The Sun Also Rises Study Guide

The Sun Also Rises Study Guide

Original title:
The Sun Also Rises
Published:
Published 1957 by Pan Books (first published 1926)
Setting:
Paris,1924(France)
Pamplona(Spain)
San Sebastián(Spain)
…more Madrid(Spain)
…less

"The Sun Also Rises” was published in 1926 and at that time its author, Ernest Hemingway, received dubious feedback on his creation. Today it is considered to be one of the best novels created by Hemingway and an outstanding representative of modernist literature.

The book is centered on a trip of a group of expatriates, one of them is Jake Barnes, who travel to Spain for the festival. The Paris right after the First World War, where they reside, gets into them with its selfish inclination to live for yourself and receive as much as possible sensual pleasure out of life. So the group parties hard, drinks a lot and doesn’t hold their emotions.

They don't care about people, they don’t care about things, they don’t care about God. The alcohol makes them forget about the absurdity of the world around them and love constitutes the cure. But is it a cure or a temporary measure?

Among them is a beautiful lady Brett Ashley, who is just as frivolous and unpredictable as she is pretty. She captures a lot of hearts and breaks almost all of them. She seems to have feelings for Jake, but is engaged to another wealthy drunkard, yet runs away on a holiday with Cohn.  

Typically for the author, there are just as many things left unspoken as there are lines in the text. We never truly find out the reason why Jake and Brett can’t be together, but this is the decision the couple arrives at together with the reader.

The novel is full of partying, drinking, love affairs and drama. It is written in a typical Hemingway style, yet there’s less of hopelessness in “The Sun Also Rises” compared to his later works. It still has traces of hope, optimism, youth and thirst for life. The French streets, cheerful Spanish sun and a loud group of ambitious people create an atmosphere that must be discovered.

New Essays

The Sun Also Rises Proposal

Proposal on The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” is about a group of friends that share similarities with their lifestyles. Lady Ashley, also known as Brett, likes to drink, dance, have sex, and take advantage of men. She has been through two marriages already one ending with...

Sun Also Rises vs. Hills Like White Elephants

Alcoholic Vail ?In many Hemingway novels and short stories, excessive drinking generally plays a major role in the relationships between the characters. This is very apparent in “Hills Like White Elephants” and The Sun Also Rises. The alcohol provides a gateway for the for the characters to forget...

The Sun Also Rises Analysis

The Sun Also Rises: The Theme of Romanticism vs. realism From 1914-1918, World War One took place. The war was a traumatizing, bloody occurrence for anyone who was involved. These expatriates were, generally, given the nickname, “The Lost Generation”. This label described the people’s loss of...

The Sun Also Rises: a Continuously Reversed Cosine Tragedy

Katy Lu WR150 J7 Professor Kent Love in Modern Novel Paper three Final draft Apr. 17, 2012 The Sun also rises: A Continuously Reversed Cosine Tragedy In Gunther Schomigalle’s “How people go to hell: Pessimism, Tragedy, and Affinity to Schopenhauer in The Sun Also Rises”, he mentions, “I believe...

See all essays