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The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, published in 1926, is a seminal novel of the Lost Generation—a term used to describe the disillusioned youth who came of age during and after World War I. Set primarily in Paris and Spain during the 1920s, the novel follows a group of American and British expatriates as they grapple with themes of aimlessness, love, masculinity, and the search for meaning in a fractured postwar world.

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Summary

The story is narrated by Jake Barnes, an American journalist living in Paris who suffers from a war injury that has left him impotent. Despite this physical and emotional wound, Jake maintains a stoic and reflective demeanor. He is deeply in love with Lady Brett Ashley, a beautiful and free-spirited Englishwoman, but their relationship is complicated by his inability to consummate love and her desire for physical intimacy. This unfulfilled romantic tension forms the emotional core of the novel.

Jake and Brett are part of a larger circle of expatriates, including Robert Cohn, an insecure and self-important writer; Bill Gorton, a witty and good-natured friend of Jake’s; and Mike Campbell, Brett’s alcoholic and bankrupt fiancé. These characters engage in a lifestyle marked by heavy drinking, banter, and constant movement-symbolic of their internal restlessness and search for purpose.

The first part of the novel takes place in Paris, capturing the café culture, artistic circles, and emotional detachment that defined the expatriate experience. The second half shifts to Spain, where the group travels to Pamplona to attend the running of the bulls and the annual fiesta surrounding the bullfights. Hemingway’s vivid descriptions of the Spanish countryside, traditional culture, and the spectacle of the bullfights contrast sharply with the characters’ moral and emotional vacuity.

During the fiesta, tensions among the group boil over. Brett becomes infatuated with a young, talented bullfighter named Pedro Romero, which leads to jealousy and violence, particularly from Cohn, who cannot accept her rejection. The bullfighting scenes, central to Hemingway’s symbolic structure, present a vision of honor, bravery, and aesthetic discipline—qualities largely missing from the lives of the expatriates.

Brett’s affair with Romero ultimately fails, and by the end of the novel, she turns once again to Jake. In the final scene, Jake and Brett ride through Madrid in a taxi, acknowledging the impossibility of their love. Brett wistfully says, “We could have had such a damned good time together,’ to which Jake replies, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” This closing exchange underscores the theme of unfulfilled desire and the melancholy realization that idealized dreams often remain just out of reach.

The Sun Also Rises is a powerful meditation on postwar disillusionment, the erosion of traditional values, and the resilience of the human spirit. Hemingway’s lean prose, understated dialogue, and focus on the existential struggles of his characters make this novel a cornerstone of modernist literature and a defining portrait of the Lost Generation.

Quotes from The Sun Also Rises

“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways, gradually and then suddenly.”

Ernest Hemingway (verified)

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