Here are some prompts for Chapters 1-7 of The Sun Also Rises that you may choose to respond to. Like always, you’re also free to respond to another student’s comment or to anything in the reading for today that interested you.
- Epigraph: The novel includes as one of its epigraphs the famous quote from Gertrude Stein about a “lost generation.” But there’s another epigraph as well, from Ecclesiastes in the Bible. Discuss Hemingway’s choices here. Does one epigraph “answer” or comment on the other? What do you think Hemingway is trying to get at with these two epigraphs?
- Talk about Jake’s injury and what you think both the literal and symbolic connotations of this particular injury are.
- What do you think Brett means, on p. 40 (near the end of Ch. 4) when she says that the count is “quite one of us”? Who is the “us” that Brett is referring to here? Who do you think she would leave out? What do you think it means to be “one of us”?
- Many critics have discussed the way Hemingway draws attention to times when Jake pays for things–cab fare, dinners, Georgette, etc. In the middle of p. 34 (beginning of Ch. 4), Brett asks, “Don’t we pay for all the things we do, though?” Talk about this attention to paying for things. Why do you think this may be an important theme in the book?
- Or, maybe just talk about your general reaction to these characters, as you’ve seen them so far. Do you like them? Dislike them? Why? Do they seem a product of their place and age or could you imagine these people as your own contemporaries?
The Lost Generation, as we have discussed this past week, is an aimless generation that has lost their sense of morality, and their belief in love after WWI. In the day-to-day, they act with carelessness and cruelty towards others, which is reflected in the character group of The Sun Also Rises. Jake, the narrator, seems to always point out when his friends act with cruelty towards others, but also never does anything to stop it, perhaps because of a lost sense of justice. He even contributes to this unkindness with Brett’s lovers, projecting his own personal insecurity in his masculinity. This is especially apparent in his behaviors toward Robert Cohn, who always seems to be the punchline for Jake’s jokes.
The first chapter is even all about Cohn from Jake’s perspective. He describes Cohn’s life up to their present, and he never seems to give Cohn any kind of credit. He describes him as “being very shy and thoroughly nice boy” (page 1), but unable to defend himself in the real world despite being a pretty talented boxer. He’s a talented editor of a paper, but lets a woman boss him around and use his money. She insists that it’s a frivolous pursuit if the magazine won’t rise to the top and earn him (and by connection, her) mounds of wealth.
So far, I have read the first 10 chapters. The tension between Jake, Brett, and Cohn is growing, or rather Jake’s bitterness is growing. In class, I would like to discuss that first chapter, and why Hemingway opened with Cohn’s life story from Jake’s perspective. Is it because Jake’s faults come out most in his attitude towards Cohn, because we needed to know about his character for the story to continue, or something entirely different?
My initial reaction to the characters within this story was quite jarring. From the start, every character seemed to lack emotion, while also simultaneously displaying a wide array of emotions through the overwhelming sense of “uncaring-ness.” I expected more direct confrontation due to the apparent presence of conflict and tension within their relationships. The dialogue between each of them was what caught me by surprise most. The style in which Hemingway portrays their interactions is very “far away.” Throughout the duration of the first few chapters you are viewing the lives of these gritty, care-free, never-ending drinkers. And, you are viewing these characters solely through the eyes of our protagonist Jake Barnes. By doing so, our views are limited and exist only in the mind of Jake. Therefore, we are led to believe certain biases from the start of the story. We feel immense anguish and yearning for Lady Brett Ashley. She has a sort of halo hanging above her from the start despite her actions saying otherwise. We see Robert Cohn as an easy target for continuous banter and insults. This is interesting to me because we also encounter an intense love dynamic between Jake and Lady Brett Ashley. For instance, in chapter 5 Brett Ashley writes, “Good night, Jake. Good night, darling. I won’t see you again.” This particularly makes me dislike her morals as she is consistently playing at two sides of Barnes. She very much seems a product of her place and acts out in a way I would expect due to her circumstances. I am interested to see how she will continue with her relationship with Barnes. I think neither can truly deny their feelings, even if another may be standing in the way.