1. Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

2. Hemingway Biography Born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois
First worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star
Went to Europe in May to be a volunteer ambulance driver in Italy during WWI
Injured and recovered in Milan hospital (inspiration for A Farewell to Arms, 1929)

3. Hemingway Biography
Hemingway came home to friends and family that did not understand the trauma he was going through because they had an idealized view of the war.
Later moved to Paris as a European correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star.
In Paris he became friends with writers Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound and artists Joan Miro and Pablo Picasso.

4. Expatriates
People temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence (but do not renounce US citizenship)
Odd twist: Many classic American novels were not written in America. (And The Sun Also Rises doesn't even take place in America!)

5. After World War I
Mass violence – 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded
Killing technologies – kill as many possible as fast as possible
Visual technologies – now possible to see the warfare and its results
And all of this coming from the civilized countries that were beacons to the rest of the world...

6. The Lost Generation “You are a lost generation.” -Gertrude Stein
Used as one of the epigraphs by Hemingway for The Sun Also Rises
Loss of values - love, faith, manhood
Loss of personal identity
Loss of collective ideals
Aimlessness
Who are we? Where do we go from here?

7. Writing/Art After WWI
How could words or images possibly represent or capture what everyone just went through with World War I?
Need to find a new form.
Transition from “Realism” to “Modernism”
Real people, real lives, real events
Now portrayed in a way that asks you to look differently at what is actually going on
Providing a “new” and “current” look

8. Hemingway in Spain
Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona in 1923, 1924 and 1925
Fascinated by bullfighting – juxtaposition of beauty and brutal warfare
Third trip: Hemingway, his wife, Lady Duff Twysden (recently divorced), her ex-husband Pat Guthrie, and Harold Loeb, and others
Made for an interesting week

9. Hemingway's Inspiration
Hemingway is attracted to Lady Duff
Loeb recently spent a romantic getaway with her
Hemingway is jealous
Bullfighter Cayetano Ordonez also likes Duff and presents her with bull's ear
Hemingway's fishing trip was spoiled due to polluted water.
This week made perfect material for a novel!

10. The Sun Also Rises Published on October 22, 1926 5090 copies
$2.00 per copy
Popularly received
Called “Hemingway's greatest work” by his biographer

11. Key Themes/Ideas Aimlessness Male Insecurity
Gender Identity (Androgyny)
Failure of Communication
False Friendships
Rebuilding a Community (or trying to)
Nomads, Wandering
Wounded Figures
Power Imbalances

12. The Novel
All page numbers come from this Scribner edition

13. Epigraph “You are all a lost generation.” - Stein Ecclesiastes:
World goes on, sun continues to rise no matter what happens on earth
Hope for next generation or not because each generation will die.

14. BULLFIGHTING!
The matador tries to entertain the crowd by showily wearing out a bull and, when it is tired enough, kills it.
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15. From the beginning...
Novel started out as a short story entitled “Cayetano Ordonez” after a Spanish bullfighter
Then it became Fiesta: A Novel
Referencing the bullfights in Pamplona
But the characters don't get there until towards the end of the novel
Why important?

16. Bullfighting as Lens Look at World War I novel
Horrific effects of the violent war on people
Bullfights = similar acts of violence (this time for entertainment)
Help explain complex relationships in the aftermath of World War I
Help explain the characters in The Sun Also Rises

17. Unloading of the Bulls (144)
First bull is unloaded and gores the first steer
After violence, second steer can calm it down
Other bulls become “one herd” (leaving out the wounded steer)
Come together after a shared experience, just like the post-war Americans in Europe

18. THESIS
For Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley, new inadequate methods of living had to be created in an attempt to reform a community, either based on false distant friendships or destructive sexual closeness.

19. Watching the Bullfight (169)
Jake and Brett have different reactions
Brett
Sees how close they get to the bull
Close is beautiful and dangerous
Emotional
Jake
Points out the tricks of closeness
Simulating danger in safety
Dangerous to be too close
Prefers fake emotional feeling

20. Failed Communication Do not talk about war or Jake's war wound
Suggested damages and impotence avoided in multiple conversations
(Georgette, Bill)
Common not to talk about serious topics
“that's the sort of this that can't be spoken of” (120)
Painful to get too close
(Like the wounded steer who stays apart)
Live in the safety of false emotion

21. False Emotion – Harris (134)
Jake has multiple “fake” relationships
Jake and Bill meet Harris while fishing
“You don't know what it's meant to me...”
Really that intimate?
“You know my name isn't Harris.”
They didn't.
Dodging Emotion
Bill: “Wasn't that Harris nice”
Jake: “I think he really did have a good time”

22. Lady Brett Ashley War injury: true love died of dysentery (46)
Marries Lord Ashley
Cycle: constantly moving from man to man
Comfort through distraction (like others' drinking) – intimacy with men
Ends in destruction

23. Brett's Absence (202)
Brett enjoys the closeness of the bullfighting (169)
Gone during a scene of horror that might affect her opinion (202)
Peasant gets stabbed with horn and dies
Brett does not see the true danger in getting too close
Brett is all about the fun but still “miserable” (32)
Weekends in San Sebastian with Cohn but not happier

24. Brett's Relationships Same destruction as bull and peasant
None of the relationships end positively
Cohn “ruined” (206)
Becomes jealous and violent
“He calls her Circe... he claims she turns men into pigs” (148)
Pedro Romero – Brett gains perspective
Bullfighting skills suffer
“You know I'd have lived with him if I hadn't seen it was bad for him” (247)

25. Rebuilding Community No words can describe aftermath of World War I
Conversations fail in Hemingway's novel
Attempts to rebuild community by Jake and Brett
Characters must come to terms with permanent loss and isolation
Both Jake and Brett have flawed attempts to form a community

26. Final Conversation (251)
Brett: “Oh, Jake... we could have had such a damned good time together.”
Jake: “Yes... isn't it pretty to think so?”
Jake's self-awareness of the impossibility of connection and compromised intimacy
Jake- tries to keep at a distance
Brett- looks for close relationships
Neither get successful relationships
Failed due to the complexities of the war

27. Ending? End of novel = abrupt End of World War I = abrupt
Environment in novel = confusing
Environment for survivors living together = confusing
Book as representation of War

28. Why Bullfighting? Bullfighting can be seen as a miniature act of war
This act can be controlled
This act has a definite ending
This is something that becomes very significant for the characters and the novel itself
Bullfighting scenes = lens to view characters dealing with proximity and complex relationships with others (even if it is impossible)