfighter

named Pedro Romero, who Brett falls madly in love with. After the

festival is over, Brett leaves with Pedro and goes to Madrid, Mikes

goes to a town on the French borde! r, Bill goes back to Paris, and

Jake leaves for San Sebastian to relax. When Jack arrives, he finds

out that Pedro wants to marry Brett, but she turned him down. She

tells Jake about how happy they might have been together. The conflict

of this novel is that one loves another and that person loves someone

different. No one can truly get what he or she wants. Jake tells this

story in first person. Psychology of the individual was definitely

present in this novel. You could always tell what Jake was thinking.

American Dream is also present because everyone wanted to have the

perfect life. ^The difficulties of interpreting The Sun Also Rises in

a clear and relatively certain manner stem in the main from two

factors: the use of a particularly opaque first-person narrator; and

the fact of Jake^s wound which has rendered him impotent, while leaving

him normally responsive to sexual desire. The first factor results in

the bewilderment a reader will have in trying to locate the norms of

^truth^ in the novel; that is, since the entire novel related directly

by Jake Barnes, the reader can never be sure how reliable Jake^s

observations and judgments are.^ (Monarch Notes)

In the novel, Jake goes from being at a stage of anguish and at times,

a state of self-pity at the beginning to accepting himself as he is at

the end. He also discovered the appreciation of nature, companionship,

and bravery. Jake emerges as the Hemingway Hero, a cynical realistic

individual who will hide his feelings in himself and who will await the

inevitable reckoning which life presents itself, of the novel.

(Monarch Notes) In book one, we start to see the outlines of the

Hemingway Hero in Jake. He is capable of showing sorrowful, deep

emotions. He is also tender, compassionate and thoughtful. You see

this in Jake when Brett and Jake have their initial meeting together.

Until meeting Brett, Jake was more interested in Robert Cohn. Readers

may think that Cohn is Jake^s best friend because in the first

chapters, most of the information is about Cohn. As the story

continues, the narrator unmasks Cohn. We discover Cohn not being the

pleasant companion, but the ant! i-hero to Jake. Jake becomes more

aware of Cohn^s boy-man personality in Chapter IV when two lovers

argue. So in the end of Book one, Jake goes from being a friend to

being suspicious and increasingly belligerent acquaintance of his

fellow American. Early on readers usually make the conclusion that

something is wrong with Jake. It is implied that that he can not have

sex. When Spain comes into to play with the story, Jake changes in a

very distinct way. He loves Paris, but he loves Spain in a very

different way. His French capital provides him with a refuge from the

States, the chance to live individually and freely. Jake feels an

intimate contact with the nature and existence when he^s in Spain.

(Monarch Notes) ^Because of her four lovers and the attendant fact that

the plot, such as it is, revolves about the ensuing complications,

Brett stands out as the most fascinating protagonist of the total group

of actors in the novel.^ (Monarch Notes) Without a doubt, Brett is

very colorful and adds an exotic approach to his characters. Although

Brett appears rather late in the novel, she begins to dominate the

action in Book one. Just like Jake and Robert, Brett wears a mask.

They also identify Brett as an extreme example of the ^lost

generation^. (Monarch Notes) Robert Cohn is labeled one of the most

bitter verbal depictions of a character in the novel. He is the exact

opposite of the Hemingway Hero. Hemingway probably described Cohn as a

Jew, not for any overt demonstration of anti-Semitism but to explain

part of the young man^s problem. Some critics have read into this

character a Hemingway attack on the defects of the American character.

If this is true, and there seems to be more than a modicum of accuracy

in the criticism, then the unfavorable attributes of American youth

are: a basic immaturity, reliance upon physical strength, a thin veneer

of romanticism, the lack of appreciation for the simple virtues of

companionship, good food and drink, and the inability to adjust to the

demands of an older civilization. (Monarch Notes)

Robert Cohn is an example of the boy-man, the adolescent playing the

role of a mature individual. Without Cohn^s presence in the novel, the

positive morality would not have been so fully illustrated; one arrives

at a clearer understanding of Jake Barnes and Pedro Romero^s dedication

to life and death. Cohn is basically bewildered by the world of his

contemporaries and he does not understand the members of his own

generation. He doesn^t belong to the group he associates with.

