Sun Also Rises Essay, Research Paper

In the novel The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway describes a couple

who share a very strange and distant kind of love for each other. This

story takes place immediately after World War I, a time of great

hardship. This hardship results in a digression of values both

morally and socially. The love that Brett and Jake share is symbolic

of the general decline in values in that they tolerate behaviors in

one another that would have been previously considered unacceptable.

It is clear that Lady Brett Ashley is anything but a lady. She is

kind and sweet but extremely vulnerable to the charm that various men

in her life seem to smother her with. Brett is not happy with her

life or her surroundings and seeks escape and refuge in the arms of

these men. But her actions seem always to end up hurting her, and she

runs back to Jake. Jake knows that he will never be able to have her

for his own, and he accepts this as fact. This is clear when the Count

asks them ?why don?t you get married, you two? (68)? To this

question, they give a lame half hearted awnser which implies that it

will never happen. He is tolerant of her behavior because he loves her

unconditionally and is willing to overlook everything she does. Jake?s

willingness to endure and forgive Brett?s promiscuity and infidelity

is an indication of the skewed values of the age. It was an ?anything

goes? era right after the first war, and Jake?s message to Brett seems

to be the same: anything goes as long as you eventually come back to

me.

Jake is forced to accept living in this seemingly terrible way for

more than one reason. He a weak person socially, but he is also

physically disabled because of an injury that he suffered during the

war. He suffered an injury that caused him to be castrated. The first

hint of this is when he says to Georgeette ?I was hurt in the war (24)

in refrence to why they can not have physical realtions. This injury

is one that makes him insecure, but worse than that, it allows Brett

to have almost complete control over him. Jake and Brett need each

other emotionally, but Brett feels that she needs more. As a result

Jake is force to give her up.

Jake?s feelings toward his friend Robert Cohn are a combination

jealousy, compassion, understanding, and hate. These are a very

unusual group of feelings for a person to have toward one person, but

it was a very unusual time. Jake knew of Robert?s relationship with

Brett, and it ate him up with envy, but at the same time he knew how

it had ended. He had been close friends with Robert, and had been

through a similar situation with Brett, so he had both compassion and

understanding for Robert?s position. The only problem was the way

Robert choose to deal with his feelings. Robert also could not stand

to see Brett with another man, but he displayed this much differently.

Robert?s presense bothered Jake even though they had been close

friends. Robert backs out of a fishing trip to find Brett, and Jake?s

friend makes a comment about that being a good thing. Jake?s only

reply is ?You?re damn right(108)?. Robert makes a fool out of himself.

He even beats up Jake at one point. Behavior like this was impossible

for Jake to respect and he hated this part of Robert. None of this

would have even been a problem if life during that time had been a

little more solid in a moral sense. Brett would have not been

permitted to act the way she did, while mantaining her social status,

which clearly meant a great deal to her. She would have had to choose,

and most likely her choice would have been that of a more chaste

lifestyle.

In this story, there is a very different way of life from what people

know today. The relationship that Jake and Brett share is one that

would seem completely unrealistic in today?s time, but to them, it was

acceptable. Jake no doubt would have preferred to have it differently,

but he is accepting of the way it stands. The hardship and the poverty

that is so widely spread in that area during the post war time causes

the people to lower their moral standards. Jake and Brett?s love is

the perfect example.