THE SUN ALSO RISES (Fiesta)

Transcription

1 THE SUN ALSO RISES (Fiesta)

2 Definition It can be defined as a novel of manners because it represents a whole generation (the LOST GENERATION) The problem is that it is also a moral novel in modernist style (=has no structure, it s not a well-made novel)

3 Plot Jake Barnes and his expatriate friends live in the hedonistic, sensual and self-indulgent world of post-world War I Paris. There, they occasionally work, but spend most of their time partying, drinking, and arguing. From Jake s perspective, we meet the cast of characters that populates his story: the most important among them are Robert Cohn, a weakwilled Princeton graduate and unsuccessful writer, and Lady Brett Ashley, an exciting, beautiful, and unpredictable British divorcee. Although Jake and Brett are actually in love, they aren t together, presumably because a mysterious war wound has rendered Jake impotent. Cohn falls in love with Brett (as everyone does) and, despite the fact that she s not terribly impressed with him, she secretly goes on a trip with him to the Spanish resort town of San Sebastian. Unfortunately for Cohn (and for everyone, for that matter), Brett is engaged to a wealthy, charming, and utterly inept drunkard named Mike.

4 Jake s whimsical friend Bill returns to Paris from a trip and a plan is born: everyone agrees to decamp to Spain for some fishing and the running of the bulls in Pamplona. On their brief fishing trip, Bill and Jake have a splendid time communing with nature and with each other, but the relaxation quickly comes to an end. They return to civilization and meet up with Brett, Mike, and Cohn in Pamplona for a weeklong orgy of bullfights, alcohol, and high drama. Jake has a true passion (aficion) for bullfighting, but everyone else is simply there to have a good time. Brett begins a rather scandalous affair with a passionate and talented young bull-fighter, Pedro Romero.

5 Jake feels terrible for many reasons among them is the fear that he has corrupted Romero in some way by introducing him to Brett. Cohn s infatuation with Brett leads to arguments with everyone and, finally, he beats the unfortunate Romero to a bloody pulp. As the fiesta winds down, everyone leaves Pamplona in various states of anxiety, depression and frustration. Jake heads to San Sebastian, where he intends to decompress alone for a while. Unfortunately, desperate telegrams from Brett arrive immediately. He goes to her in Madrid, where she is alone, having sent Romero away. For the first time, we see Brett truly vulnerable, afraid, and guilty. The future looks just as bleak Jake and Brett agree again that, even though they love each other, they can t be together.

6 Structure 3 books, 19 chapters: Book 1: chapters 1-7 = Paris* Book 2: chapters 8-18 = Pamplona Book 3 chapter 19 = solution *There should have been 11 chapters also in Book 1 but Fitzgerald read the draft and said that it was a good novel except from the first part, so Hemingway decided to cut the first 3 chapters.

7 In this way we are misled since the beginning because instead of introducing the narrator we start reading about Robert Cohn (not the main character) DISPLACEMENT (although all the characters represent the lost generation in the same way) Hemingway wants us to feel this detachment between the narrator and the story (no feelings, no identification)

8 Characters

9

10 JAKE He s not only the narrator but he summarises the THEMES of the book: 1. He s an hedonist (pleasure is an obsession) 2. He s an «afiçionado» 3. He s snobbish 4. He s taugh, cool (he has a real wound, he pretends to be stronger than the others as a reaction to life) «distancing»

11 For example in Chapter 4 he thinks about Brett: «Then all of a sudden I started to cry. Then, after a while, it was better and I lay in bed, listened to the heavy trams go by on the street and then I went to bed» This is typical Hemingway s style: aloofness and detachment are gained immediately (NB: he uses parataxis and not hypotaxis)

12 BRETT She can be seen as an icon to define the male-female roles She is a symmetric symbol for Jake s impotence She represents a goddess, the Mother, the fear of being castrated She has short hair so she denies the symbol of femininity, but she has a woman s body, so she represents androginy

13 THEMES Strained, forced HEDONISM: he s obsessed by drinking, it s his way of reacting to his impotence (physical but also psychological)

14 Afiçion: it s a value, a code, it s like honour, either you have it or you don t. They tell him: «No American can have afiçion»: as Jake is not a Spanish native, he could not be an afiçionado but he succeeds in this (because he s special)

15 Snobbery: he s American but wants to belong to a different world from his. «The good life of the cool guy» = is to know how to live as an insider, to know a different world as he belonged to it.

16 Absence of feelings: existential problems of the characters are solved by the idea that FEELING IS USELESS = those who survive are the ones who distance themselves from sorrow and pain

17 Love: the impossible love story between Jake and Brett symbolises the impossibility of love: passion becomes an ordinary thing, both as sexual possession (Brett) or as a priori rejection (Jake) The only one who really falls in love is Romero, who represents the primitive man: he s naturally able to be a bullfighter, he s naturally able to love (he comments on Brett s short hair and says: «You ve never been a woman»)

18 All these themes are MODERNIST demolition, degradation of the modern world (cfr The Waste Land)