The Sun Also Rises
In the novel The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway describes
a couple who share a very strange and distant kind of love
for each other. This story takes place immediately after
World War I, a time of great hardship. This hardship results
in a digression of values both morally and socially. The
love that Brett and Jake share is symbolic of the general
decline in values in that they tolerate behaviors in one
another that would have been previously considered
unacceptable.
It is clear that Lady Brett Ashley is anything but a
lady. She is kind and sweet but extremely vulnerable to the
charm that various men in her life seem to smother her with.
Brett is not happy with her life or her surroundings and
seeks escape and refuge in the arms of these men. But her
actions seem always to end up hurting her, and she runs back
to Jake. Jake knows that he will never be able to have her
for his own, and he accepts this as fact. This is clear when
the Count asks them ³why don¹t you get married, you two?
(68)² To this question, they give a lame half hearted
awnser which implies that it will never happen. He is
tolerant of her behavior because he loves her
unconditionally and is willing to overlook everything she
does. Jake¹s willingness to endure and forgive Brett¹s
promiscuity and infidelity is an indication of the skewed
values of the age. It was an ³anything goes² era right after
the first war, and Jake¹s message to Brett seems to be the
same: anything goes as long as you eventually come back to
me.
Jake is forced to accept living in this seemingly
terrible way for more than one reason. He a weak person
socially, but he is also physically disabled because of an
injury that he suffered during the war. He...
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