The Sun Also Rises Literary Analysis Essay Sample

The National Institute of Mental Health describes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the person having frightening thoughts that are persistent, and memories of tragic events, they experiencing sleep problems, feeling detached or numb, or maybe easily started. Events that can lead to PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, combat, and other forms of violence. During WWl PTSD wasn’t classified as a mental disorder. So during this time period where the novel, The Sun Also Rises takes place, they had a term for it coined ”shell shocked”. The characters from this novel are part of the lost generation.

The characters from the novel are part of a group known as the lost generation. This label was created by the writer Gertrude Stein, the meaning behind the phrase is describing a generation of men who took part in World War I  and are deprived of emotional, moral, physical, and spiritual values. This generation came out of the war taking the next couple of years and taking advantage of every open opportunity to eat and drink to try and to compensate for all the losses that they endured. This generation lived an immoral existence, which lacked emotions.

Mike Campbell, is a short-tempered drunk Scottish war veteran. He became bankrupt through his business with false friends. Mike’s behavior is usually nothing but inappropriate, especially when drunk. “I think I’ll stay rather drunk. This is all awfully amusing, but it’s not too pleasant for me. It’s not too pleasant for me (205). Mike finally admits that he is indeed an alcoholic and it is because of psychological reasons. however, unlike jake and bill, Mike never moved on past the war. “What times we had. How I wish those dear days were back (139)”. His debatable sarcasm wish was quite peculiar. He could possibly be wishing for the war to never end because it gave him a sense of belonging. Which is missing during the time period of the novel. Mike is going to obtain his inheritance one day from his family. Mike has no goals in life or any apparent reason to get employed. He lives off his family’s wealth and fortune, along with the big generosity of his friends. Until Mike is given his inheritance, he is carelessly floating through life. With the end of the war comes the sudden disappearance of his purpose.

Lady Brett Ashley is an independent woman. She exerts massive power over the men around her. Her beauty and charisma captivate everyone she comes into contact with. Mike even contests her to a famous seductress in greek mythology Circe. Circe would lure men to her island and turn the men into pigs. Mike describes it as “she turns men into swine” (148). This comparison mike makes between Brett and Circe hints at they both don't commit to a singular man. As a result, every male character in the novel is in love with Brett. All are to different degrees in love with her. Yet she is waiting to get a divorce from the court, engaged to mike, in love with jake, slept with Cohn, and is fascinated with Romeo. Brett is not your typical woman, she has admitted fondness for parties, and is wildly promiscuous. Just like mike and jake, Brett is also a veteran. She did not see combat, unlike the others because she served in a military hospital. An experience that is still undoubtedly just as disturbing as all the male characters have gone through. Brett is still very unsatisfied with her life. She quite often complains to jake about how aimless her life seems. “I told the driver to go to the Parc Montsouris, and got in, and slammed the door. Brett was leaning back in the corner, her eyes closed. I got in and sat beside her. The cab started with a jerk”(32).

War carved jake and his friends into the people they are now. In a similar way, it played an essential role in forming Brett. During the war, her love died from dysentery. Brett's actions following the death can be described as subconsciously wanting to search for his first love again. This personal search of hers perfectly represents the entire “Lost Generation”, looking for pre-war values of love and romance.

Jake Barnes, the protagonist and the narrator of The Sun Also Rises novel, is an American expatriate who works for a newspaper office in Paris. Jake served in WWI and was injured while fighting in a battle in Italy. Although he does not directly say so, there are many moments in the novel where jake hints that he is unqualified as a result of this injury. Jake and Brett establish a relationship while in the hospital. They come to the realization that they both love each other. Despite this, they cannot be together because Brett loves sex more than she loves Jake, and in Jake’s physical condition he would never be able to satisfy Brett. This leads to Jake watching Brett going around and having affairs and relationships with other men. This causes Jake to become more like his friends, where he is slowly becoming a heavy drinker and living irresponsibly. Physical conditions like Jakes can cause psychological consequences. In Jakes case, he finds himself insecure about his masculinity and takes it out by being hostile towards Robert. Additionally, Jake’s character is a classic example of the “Lost Generation”. It might seem that he is just like Brett and Mike. wandering through Paris going from bar to bar to dull their pain with alcohol, he is also very different from the others. He possesses a legitimate passion and  enthusiasm, which allow him to distance himself from the skeptical world he lives in. Jake distances himself by showing his love of fishing bullfighting and the natural world. These differences allow him to see right through the superficial attitudes and frail relationships all around him. Jake tells Cohn in chapter II “you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another(19)”. The message to take away from this is no matter where you travel in the world, one’s problems will always remain the same. This brief conversation between these two brings to light that Jake is both an outsider and an insider. Jake views the world from a different perspective he views the world from the center, but with detachment with it.