The Sun Also Rises is one of Hemingway’s most important contributions of describing life after World War I of the Lost Generation. This was a required book that is read by Juniors at our high school. It discusses themes revolving around the aimlessness of the lost generation, male insecurity, and the destructiveness of sexual tension.

The story follows a couple of main characters, including Jake Barnes, the novel’s protagonist, and Lady Brett Ashley, the woman he loves but can’t be with. Jake, an American journalist living in Paris (also called an expatriate), is left impotent due to a war injury, which adds a layer of emotional frustration to his relationship with Brett. Brett, on the other hand, is beautiful, charismatic, and desired by nearly every man in their social circle—but she’s also emotionally unavailable and constantly searching for something more. She is seen constantly with different men at every single page turn of the book. It is almost as if she is looking for something that she can’t find herself.

The book captures the essence of the “Lost Generation”— which was a term Hemingway popularized to describe the disillusioned and aimless young people who came of age during and after World War I. Jake and his friends: Robert Cohn, Bill Gorton, and Mike Campbell, wander through Paris and Spain, drinking, fighting, and engaging in meaningless affairs, all in an attempt to fill the void left by the war.

One of the most significant parts of the novel takes place in Pamplona, Spain, where the group travels to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. One of the characters that you meet here is Pedro Romero, a young, talented bullfighter, who serves as a really big contrast to the insecure and broken men around him—especially Jake and Cohn. Romero is the best bullfighter and youngest in Spain and he seems to have his life all figured out, which Jake admires very much. At the end of the book, we see that Brett eventually goes on to date Romero, only to get dumped and run back to her “husband.”

One of the main themes of The Sun Also Rises is escapism, but it doesn’t provide any real solutions. The characters drink excessively, engage in toxic relationships, and avoid their problems, but in the end, nothing really changes. The novel leaves us with the famous last line between Jake and Brett: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” which continues to show the aimlessness and the unhappiness of the Lost Generation.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is available to checkout from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.