Heroes and Vagrants--subjectivity in Ernest Hemingway’s the Sun Also Rises

Heroes and Vagrants
--subjectivity in Ernest Hemingway’s the Sun Also Rises

  ‘You are all a lost generation.’ It’s almost unverifiable under what circumstances Gertrude Stein said these words to Hemingway. But these words ended up on the inside of the front cover of the latter’s 1926 novel, which along with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s contemporary works sculpted the perception of post first world war generation. These works, though later prestigiously recognized and had bestowed upon both art history and social studies, actually came into being through such a rebellious fashion. That Gertrude must have said the pungent comment in a less than indifferent tone, as if the decadency is self-explanatory.
And the writer chose to depict his defense in an almost paralleled way. He vitally molded the character of Jake Barnes and framed the story within Jake’s angle of vision. And Jake’s narration was arranged in a deliberate manner, that throughout he’s attempt to camouflage the story to be an impersonal one, his indifference and decadency itself had become the element through which the disillusion was made possible for the reader, to peep beneath sea level and get a glimpse of ‘the iceberg’.
  The mannerism of writing ‘rationally’ traces back to Hemingway’s early experience in journalism. He omits meticulous writing of emotions, avoiding any attempt of luring a reader into pure empathy and the addressing of historical background were considered to be excessive. It was mentioned, but muted. In Hemingway’s own words the abyss of ignorance ‘strengthens the story’ , and that wound deep enough to become the common life tolls with silence. But in this book the rationality of the narrator should be read separately from the rationality the author subscribes to, though they do share a common faith in the strength of such a technique. Hemingway designates Jake Barnes to narrate in a tone that while objective enough for the reader to grasp characters and their stories, still leaves the story-teller’s subjectivity legible. And it is through such an arrangement that unyielding voices from ‘the lost generation’ conveys.

1 Lady Brett Ashley, ‘everybody’s sick’
  The protagonists in the Sun Also Rises are vagrants and therefore heroes and heroine. Despite the differences of their gender, race or personality a shared trauma shapes their lives as the predominant factor. ‘That bloody war’. Those who endeavored to pinpoint the character’s complex, diagnosing Brett Ashley with ‘a personality disorder’ , may have forgotten the unrealistic nature of the text. Readers are staring through the goggle that is Jake Barnes and therefore literal interpretations should be considered unreliable. ‘Brett was damned good-looking.’ Lady Ashley seems to never fail in capturing the heart of her male companions. But the key to such success is solely based on her choice of only reacting to those who is falling for her, while distancing herself from her true love, Jake Barnes. ‘What’s the matter? You sick? Everybody’s sick. I’m sick, too.’ ‘It makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch.’
Brett and Jake are extreme contraries in a sense while Jake’s disability prisons him from any possibility of romance, Brett the social beauty seems to be receiving all the chivalry the world has to offer. However, their love equates them. Brett lives under the destiny that she shall never be together with the one she truly loves, that there is no happy ending in this life for her, and the pain of such cruel truth may only be mitigated by alcohol and hedonism. Such desperation replicates Jake’s. On the other hand Jake has to tell the story of his loved one’s betrayal in a tone that grief and self-pity was hard to be traced, and such a coolness comes form an understanding that War the Witch curses and no matter disabled (Jake) or very able (Brett), generation are doomed to the same decadent fate, though in various forms.

2 Robert Cohn, ‘don’t be silly’
  Incapability appears in both the inadequate man, and also the very adequate. Jake started his story with a recollection of Robert Cohn’s early life. The Jewish man is blessed with a fortunate family, the talent of writing and physical ability competent to be a boxing champion, or to beat up rivals in love within one swing of fist. Yet his vulnerability lies within his shyness, the racial discrimination against him, an inferiority complex that was manipulated by Frances, and very much like Jake, a desperate passion for Brett. Jake relate very much to the passiveness that the two of them shares, while disdaining Robert’s impulses of emotions that lead to traveling, fighting for Brett, or overall, taking a control over his own life. ‘Don’t be silly’, repeats Jake when turning down Robert’s many spontaneous invitations. He (Jake) speaks with contempt when speaks of him (Robert), yet he cannot help but speak of him. Jake has surrendered to act silent and numb toward his own feelings and hurts, while the telling of Robert Cohn’s story alludes to and rekindles them. They are rivals in romance, however, since the inevitable failure shadows both of them, hostility was replaced by sarcasm. Jake does not have to speak ill of Robert. He shows absolute unconcern when he fails and exits the story. The intrusion of the ‘silly’ and rigid was over and Jake maintained his apathetic manner of endurance.

3 Jake Barnes, ‘all a lost generation’
  The Sun Also Rises is the story of Robert Cohn, Brett Ashley or even Romero but after all it is the story of Jake Barnes. He is the damaged, the disenchanted youth, the cynic amongst all self-chosen exiles and has given up to feel belong. Yet his heroism lies in this very vagrant act of life. As the victim he comprehends the poison of war years, and his tolerance evolves to become such an indifference that is his wisdom of bearing with life. War keeps haunting him. It haunts him on the verge of physical attachment, as he observes Brett’s playfulness leading her nowhere and neither he nor she is able to ‘do any thing about it’. The fiesta can be read as an allegory about the war. Jake tells about the meaningless violence, how riots are thrilled and promising at first and how it ended up being long and deathful. And during the chaos he observes. He looks at his love once again draws away from him, himself who does not intend to strike out is defeated, and the ones who challenge fate, Robert Cohn, the matadors, rises and fails to prove the era’s tragedy. A tragedy that is concentrated into his eyes and sight of seeing. He ends up being alone as this does not surprise him. He ends up missing Paris but does not determine to go back, and he has been through such nostalgia like this. What happens is that he does not fight. Over or not the war is he does not fight any more. And as the pages turn over this will always be his story.
  One’s subjectivity is one’s heroism. Jake is the one writing the story down and the implication screams to the audience louder than any fictitious character can. Jake Barnes, a veteran deprived of dreams chooses to tell us his love story. He looks at his vagrant life without any evasion, and asks for no empathy. He starts and ends the storytelling with another episode of ‘Jake and Brett in the taxi’, and such episodes repeat and he knows the routine and the ending. They would feel close and they would talk. They would imagine impossible happiness drunk and in the dark, being taken somewhere, and only to be alienated. They would know how momentary yet still tries to enjoy. And the sun also rises. Days continue with the dark night that tolerate them to share each other’s companion for just a minute, and the dark memories that linger and haunt them in their sleep. And the sun also rises.