Mike Jake And Brett example essay topic

In the search for hope for the protagonists of 'The Sun Also Rises'; Is there any hope for the Lost Generation? Do the title of the novel and the seemingly hopeful epigraph indicate that the Lost Generation still have the possibility to regain any of the values they have lost during the WWI? The epigraph to 'The Sun Also Rises'; contains a quote from Gertrude Stein, saying: 'You are all a lost generation'; . This proclamation is juxtaposed with the passage from the beginning of the Book of Ecclesiastes: 'One generation pass eth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abide th for ever'; . The message of the former quote clearly conveys that the WWI generation, of which Jake Barns, Robert Cohn, Brett Ashley and Mike Campbell are the representatives, is forever deprived of moral, emotional, spiritual and physical values. On the other hand, the latter passage gives a lot of hope: 'The sun also arise th, and the sun goeth down, and has teth to his place where he arose.

' ; This statement, from which the title of the novel comes, as well as the content of the whole Book of Ecclesiastes, may be the reason for upholding this hope, the hope given by the rising Sun, the hope of forever abiding Earth. It is a common knowledge that war - 'the calamity for civilization'; , as the narrator Jake names it - disorganised or even destroys human's inner life, his priorities, his code of values; that war causes a lot of chaos in the way one perceives oneself as well as others; that war deprives man of dignity and (self-) respect. The lives of the (dis) affiliates of the Lost Generation, who have gone through the tragedy of the World War 1, epitomize this universal truth. They are constantly coping with finding themselves in the world after the war. It is highly probable that the ethics and morality for them is to be found in the book of Ecclesiastes.

The preacher provides the reader, or rather the members of the team of expatriates, with the code of conduct they should follow to find the meaning and the purpose of their lives. However futile and vain life may be, on which Ecclesiastes insists by repeating the statement: 'All is vanity and vexation of spirit'; , one predominantly should put his life into the hands of God and obey Him. Do the protagonists manage to find any significance in their post-war existence? Are their lives likely to regain the meaning? Will they manage to 'put together the pieces of their shattered personal faiths'; (Maloney 188) to obliterate their painful memories of 'that dirty war'; ? Book 1 presents the tragic and hopeless situation of the Lost Generation.

All the protagonists belong to the degenerated society of the expatriates in Paris. The narrator Jake seems to be suffering unmerited hardships caused by the war. His drama is emphasised by his inability to control his lot, either during or after the war. His powerlessness to avert his 'mala fortuna'; , about which he thinks during many sleepless nights, is implied in the prosaic remark that the war 'would have been best avoided'; .

But he did not avoid the injury that made him impotent and he does not avoid further torment resulted from the wound. This further agony is of emotional character. Jake is in love with a vain and promiscuous woman. Brett is also a victim of the war, which has dispossessed her of dignity and self-respect.

Being 'exposed to moral and emotional vacuum'; (Spilka 84), she easily gives vent to her frustrations through living a wanton and drunken life. She attracts all the men around her and feels free to abuse them in order to satisfy her transient sexual pleasure. She declines all her post-war lovers' love, claiming that being in love is 'hell on earth'; . And for this reason she emotionally destroys her men. Jake is one of her victims, and seems to be 'the sinner taken by the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands'; (Ecclesiastes 7: 26). He admits that he 'never would have any trouble if he hadn't run into Brett'; , because 'she only wanted what she couldn't have.

' ; By saying this, Jake refers to the fact that Brett rejects him only due to his impotence. ' Don't touch me... she said. ' ; (... ) 'Don't you love me?' ; 'Love you? I simply turn all to jelly when you touch me. ' ; 'Isn't there anything we can do about it?' ;' Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny.

I never think about it. ' ; 'Oh, no. I'll lay you don't'; - add a comment Brett suggests she and Jake 'stay away from each other'; . After Jake's question if they couldn't just live together, Brett admits that she would 't romper'; him with everybody and excuses herself by saying: 'It's the way I'm made'; . She seems to believe that she is enslaved by an immoral code which makes her 'so miserable'; and over the power of which she has no control whatsoever.

