I started reading Ernest Hemingway intent on comparing his two most notable works: The Sun Also Rises and The Old Man and the Sea. Too quickly, however, did I discover that they may as well have been written by different people. Their themes, tones, and characters are from different worlds and it would be a discredit to either to pair them in analysis. I will do another review of The Old Man and the Sea, but today we delve into Hemingway’s earlier work, The Sun Also Rises (originally titled Fiesta).
Reading The Sun Also Rises for the first time, I was struck by how similar it is to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A quick internet search, of course, showed how late I was to this party. Both novels were written in the ‘20s and by men who were not just each others’ contemporaries, but were colleagues in the same social circles. Naturally their work would reflect different perspectives on the same themes.
Regardless, I press on.
“There was much wine, and ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people.” (The Sun Also Rises, 151).
The first, clear parallel in both works is the absolute importance and dependence on society and alcohol. Each character cannot exist without the others reflecting who he is back at him, and many of the dramatic confrontations arise from alcohol-infused scenes.
In The Sun Also Rises, the main character Jake and his compatriots travel to Spain from France to enjoy fishing and the San Fermines Festival. The plot quickly revolves around Brett, Jake’s friend and love interest. The other men also retain feelings for Brett and drama ensues. Day after day, the group eats, drinks, and talks – and these conversations are what make up the book.
The Great Gatsby, similarly, depends entirely on society for its action. Wealthy bachelor Jay Gatsby throws raucous parties to lure his old (now married) flame back to him. He uses the social connections of the narrator and main character, Nick, to make this happen. There is less dialogue in this book than in The Sun, but each important scene still focuses on personal interactions, extravagance, and drinking. In both books, the man lives through others to reach his love interest.
The characters depend on each other, yet at the same time struggle to know what it means to be an individual. I noticed in other reviews it’s easy from the modern perspective to judge Hemingway or Fitzgerald as homophobic or sexist, but one must remember the context in which they wrote. Gender expectations were shifting and both sexes felt the changes.
Manliness, for example, is a topic that comes up frequently in reviews of The Sun Also Rises, for these reasons: Jake, the main character, is impotent due to a war injury. The other men fight over Brett, the “damned fine-looking woman” and central focus of the story’s drama (The Sun, 5). Jake detests a group of gay men who enter a club, and later in the story a younger, virile man is able to sleep with Brett while Jake never can.
In Gatsby, Daisy (the love interest) has a husband who regularly cheats on her, but once Daisy’s infidelity is discovered, her husband must reclaim ownership of her and they eventually move away together. The small-time gas station owner whose wife had been cheating on him also feels he must reclaim his power and ownership, which is why he takes up the gun to go after Gatsby.
While men struggle with their sense of power in the world, the women do too. In Gatsby, woman aren’t the fragile creatures they once were. Nick has a fleeting romance with Jordan Baker, an athletic, tall woman described as “a slender, small-breasted girl, with an erect carriage” (Gatsby, 57). She’s shown as cynical, sometimes untruthful, and tomboyish, yet attractive. Among Jordan and the other women in the book, there’s a greater sense of power and independence than had been among women before that time. Clothes, hair, habits – all were drastically changing as women gained autonomy.
From both authors’ perspectives, interestingly, this is portrayed as spoiled, entitled, and “careless” (Gatsby, 112). In both cases, the power of the woman is the pivotal point of the action and it’s eminently destructive. Their actions put men’s careers and relationships into jeopardy. At least Brett, near the end, repeats that she “won’t be one of those bitches” (The Sun, 247). Yet her actions are unchanging and shallow. She does nothing because it’s right, only because it feels good: “You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch,” (The Sun, 248).
The authors themselves no doubt found the changes in women to be frustrating, as they too were still trying to find their masculinity. Men during this time were returning from the first ever world war and adjusting to civilian life. Being a ‘man’ didn’t mean what it used to, and the roles and expectations their parents taught them were no longer applicable.
Gertrude Stein aptly noted all these young people were part of a “lost generation,” and she was referring to this transitioning, free-floating sense of self. I argue, however, that this generation was no more lost than any other.
The Sun Also Rises, like The Great Gatsby, is a wistful, tragic, poetic portrait of youth and love. Each generation has this mantra – modern songs like “We Are Young” by Fun and whole movies and shows are dedicated to our fleeting youth. We are drawn to the drama of uncertain personalities caught up in forces they can’t control and the existential angst that goes along with it. In both books, the main characters are mentally wandering without direction, but this is what gives them freedom, casts a romantic glow to their actions, and leaves the future open.
There is nothing quite as enticing as the bittersweet paradox of unbridled potential paired with identity paralysis. It’s the romance of the tortured free that sucks us in. After reading The Sun Also Rises, I feel a deep craving to pick up a cigarette, swirl a cognac, and order never-ending hors d’oeuvres. Their world is so enticing and so vividly described, it begs you to join in.
—
“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever… The Sun also riseth, and The Sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose… The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits… All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” – Ecclesiastes