Excellent job on your posts so far, pomos!!
In Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast, he writes that the "iceberg theory" is a "theory that you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood." Find a quote/short passage from the second half of The Sun Also Rises and share it, and then explain how the passage makes you, the reader, feel as if something important is stirring underneath the surface that is not expressed by Hemingway. Are you able to put this murky feeling into words? What is really going on in this passage you picked that Hemingway won't say?
Although mentioned briefly in class, I feel like expanding on the subtext of steers and castration throughout the second half of the novel. It would be easy to associate Jake's impotence with the idea, but it expands much further than him. Bill taunts Robert, comparing him to a steer (Hemingway 145-146) as a jab at his dependence and clinging to Brett after their affair ended. More importantly, it is a drunken, secretly anguished Mike that repeatedly shouts "Tell him bulls have no balls" (179-180.) Mike cries out these words for Jake to translate to Romero. Mike knows Brett's fixation with the bullfighter despite their own plans together and proceeds to taunt her about it. He is another man who has been emasculated by Brett. All of the men have felt something for her and she has lured them in at some point or another only to leave them in some way or another.
ReplyDeleteTo return to the earlier sequence, a particular line in the steers conversation is very telling:
"'They only want to kill you when they're alone. Of course, if you went in there you'd probably detach one of them from the herd, and he'd be pretty dangerous.'
'That's too complicated,' Bill said. Don't you ever detach me from the herd, Mike.'" (145)
It is interesting to note that when Brett begins to feel for the bullfighter and separates herself from the group of men that all have feelings for her, that it creates the chain reaction of Robert's assault and the eventual breaking up of the group.
I would have to say that my biggest feeling of being on the mere tip of a giant iceberg comes at the end of book two. It is when Mike and Jake are talking: “‘Are you blind? I was blind myself.’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m blind.’” (Hemingway 228). At this point in the story the climax has happened and things are settling down into the resolution, but I think this final conversation sums up the entire story. I’m not sure this passage is so much about what Hemingway doesn’t say, but about what he says using his minimalism.
ReplyDeleteDespite the obvious connotations that lead the reader back to the entire events of the story—as in seeing this passage as a somber reflection by Mike and Jake back on what was once theirs, and what they had lost. I also think that this passage indicates the “turn” of the story, that moment for the character(s) where they realize something together with the reader. If you didn’t get The Sun Also Rises up until this point, Hemingway is now hitting you over the head with it.
Being “blind” in this context can also mean so much. They were blind to what Brett was doing with them—leading into Eric’s eloquent point about castration (see above). But I also think going along with Hemingway’s theory—and the greater hidden subtexts within the story—that this “blindness” can also be about what these two men missed. They were blind to reality. This comes both from being drunk all the time, and from being part of the lost generation. I think that being part of the lost generation has blinded them and in turn furthered their despair.
At this point in the story Mike and Jake realize this and continue on with their “normal” routine. They have nothing else they can do. They are blind and there is no one to teach them how to see, therefore they must carry on in the only way they know.
~ET
On page 185/186 there is a conversation involving Brett,
ReplyDelete"Don't I know it darling? Please don't make me feel any worse then I do."
"Want to go for a walk?"
"Yes.Come on."
"Let's have one more drink of that," Brett said, "My nerves are rotten."
Here in this conversation I feel the "iceburg theory" is relevant because just in a few short lines you can feel all the pain that is built up in Brett's character. You can sense that she depends on drinking and partying so much that she is unable to feel any real emotion anymore. At this point in the story she is really starting to break down emotionally and realizes she has nothing real to depend on anymore and she continues to drink to numb herself from it. Just as we were talking in class about the dependance on drinking makes you shake like Brett does when you are sober for too long, this is also applicable I believe to her not having a drink for long enough she starts to become aware of the fact that she is incapable of having any real emotion inside of her and she feels the need to get rid of that thought by having a drink. I could sense all of this threw just a couple lines of dialouge on these pages which I think is a sign of truly brilliant writing.
-Jodie
“'You hear? Muerto. Dead. He's dead. With a horn through him. All for morning fun...'” (Hemingway 202). In this moment there is much more happening than just a simplistic statement from one individual to another. Through this statement, there are implied meanings to what Hemingway is hiding, and only through deciphering the sub-textual importance can readers gain a better understanding of the situation.
ReplyDeleteThe iceberg theory is a very crucial “tool” and is used throughout “The Sun Also Rises.” There are several scenes within the novel that show the use of the theory, and allude to the subtext that we, the readers, are meant to decipher and understand for ourselves. The theory makes readers become part of the experience, of the understanding of what is happening literally and sub-textually. During this moment when the waiter speaks to Jake, there is much more to say that what is spoken simply.
After reading the scene where individuals ran with the bulls, and one was injured, I almost thought the injured man was Robert after what happened between him and Brett. The description of the man being impaled through his chest not only refers to Jake's impotence that hurts him emotionally and physically (when it comes to relationships, specifically his and Brett's relationship), but also how it hurts Jake's pride. This same image also refers to Robert being stabbed through the chest/heart by his and Brett's falling out. He is literally stabbed through the heart by the failure of love, Mike is also hurt in this same way as Brett leaves him as well with a wounded pride, but is not as severely emotionally injured as Robert. All of this pain and suffering is from the men's “morning fun” (Hemingway 202). All of them were not thinking clearly and willingly jumped into the sea of parties, smiling faces and potential promises of a good time.
Hemingway won't say all of this, because these men are supposed to remain strong characters, to have an armor against emotional wounds (although physical wounds, not Jake's of course, are seen as glorified scars of showing strength and manhood). It is hard to explain what Hemingway won't readily reveal, and because of that, the sub-textual evidence forces the reader to be able to comprehend what Hemingway is hiding. However, it is very difficult to word what is readily omitted and hidden in the subtext.
-Jess