Neither does Jake have the power to release himself from her. What is worse, he cannot find any alternative to his dramatic life, excusing Brett by saying: 'Well, people were in that way. To hell with people. ' ; Then, he adds: 'The Catholic Church had an awfully good way of handling all that. Good advice, anyway.

Not to think about it [the wound] Oh, it was swell advice. Try and take it sometime. Try and take it. ' ; This clearly suggests that he is no longer able to understand the nature of his religion, to believe in the healing powers of faith, in which the Catholic Church believe. Catholics' 'swell advice'; is no longer applicable to his life. In such a state of misery, he is only capable of crying at night.

'It was awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing'; . Another expatriate - Mike Campbell, Brett's fianc'e, seems to follow Ecclesiastes' advice saying that 'There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor'; (2: 24). He has 'lived very much that now he can enjoy everything so well. ' ; He possesses his peculiar system of values, in which love has just got a place.

And 'a place'; is enough for Mike to say that he is 'always in love'; . At the same time he is almost always drunk, so those values cannot be impeccable. Love in his understanding is as ordinary and trivial as anything else in his life. Apart from Mike Jake and Brett, whom the war clearly affected, there is also Robert Cohn.

He is the only person among them who did not participate in the war and who still believes in romantic love and acts according to his believes. Thus, it is him from whom the hope for instilling the moral values in his companions can be expected. He seems a 'perfect gentleman'; obedient to his mistress, Frances C lyne. And, as befits the 'middleweight boxing champion of Princeton'; , he is undoubtedly strong and chivalrous and always ready to fight for his lady of the heart.

However, it turns out that when he finally wants to run away from the supremacy of his forceful lady, he wants to go far away to South America. This idea comes from in Jake's opinion 'a sinister book'; 'The Purple Land'; , which 'recounts splendid imaginary amorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land. ' ; In this context Robert's romantic views on love and life are totally ignored, or even ridiculed. Jake's reply to Brett's comment: 'Your getting damned romantic'; which is: 'No, bored'; emphasizes the fact that after the war romantic love does not exist. Boredom is everything that has remained and Cohn reveals this bitter truth. In book 1 the situation of the main characters is tragic.

'Everybody's sick'; , as Jake rightly comments. There is no hope whatsoever. Paris proves to be a real wasteland, there is no possibility for the characters to regain any lost values. The atmosphere is that of sickness, existential fear, hopelessness, 'rot' and 'hell'. Jake certainly needs a sounder means which could cure his wounds and enable him to renew his life. Jake and Bill's plan to go to the trout stream at Burguete and then to attend the fiesta at Pamplona apparently serves this purpose.

For a moment the hope seems revitalized. They leave the wasteland and traverse a long way through the mountains and forests, where 'white cattle are grazing', through 'a stream and ripe fields of grain' (SAR, 99) to reach an almost Arcadian fishing wonderland. At the destination the atmosphere is calm and easy and freed from decadent mood which was so conspicuous in Paris. The two friends can speak honestly and, as Backman claims, there is a certain measure of fellowship, loyalty, and even gaiety. They fish, drink and, as Ecclesiastes advises, 'make their souls enjoy good in they labor. ' ; (2, 24) However, Backman also indicates that 'at bottom of their hearts there lay such a cold despair that they drank in order not to think of it'; (247), that Jake and Bill's futile and shallow lives, deprived of 'faith in themselves or in their world'; , are drifting aimlessly.

Indeed, it is not difficult to support this fact with numerous examples. On the surface, Bill and Jake's banter seems humorous, but underneath there hides bitterness of what they actually experience. The overt implications of Jake's impotence are the examples of rather black humour: 'Get up,' ; Jake tells Bill, who responds: 'What? I never get up.

' ; Obviously, it is Jake, not Bill, who never gets up. Also, after the fishing is done and the time for dining is coming, Jake reads a story by A.E. Mason 'about a man who had been frozen in the Alps and then fallen into a glacier and disappeared, and [whose] bride was going to wait twenty four years exactly for his body to come out on the moraine, while her true love waited too'; . Similarly, Jake is 'frozen'; too, but no one anticipates his defrosting. The scene of Jake's reading the book serves also another purpose - the purpose of ridiculing romantic love. This beautiful love story is interrupted by the 'sweaty and happy'; face of Bill bringing a bag with trout, which means the are going to 'utilize'; . 'Let us rejoice our blessings,' ; says Gorton.

