Even though a novel may receive critical acclaim, there can still be perspectives that question about some of the information written. These criticism delve into what Hemingway wrote and investigate the issues and controversies within the novel. With any classic novel, many people are going to have opinions about it. They try to strip a novel of its praise and For a man such as Hemingway, he took all of his criticism seriously. Nonetheless, some individuals criticised that the novel acted as more than a memory of war, lacked femininity, a There was an argument presented where The Sun Also Rises acts as a memory of war.
In some aspects, the story may seem difficult to comprehend because it is a book of Hemingway’s memory from the war. In his piece of literary criticism regarding Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, William Adair claims that “suppressed memories of the prestory past seem implied on almost every page of the novel” (Adair 4). The novel may not connect well with some readers because it discusses the aftermath of the war, but it do not relate to readers who have no recollection of World War I. This novel depicts the psychological impact of the war and how it is forever engraved in some individuals’ memory.
In the case f The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway involved his voice too much because the memory of war is greatly evident. Hemingway writes more to imitate how he felt post-war starting with being aimless then coming to an understanding about what he has endured, “the world was not wheeling any more. It was just very clear and bright, and inclined to blur all the edges” (Hemingway 228). Through many of the main character’s development, Adair suggests that the novel can be categorized more as a war novel rather than a romance novel.
Adair relates many of the scenes to how they involve the war, thus emulating how some soldiers ndergo post-traumatic stress disorder and connect their reality to what they went through in the war. This transpires to how Hemingway utilized this novel as a way to deal with Additionally, in his critical analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Donald Daiker primarily connects the idea that one pedagogy is interchangeable, specifically, in that Jake Barnes may be the teacher to Lady Brett Ashley when it comes to bullfighting.
Pedagogy is defined as the method and practice of teaching. Thus, this idea of pedagogy can be applied to the relationship between Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. However, he can lso learn from his own teachings which . Daiker presents the argument that one can never stop learning, even when they think they think they know it all. Hemingway asserts through the character of Barnes that learning is “one of the major sources of enjoyment in life,” since it may fulfill pleasures that may have not been reached before.
Daiker provides evidence from all around the novel in order to support this idea that although Barnes is a well-educated man, he has not experienced nor knows enough to be an expert on life. Throughout the novel, Barnes undergoes situations where he has to put his ego aside nd let certain plights occur so that he learn from the past. The past is the best tool in order to better the future, thus, Daiker presents her final analysis that “Jake the teacher has evolved into Jake the learner” (Daiker 10). Daiker’s criticism is thought provoking and allows the reader to relate the argument presented to their own life.
The novel mentions Barnes’ impotency once and then tries to not clarify it again. However, in her criticism of The Sun Also Rises, Dana Fore found that the Hemingway’s awareness that cultural narratives make disability a problem that impairs anyone from being normal. Fore feels he need to address the complexity of the relationship between Jake’s identity and the stereotypes of disability. Fore reassesses Jake Barnes, the main character, from a unique point of view that pulls together his war injury and disability studies. Hemingway glossed over the possible character development of Barnes.
It was no secret that Hemingway embodied the definition of masculinity, therefor, for him to create a character that lacked sexual satisfaction was odd. Barnes’s psychosexual development is shown in the scene where Lady Brett is disgusted by his injury and can not commit herself to him because of it, “”Please don’t touch me. “What’s the matter? ” “I can’t stand it” (Hemingway 33). Fore recognizes the complexity of the character of Barnes starting with how his war injury simulates Hemingway’s “attitudes towards wounds and masculinity” (Fore 2).
She criticizes how the relationship between Jake’s identity and his disability transpires to his idea of “masculine degeneration” (Fore 3). Fore analyzes how Hemingway subtly hints at how Barnes is a stereotypical character that accepts the idea of homosexuality due to his injury. She makes it evident that she heavily combed through The Sun Also Rises by describing instances where Barnes hallenges the norms of masculinity and was forced to find a new normal in his relationships.
Fore ends her argument by simply stating that the novel provides a “dark view of human existence” when analyzing from the disability perspective (Fore 11). Her criticism presents a fresh perspective on The Sun Also Rises and further expands the objective of the novel by investigating a minor detail that can change the whole point of the novel. Another point brought up was how The Sun Also Rises traumatized the generation following World War I and categorized it as some sort of utopia. In his literary criticism of
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Michael Von Cannon claims that this literature was intended for “emphasizing moments of traumatic re-emergence and to counter any idea of repression and recovery” (Von Cannon 1) He compares Ernest Hemingway to other authors that published works during the time period of post-World War I, connecting them to the how all of their work mimicked these pastoral themes because it was the easiest topic to depict. Von Cannon points out how they are coined under the term “Lost Generation” because they tend to “express nostalgia, repression, and historical progress” of World
War I (Von Cannon 6). He presents his argument by comparing The Sun Also Rises to another postwar novel The Great Gatsby, to validate his point that the authors glorified the consequences of the war by excessively drinking and not accepting responsibility. In the novel, the word “drink” is used one hundred and fifteen times, most of the time in the context of “want to have a drink? ” (Hemingway n. pag). This showcases how Hemingway made as if drinking two-three times a day was acceptable. Hemingway portrayed a utopia where substance abuse was romanticised and the solution to any problem.
Von Cannon argues that this angst the characters felt “forecasts this feeling of being stuck in wartime” (Von Cannon 11). Most of the criticism found does not exactly categorize as controversy. A novel such as The Sun Also Rises is one that is hard strip of its praise. It is one of the greats works of literature and will have an infinite lifespan ask new generations will question the magnitude of classic novels. In the instance of The Sun Also Rises, it was intended to be talked about amongst scholars and critics for generations. Hemingway’s work will be relevant despite what any critic may perceive as problematic.
