Literature Analysis #2 The Sun Also Rises

1) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a love story that takes place in South America and Spain (Madrid and Pamplona). The main character Jake shares a distinctive love for Miss Lady Brett although she does not share the same affection that he has towards her, because Jake was injured in WWI he cannot have sex (something Lady Brett is not willing to give up). Jake is madly in love with Lady Brett, and when his friend Robert asks him to leave South America and go to Spain he declines until he finds out lady Brett is going to Spain. Once in Spain Jake, Robert, Lady Brett and others decide to go to a fiesta in which major bullfighters display their talents. When watching the bullfighters Lady Brett (who constantly jumps from guy to guy) takes a special interest in the 19 year old prodigy Romero. She falls in love with him, and tells Jake to introduce her to him, once they meet they spend the night together which makes Jake very jealous. Jake then leaves and seeks to have time to himself outside of the busy city of Spain. Once he does make it out of Spain Lady Brett sends him a telegram asking him to meet her in Madrid, Jake agrees and leaves right away to meet her. Once there Lady Brett explains to Jake why her and Romero did not work out. She tries to sweet talk him and say that they should have spent more time together in Spain, showing how she wants Jake now that no other man is around, however Jake finally realizes what he really wants which is not Lady Brett.

2) The main theme is Love and how blind it may be. Lady Brett says she falls in love and throughout the novel she falls in love with three different guys. She thinks she is falling in love with all these men but is blindly crushing on them like a school girls does. She does not see what her actions can do to the other men and friends around her. All these love interests Lady Brett has hurts hers and Jakes friendship. Jake feels he is in love with Lady Brett but as he continues to see her true character realizes that he is not in love, showing the blindness of love throughout many characters in The Sun Also Rises.

3) Ernest Hemingway's tone in The Sun Also Rises is both compassionate and stern at times. When Robert fights Romero in his drunken rage Ernest Hemingway displays his tone as angry. Showing how Robert is so easy to snap and resort to violence shows how Hemingway's tone is very stern. He also shows a compassionate tone, the novel's main premise is love so Hemingway constantly shows a compassionate tone when he talks about the love situations with Lady Brett and Jake.

4) Through Hemingway's use of dialogue helped me understand his tone better. He used dialogue a lot when two characters talked mainly in situations where love was trying to be displayed. He also uses Jake's flashbacks from his WWI experiences to help explain his character better, why he is so compassionate and loving towards Lady Brett. Hemingway also uses irony, it is ironic how once Jake finally gets over Lady Brett is when she finally sees that she might be interested in him. In the last chapter Lady Brett says that they should have spent more time together in Spain and Jake just says "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so" not showing much emotion toward her comment. He also uses hyperbole almost over emphasizing how easily Lady Brett falls in love with all these men. Also Hemingway's descriptions of settings help show his tone. When Jake and Robert go fishing the way he describes how the river was so peaceful and how lushly green the grass was showed how peaceful his tone was at that point in the novel. When he describes the bull fights he describes them as very gracious and delicate, (showing the love inspired tone) this was where Lady Brett first "fell in love" with Romero.