'Let us utilize the fouls of the air. Let us utilize the produce of the vine. Will you utilize a little, brother?' ; The 'utilization'; of the meal is in turn a kind of 'a mock religious ceremony'; (Spilka, 86), so both the romantic love and religion are denied their suitable seriousness. What is more, the shallowness of Bill and Jake's code of life out of Paris is clearly suggested by the events preceding as well as following their arrival at Bourget e.

Bill and Jake's encounter with the Catholics on the train who, not insignificantly, travel to Biarritz and Lourdes - the largest Catholic religion pilgrimage locations in France. In Lourdes, for example, 'in 1858 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a girl in the Grotto of Massabielle. The spring water from the grotto is believed to possess healing properties and the Roman Catholic Church has officially recognized 66 miraculous healings. ' ; Bill and Jake feel uncomfortable in the company of the Catholics.

Because the pilgrims reserved the first four services, Jake and Bill have to wait for their meal. ' They thought we are snappers, all right,' the man said. 'It certainly shows you the power of the Catholic Church. It's a pity you boys ain't Catholics. You could get a meal, then, all right. ' (93 SAR) 'Getting a meal'; may imply taking Communion, due to which, according to the Christian religion, man's life and soul receive all their moral values and magnitude.

But Jake claims that the Catholicism 'makes [him] sore. ' ; He denies that his 'religion'; possesses any therapeutic quality. And, just as those four services, reserved earlier by the Catholics, prevent him from having his own meal, the Catholic religion is similarly unreachable for him. He and the pilgrims are going in the opposite directions: the pilgrims - to the healing springs, whereas Jake goes to participate in the 'mock religious ceremony'; (Spilka 86). The second moment when Jake proves to be not capable of retaining any faith which could have given meaning to his existence is Jake's visit to the cathedral:' I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would the next time; and then I was out in the hot sun on the steps of the cathedral, and the forefingers and my thumb of my right hand were still damp, and then I felt them dry in the sun'; (SAR 102-103). This passage suggests that his faith is as fleeting as little drops of water drying up in the sun.

Also, when Bill, Jake and their friend Harris pay visit to the monastery at Roncesvalles, the religious atmosphere proves too oppressive for them. They state that: 'It isn't the same as fishing'; and decide to spend time in a neighbouring pub. But the most conspicuous evidence supporting the Backman's view is the theme of irony and pity, explicitly taken up exactly during this trip at Burguete, which takes place in the central part of the novel. Just before Bill and Jake go fishing, they hold the following conversation. 'Work for the good of all. ' Bill stepped out of his underclothes.

'Show irony and pity. ' I started out of the room (... ). 'Hey! come back!' (... ) 'Aren't you going to show a little irony and pity?' (...

) I heard Bill singing, 'Irony and Pity. When you " re feeling... Oh, Give them Irony and Give them Pity. (... ) The tune was: 'The Bells are Ringing for Me and my Gal. ' In this context all the joy and hope for finding themselves are ruined as soon as they appear.

The process of the Jake's revitalization and apparent happiness and enjoyment during the fishing trip turn out to be a mockery. Jake and Bill finally move to Pamplona to attend the fiesta; to, as Spilka says, gain depth and substance which their code lacks (86). And again, to the casual observer, nothing seems to be spoiling the prevailing festive and jubilant mood. Jake has found himself among 'aficionados'; , he 'gains 'real emotion' from the bullfights and feels truly elated afterwards'; (Spilka, 87).

But this festive mood is quickly disturbed by the sequence of events. Firstly, Mike, feeling bitter and indignant about Brett's evident unfaithfulness, easily finds his way to give vent to his soreness by insulting Cohn publicly. The count is very exact in his accusations aimed at Cohn, whom he compares to Brett's steer. Indeed, Robert has no dignity as a man, nor does he have his own identity.

