The Sun Also Rises

I've spent a lot of time with this blog, possibly too much, discussing whether or not I like a particular story we've read. It's a tad egotistical to think that anyone would care whether or not I like a piece, but I'm willing to live with that. So willing, in fact, that I'm going to do it again this week. Thanksgiving is all about tradition, is it not? Why rock the boat now?

Also, I should warn anyone reading now that I recently discovered the HTML tag for italicizing text. Be prepared for a lot of emphasis in this blog. Probably too much. Way too much.

So, The Sun Also Rises. In a word, awesome. In a few more, one of the most intriguing novels we've read all semester. What makes this fact worth mentioning is that it seems to embody exactly what I said I didn't like about The Beautiful and Damned and Babbit. It's long, retreads the same ground over and over, and plods along slower than my eighty-year-old grandmother after three plates of turkey and stuffing. Being a stubborn as I am, it's pretty hard for me to admit this, but I found myself really enjoying The Sun Also Rises despite its obvious "first half of 20th century" characteristics.

Another staple of these long-winded reviews is that I always latch onto one aspect of the book and talk about it to death. Again, this blog will be no different. What makes The Sun Also Rises so powerful are its fascinating assortment of characters, from Jake to Lady Brett to Cohn. They are so unlike any characters I have ever read, and for this reason (above all others), this story has stuck with me for a little over a week now.

First we have Jake Barnes, who quite honestly hooked me before I even opened the novel. His injury alone is intriguing and quite original (as far as I'm aware, at least), managing to speak on both the physical and emotional levels all at once. It's a perfect symbol also, especially considering Jake's relationship to Lady Brett. Honestly, it's brilliant. A man who becomes impotent after an injury in the war also has an impossible crush on a woman who is addicted to sex? It's perfect! His final line, though perhaps slightly undeserved, is also amazingly effective. It's one of those "YES!" moments that you get when watching a movie where the good guy finally stands up for himself that leaves he standing pumping your fist in the air. I think a little bit too much happened during the story itself for me to became "endeared" to Jake, but his concept and growth will probably stick with me for some time.

Lady Brett is another story entirely. I hated her in the beginning. Flashes of Gloria Patch and Hazel Morse characterized Lady Brett for me at the outset. She seemed so, well, boring. Again, I'm pretty stubborn, so it wasn't until the first rodeo that I began to realize she was actually so much more. Jake tells her not to watch (assuming, like I might have, that she's just a typical woman who won't enjoy the violence). Lady Brett, on the other hand, not only watches but is fascinated by the events taking place around her. It was a great characterizing moment, and I must take my hat off for the skill of Hemingway here. He completely changed my mind about her. Someone in class characterized Lady Brett as "one of the guys," which I think is very true. Gloria may have been in groups with all the guys (or more specifically, the guys all form groups around her), but she was never really "one of them" the same way that Lady Brett is.

On the other side of the coin, we have Cohn, who is one of the boys but is never really part of the boys. Admittedly, Cohn flirted with annoyance from time to time, but there was always some semblance of pity there to keep me interested. I think it was Jake's introduction of Cohn in the first pages that hooked me, but it was Cohn's Muhammad Ali impression that really sold me. He'll never match up with Jake Barnes or Lady Brett Ashley, but he definitely added to my enjoyment of The Sun Also Rises.

Well, the tryptophan is kicking in and I'm Hemingwayed out. Discussing these characters was a lot more difficult than I'd thought it would be and frankly I'm a bit disappointed with the results, but it works. All that needs to be said is that it was Hemingway's characters that kept me interested in The Sun Also Rises from the first page to the last line.