The Sun Also Rises Review

[Calvin]

The book The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a fictitious story about the effects of war on the people who have to experience its horrors. It is all about Jake Barnes and his crazy friends live in the crazy world of post-World War I in Paris. They sometimes work, but spend a large majority of their days drinking. Jake is our narrator and we learn about things from his perspective, we quickly meet his friends, the first among them is Robert Cohn, who is weak-willed, depressing Princeton grad and very unsuccessful writer, we also learn about Lady Brett Ashley, who is a beautiful and unpredictable British lady who was also divorced. Brett and Jake are in love but they never get together and while have moments never really act like they are in love in front of others. Cohn falls in love with Brett along with nearly every other major character in the story. Brett is engaged to a wealthy drunk known as Mike. Later Bill shows up and the whole group decides to go down to Spain, to fish watch bullfighting and do Spain stuff (drink). Brett falls for a young bullfighter named Romero and makes Jake feel bad for introducing Romero to her. Cohn eventually beats up Romero and Jake after deciding he couldn’t handle how they were treating him the entire time. Everyone ends up being in various states of sadness and confusion. Jake heads home only to get a call from Brett saying she decided that she wasn’t going to work out with Romero and that she wants Jake to come down to Madrid from San Sebastian. Instead of being in control this is the first time Brett is asking for help and seems to have a weakness.

In my opinion overall this book is very interesting and entertaining but takes a deep level of commitment to actually dive deep into the meaning behind everything. It allows you to forget the world we live in by exposing you to the characters problems and making the storyline feel like something that anyone could deal with in their life. In the book you often feel as if you are talking to someone who actually experienced these things such as talking about the bullfighting or going fishing in the Spanish mountains. This story does flow very well together and every little piece explains the next and without certain parts the story would make no sense and have no meaning. This book is very emotionally based and lots of things happy because of how the characters happen to be feeling which leads to some weird situations. It affects you emotionally by allowing you to see the flaws in every character, which leads you feeling connected to them and makes you care about what happens to them in the story. This book does push the idea that after wars everything goes to the gutter and almost everyone has some physiological problems that are messing with them.
I did enjoy this book but it takes a lot of work to coax anything more than the basic story out. If you have a lot of time to think and want a story to contemplate on The Sun Also Rises would be great for you, but if you don’t then you will not enjoy this book and see it as a simple story.

[Susan]

"[Y]ou feel as if you are talking to someone who actually experienced these things...." Do you know anything about Hemingway? About The Lost Generation?
I can tell that you understood a major theme because you wrote about the characters' flaws and the effects of war.
This novel can be read as a plot, but to appreciate it fully, you should analyze the deeper meanings and symbols. For example, at the end Brett and Jake are - on the surface - riding in a cab; a closer reading shows that they are riding in circles. And almost everything Jake describes is a phallic symbol.
Google an analysis of The Sun Also Rises. Even Sparks Notes would be helpful.
Reading this novel's different layers is much like reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when you're in 8th grade and again when you're an adult.

[Alex]

Calvin wrote: "The book The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a fictitious story about the effects of war on the people who have to experience its horrors. It is all about Jake Barnes and his crazy friends li..."

It is not entirely fictitious - it is somewhat based on actual trip, which Hemingway with his wife and friends made.

[Susan]

Alex - The fancy literary term for this type of novel is "roman a clef."
(supposed to have an accent mark on the "a") It's French for "novel with a key." The events are based on Hemingway's experiences, and many of the characters are based on people he knew. Apparently, the Brett woman was rather flattered, and she admitted that she was indiscriminate in her sex life. Bill, the fishing friend, was easily recognized by Hemingway's friends. The Robert Cohn character was furious.