Always being eager to suffer in the name of romantic love for Brett, he seems to live in the Ecclesiastical 'house of mourn'; . But his romantic love in the context of the novel is no more than just nave, childish (Backman, 247). And indeed, Cohn, in all his action proves to be an immature boy, who would rather 'play football again'; , who is 'a case of arrested development'; , as one of expatriates calls him earlier in Paris. He becomes pitiful while fighting for 'his lady'; with young bullfighter Pedro. Although Romero is seriously beaten by the boxer Robert is morally defeated. 'As Jake commented, it is only a bullfighter who lives life to the hilt, bringing to his work all his courage, intelligence, discipline, and art'; (Beckman, 248).

Pedro, as opposed to Cohn, has an aim in his life, 'a scheme of existence'; (Beckman, 248). 'He did not have to drink, he did not have to keep running away. (Beckman, 248). Pedro retains his self-respect and manhood, contrary to Cohn, who is as weak and miserable as a whining child.

Realising that he has lost his chances for winning the lady of his heart, Cohn leaves Pamplona. The destructive woman from Book 1, who 'turns men into swine'; as Mike describes her, is more and more desperate because of her more and more sinful life and her lesser and lesser ability to control it. Not only in Paris, but also during the fiesta every single scene seems to suggest her total powerlessness to regain her war-torn values; every single scene seems to hint that her life has no deeper, spiritual dimension and that it will never have one. ' Do you still love me, Jake?' ;' Yes,' ; I said. ' Because I'm a goner,' ; Brett said. ' How?' ;' I'm a goner.

I'm mad about the Romero boy. I'm in love with him, I think. ' ;' I wouldn't be if I were you. ' ;' I can't help it. I've never been able to help anything. ' ;' You ought to stop it.

' ;' Howe can I stop it? I can't stop things. Feel that?' ; ... 'I've got to do something. I've got to do something I really want to do. I've lost my self-respect.

' ; ... 'I can't just stay tight all the time. ' ; ... 'I don't say it's right.

It is right though for me. God knows, I've never felt such a bitch. ' ; Brett is perfectly conscious of her lack of dignity, of her being 'a goner'; , a person in a desperate straits; nevertheless, she does not even try to change that, but frantically seeks for the pleasures which would allow her not to think about her emptiness. The shattered course of true love (love in the Christian sense), is too weak to win against the perfidious internal urges so strongly embedded in her personality after the war. It appears that all this results in the lack of the moral code on which she could based her life. Such a moral code might be established by religion, which is very unlikely in her case.

There are at least three scenes supporting this unlikeness. In chapter XIV, for example, Jake tells the reader that he 'went to church a couple of times, once with Brett. ' ; Brett wanted to hear Jake go to confession, but he told her 'it would be in a language she did not know'; . Jake also means here that Brett, as an outsider to Catholicism, can never truly understand the very notion of confession. And indeed, she seems reluctant to repent her wrong-doings, not to mention asking for forgiveness for them.

To provide another example, the day the 'the fiesta exploded'; Brett was not allowed to enter the chapel of San Fermin. Then, she is immediately surrounded by some riau-riau dancers who 'rushed'; her together with Jake 'into a wine-shop'; . (It is worth mentioning that 'the Riau-Riau consists of making fun of, insulting, and delaying the Mayor and the Town Council authorities in arriving to the Church of San Lorenzo. ' ; (web ht a / pamplona web / riau riau. htm). The chapel is a no-go area for her, as is a religious life. She is not capable of letting any values govern / into her 'rotten'; existence, which is confined to the purely physical 'joys'; , like sex and alcohol. The riau-riau dancers rightly treat her as their pagan goddess, which underlines the fact that she actually lives in a world 'beyond moral good and evil'; (Moloney 187), that her system of values is not immoral but 'amoral'; , that she is not able to distinguish between those two qualities.

Her visit to the San Fermin chapel in the last chapter of Book 2 emphasizes this fact:' Don't know why I get so nervy in church,' ; Brett said. 'Never does me any good. ' ;' I'm damned bad for a religious atmosphere,' ; Brett said. 'I've the wrong type of face.