Hemingway is implying that Cohn does not belong in Europe. In Book

two, Cohn is more sentimental and requires more recognition and

appreciation. Cohn is also bored at the festival in Spain and is

critical and cynical the whole time. (Monarch Notes) Pedro Romero is

the young Spanish matador who enters the story late, and is not

involved in much of the action in general. In a lot of ways, Pedro is

an idealization of the Spaniard: concise pride, honor, and bravery.

^Romero is untamed and uncorrupted by the decadence of the modern world

so that he is fundamentally a symbol and a stereotype rather than a

living complex to fathom.^ (Monarch Notes) Some say that Romero is the

answer to the rush of American civilians and youth in the rise of the

death in Europe after World War I. Bill Gordon, is probably one of the

most successful characters. He also belongs to the ^lost generation in

spirit and sympathy, but learned how to work hard, and he adjusted well

to the 1920s. ^For many people in America, the years immediately

following World War I and World War II were characterized by anger,

discontent and disillusionment.^ (Kwan, The Sun Also^) This simple

quote describes the main characters in this book. Jake is angry

because of his wound, and that he can^t consummate his love with

Brett. Cohn is angry and discontent because he, same as Jake, can not

consummate his love with Brett, but for different reasons. Cohn is the

Hemingway anti-hero so he is very critical of everything and is not

open for change. Brett is the disillusioned one. After losing the

love of her life, she just gone from man to man, disillusioned that

she^ll find someone to make her whole, but she never does. The major

themes of American literature in this work are psychology of the

individual, American Dream, Individual in Society and Nature and the

Land. Psychology of the individual is shown through Jake Barnes. He

tells the story through first person and you always know how he^s

feeling, and how he feels about the other characters. Although his

feeling about the other character may be different from what the

characters are really like, but that still shows what he is thinking.

The war also plays a role in the Psychology. The war has implict the

character^s approach to daily life. American Dream is in this novel,

but it^s killed. Post-World War I attitudes of the characters

disapprove of the war and the US getting into the war, so they^ve moved

to France. The war has left them with a cynical view of the United

States, and therefore isn^t as much American Dream as it is achieving

their personal dreams. Individual in society is shown through each of

the characters and how! they react to their surroundings and

situations that occur. Brett being the very man-friendly woman that

she is, has been known to have many relationships that mean nothing to

her, and don^t last her very long. Robert Cohn shows his views when he

follows Mike Campbell and Brett around Sebastian the whole time like a

lovesick puppy. Also when he is very critical of everything at the

festival in Spain. Jake shows it through being the Hemingway Hero, how

he over comes tragedy, first with Lady Brett, then finally with the

acceptance his wound, and his impotency. And finally the Nature and

the Land, you have the background of the land, the rivers, the

mountains and the plains. But unlike some of his other novels, this

nature shows the aftermath of wrath and destruction after World War I,

not during it. ^At five o^clock I was in the Hotel Crillion waiting

for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote letters. They

were not very good letters but I hoped their being on Crillion

stationery would help them. Brett did not turn up so about quarter to

six I went down to the bar^^ (Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 41) This

quote show the emerging of the Hemingway Hero. He^s beginning to get

over his bitterness and starting to feel those deep sorrowful emotions

that the stereotypical hero does. ^We often talked about bulls and

bull-fighters. I had stopped at the Montoya for several years. We

never talked for very long at a time. It was simply the pleasure of

discovering what we each felt.^ (Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 132)

This passage also agrees with the critics when they said that Paris has

a special place in Jake^s heart, but Spain meant something totally

different to him. He loves Spain in a different way. He loved to

learn about Spain and talk to people abo! ut the culture. In Paris,

he liked to drink and sit at cafes. In A Clean Well-Lighted Place, two

waiters are sitting at their caf talking and waiting to close up.

