Prompt 1 Response

There are many themes and styles that I read in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway that seem to agree with topics covered in Michael Bell’s article on the metaphysics of modernism.

I will start with one of the more easily identifiable themes that I found: the liberation of the characters. In Michael Bell’s article he talks about “the colonial ‘other’ [being] linked to sexual repression.” The Sun Also Rises is full of sexual repression. First of all the narrator is impotent. From as far into the novel as I have read (only half-way at this stage) I cannot say it if is ever revealed exactly how the narrator has come to be impotent, but it is mentioned at least twice in the first half of the novel. The second time is the clearer of the two. The narrator admits it openly: “I was afraid he thought he had hurt me with that crack about being impotent” (Hemingway, 120). This explains a lot about the narrator’s relationship with Brett, and why it is hard for him to consummate it. It also identifies one of the conflicts of the story. Here the narrator is, in love with Brett, but she cannot stand for him to touch her: “‘Don’t touch me,’ she said. ‘Please don’t touch me’” (Hemingway, 33). She says she loves him, and he seems to genuinely love her, but the narrator is foolishly naïve. His jealousy is well deserved when he finds out that Brett went to Sans Sebastian with Robert Cohn. She leaves right after telling him that she cannot go anywhere with him, that she’d be a bore. The narrator’s impotence has limited him. At the same time, he knows that traveling to another country will not liberate his inner troubles. When Robert Cohn asks the narrator to go to South America with him, the narrator says: “‘Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another’” (Hemingway, 19). Hemingway opens the story with this concept of liberation and sexual repression.

Michael Bell also talks about art as a means of reaching the “Truth,” particularly literature. He talks about the study and formation of language within literature is the journey of modernist literature. In The Sun Also Rises there are some facts that seem to stand out: narrator’s closest friends (including the narrator himself) seem to be writers in some fashion. Bill, Robert, even Frances are all writers (Bill and Robert with book(s) published). Robert seems to get all his ideas from books. His great South American adventure is said to be informed by a book, the narrator even suggests, “‘That’s because you never read a book about it. Go on and read a book all full of love affairs with the beautiful shiny black princesses’” (Hemingway, 18), in an attempt to get Robert interested in some other place. The over-arching facts of the book seem to reflect the narrator’s acknowledgement of modernist ideals about literature and language. Hemingway even writes the story in a peculiarly minimalist way. There are long sections of un-attributed, or sparsely attributed, dialogue (example: pages 22-24). It makes the reader have to dig in and pay attention to the subtle differences in speech between the characters. Later in a scene between the narrator, Brett, and the Count, one has to navigate several lines back and forth that go un-attributed. But identifiers do exist, where the Count uses “Mr. Barnes” or “my dear” to identify who he is talking to, or about. It isn’t something terribly difficult to navigate; just something to pay attention to in that most of the first part of the book is dialogue. Hemingway also uses little narration as a general rule. There are times when he gets a bit heavy on the inner workings of his narrator, but for the most part the things the reader learns come from dialogue between characters. Michael Bell talks about two rival linguistic “turns” that developed during the modernist decades. Hemingway seems to utilize the second of these “turns.” The heavy dialogue offers the most accurate insight into the group dynamics of the characters. The narrator most easily biases the narration, while his recounting of dialogue can more easily be believed as “Truth.”

All in all there seem to be modernist reflections to be argued within The Sun Also Rises. I have only made a brief, scattered account pre and formal lecture to help solidify my understanding of Michael Bell’s article. Enjoy.

~ET