' ; The events at Pamplona unambiguously show that hope for Brett, Cohn and Mike can never, or rather could have never been found. As far as Jake is concerned, the fiesta time does not bode well for him either. He is still kept in the Brett's snares, still unable to release himself. After Jake's confession of love, which has been already quoted, and after her reply that she is in love with Romero, Jake straight forwardly helps her find Romero in a caf'e, where they flirt openly. Jake proves as miserable and desperate as Cohn in his futile attempts to win Brett'I liked to see him [Mike] hurt Cohn. I wished he would not do it, though, because afterward it made me disgusted at myself.

' ; The beginning of the Book 3 still gives the reader the reasons for having some hope for Jake. He goes to San Sebastian to recover from all the misfortunes he had to endure. But as soon as he receives the telegram from Brett, who asks him to come to Madrid and help her, he leaves all his plans immediately and again confirms that he is strongly dependent on her and cannot help it. Here, in Madrid, Jake finally realise's and comes to terms with the fact that he could never have been Brett's lover. As they meet in Madrid and hold the final conversation, Jake needs to help himself with a lot of heave drinks in 'all nice bars'; .

Brett 'feels good'; about sending Romero away and avoided being 'one of these bitches that ruins children. ' ; Jake realizes that Brett has lost her womanhood and ability to love forever and that 'she can no longer live with a man without destroying him. ' ; (Spilka 91). The closing lines are the final confirmation that no love, no values, no hope can be regained. 'Oh, Jake,' ; Brett said, 'we could have had such a damned good time together. ' ; ...

'Yes. ' ; I said. 'Isn't it pretty to think so?' ; Spilka interprets the word 'pretty'; here as 'foolish to consider what could never have happened'; , and not 'what can't happen now. ' ; Indeed, the end of the novel blights any chances for ever finding any significance and meaning in the lives of the Lost Generation. It turns out that searching for hope for them has been as pitiful as their meaningless existence. In the context of the plot of the novel, the opening epigraph as well as the title assume ironic and pitiful tone.

The protagonists are enslaved by the hell they create themselves. It seems that the Sun which will always rise is in a different reality, the reality they are barred from or are not able to enter; the reality in which the graceful God is the crucial figure, from whose 'hand comes everything'; , whom people fear, obey and whose commandments they keep; the reality where 'wisdom folly, as far as light darkness'; (Ecclesiastes 1, 13); the reality where 'to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose'; (Ecclesiastes 3, 1); the reality where people do not destroy themselves. Those lines from Ecclesiastes provide sardonic counterpoints to the protagonists and situations in which they find themselves. They prove that in their lives even God is dead. Brett considers her final decision 'not to be a bitch'; as the replacement of God, adding that 'He never worked very well with me'; ; they prove that they do not fear anything, they even do not fear death; their drama is emphasized by their total disinterest in death: 'Do you know that in about thirty five years more we " ll be dead?' ; Cohn asks Jake, who responds: 'What the hell, Robert,' ; (... ) What the hell'; .

They rather seem to be so depressed by the ongoing catastrophe, victimized by the era they live in, 'haunted by the end of something'; (Kashkeen 163), the end of hope. This is why there is only one season for them - they must drink all the time not to be completely conscious of the fact that 'they are dead in the midst of life'; (Kashkeen). In this drunkard world, since there is no place for being conscious, there is also no place for wisdom. What prevails here is darkness indicated by often repeated 'rot'; , 'hell'; , 'swell'; . ' The Sun Also Rises'; seems to convey the defeat of man, who has no control over the 'pitiless logic of life and history'; (Moloney 186). However pessimistic this conclusion may be, it is worth keeping in mind that the novel's focus is to show the world of the 1920's.

And the world Hemingway presents is indeed fatal, decayed, spiritless and dull. But the reader still can treat Ecclesiastes' words describing life as a constant rebirth, as the 're-entering the earthly paradise'; (Maloney 186) outside the novel, but still within the works of Hemingway, whose crucial message is after all that man can be beaten up, but not lost, that man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Bibliography

Backman, Melvin. 'Hemingway: The Matador and the Crucified. ' Hemingway and His Critics. Ed. Carlos Baker. New York, American Century Series: Hill and Wang, 1961.
Benson, Jackson J. Hemingway: The Writer's Art of Self-Defense. Minnesota: the University of Minnesota, 1969 Kashkeen, Ivan.