While they are waiting they are discussing the old man sitting out on

the terrace, and why he would have wanted to commit suicide. As old

deaf man is sitting out on the terrace drinking brandies, he flashes to

the waiters for another. When the young waiter goes over to the table

to tell him he^s had enough and must go home because the waiter wants

to close up and go home himself to his wife waiting in bed for him.

When the waiters close up the caf, the young waiter goes home, and the

old waiter goes to find another caf/bar that^s open. He goes to

another bar, and he discusses the nadas with another bartender. There

isn^t much American Dream, Individual in society, or Nature and the

land. The only theme in this short story is Psychology of the

Individual. This comes at the end of the story when they discuss the

nadas. The nadas, pertaining to nothing, and nothingness, these people

discuss their fear of nothing, the clean well-lighted caf that the

waiter works in is like a refuge for those that have no where to go,

and need some, not nothing. The Hemingway hero doesn^t make its

appearance quite as obvious as it did in the novel. The older waiter

would be the stereotypical hero in this short story because of wanted

to help people escape from nada, just like he wants to. He^s trying to

help others as he helps himself. This portrays the deep and sorrowful

emotions by having a place for the lonely people to go to. (Literary

Companion, 37, 38) ^Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name, thy

Kingdom nada, thy will be nada, in nada as it is in nada. Give us this

nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada

us not into nada but deliver us from nada y pues nada^ (Hemingway, A

Clean Well-Lighted Place, 383) This passage states that if you believe

in nothing, you are nothing, and in a way you have noting to live for.

You just wander around. In the story the darkness is the nothing and

the nothing is death. The clean well-light place was a place where

people could go to escape the nothing, to believe in something, and be

something. (Chelsea House, 1843) AS the two waiters sit in the bar

they discuss why the man might have wanted to commit suicide. The

young waiter can not understand the one man^s despair. He doesn^t

understand how he can have all that money, and yet want to kill

himself. (Mangum, Short Fiction, 1626)

The Sun Also Rises is a very good piece of literature. It has a very

intreqit, well developed, easy to follow plot, and a very good

portrayal of the four American themes. Ernest Hemingway also has very

developed, constant characters. Jake did change in the novel, but that

was a physical, believable change. Their attitudes are also very

developed and intriqit with their surrounds after the war. The Clean

Well-Lighted Place is also a very good piece of literature. Although

in this short story, Hemingway sows his pessimistic side. He discusses

even the riches people may be happy, but if they don^t believe in

something then they are nothing, and the poorest people who believe in

something are the happiest. The darkness in this story is death and

death is nothing, the light is life, and happiness. The old deaf man

was happy sitting in the caf drinking his brandies in the well-lighted

caf. The older waiter wasn^t very happy sitting the dark bar talking

to the bartender and drinking. Their conversation describes the

nothing that is surrounding them. They are all scared of the nothing,

which is death, but the old man. He was the one with the courage to

stand up and be he. He believed in himself, and believing in something

is having something to believe in, not believing in nothing. Therefore

the old deaf man was the happiest out of all the characters. Even

the! young waiter who had his wife waiting for him at home. Being a

woman, I don^t necessarily agree with Hemingway^s style of disgracing

the woman, and making all the men seem macho. But then again, if I

were a guy, I^m sure I would be agreeing with his style of writing.

Among the sexist characteristics that Hemingway has he is a very

talented writer, and has written some very meaningful novels, that

involves themes that still stand true today. His content is varies

from book to book. The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms are

during and post war activities. A Clean Well-Lighted Place having to

do with death, and nothingness. By doing this Hemingway doesn^t get

boring by writing about the same topic every time he writes. Hemingway

writes about all four themes. In The Sun Also Rises, all four themes

come into play with the characters. A Clean Well-Lighted Place mostly

has the psychology of the individual because of what the story pertains

to.

Bibliography

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—– Modern Critical Views: Ernest Hemingway. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1985.

Breit, Harvey. ^?The Sun Also Rises In Stockholm.^? New York Times. 7 Nov. 1954.

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Hart, James D., The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Publication city: publisher, copyright date. Pg. 327-328

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