Earnest Hemingway - The sun also rises
...there are some parts where the characters discuss previous events so by these the reader looks back to the past. We do not know the exact length of the story, but it is not important. The characters do not care about the passing of time. They just live their lives and seek out interesting events that can add some colour to their bored and painful lives. The things that make life liveable after the war are friendship, stoicism, and natural grace. The locations of the story are different. At the beginning Paris is the stage, later Spain, Pamplona, and at the end Madrid. In Paris most things happen at night, and they do nothing else but go to café houses and drink. The cities they visit sound very interesting for the reader but not for the characters. Paris symbolizes the centre of culture, excitement and modern life. A girl appears in this part, a prostitute. She is beautiful. Jake, the main character, while talking to her, realizes that the girl's teeth are in really bad condition. This lady is like Paris. The outfit is nice, but behind the surface there are ugly and neglected things. But it can refer to the life they lead. The fiesta in Spain also consists of tragedy. The bull is inferior to the toreador so it has to die at the end. The relationship between the narrator and Lady Lady Brett Ashley is like a bullfight. Jake knows that he cannot be the only man for Brett. They act, as they would really love each other. The toreador, Romero, represents the classic hero in this book. He is a great toreador, talented, wise and dignified. He is a man of passion. He has all the good qualities that a young man can have, promising as a toreador, handsome, and clever, as he knows some English. But his glory fades as Cohn beats him. Later Lady Brett realizes that he is too young and she would change his personality. If they stayed together he would lose everything. She asks him to leave so this is the only thing that shows her little care towards him. He is too young and too proud to live with a woman with as much bitterness as Lady Brett has. No one knows what happens to him later. Whether he remains as proud as he is or turns as desperate as the others. Lady Brett’s figure is not a traditional woman. Her appearance is different from the average, for example she has short hair. But her behaviour is also different from others. She does not care about others’ opinions, but she knows she should behave in a different way. The main reason of her hopelessness is that he lost her real love in the war. There is no chance to solve this problem. From her whole personality it is clear that she cannot find he happiness. She cannot accept herself. Brett feels lonely and looks for love all the time, although all the men adore her. In addition to her general bitterness she feels guilty for enticing Romero. She cannot stay alone; that is the reason for her tangled affairs with different men. She always wants to have a bath. This thing can refers to the well-known symbol of water that it can wash off sins. But it can have some connection to Hemingway’s life. When he married his first wife they moved to a house where was not running water. Jake is the only man who is not defeated by Brett and between them there is a platonic love. But if he were healthy maybe she would treat him as any other man. They can never be happy together; this keeps them together. She is a typical ‘femme fatale’. The main character, the narrator of the story is Jake Barnes. His Biblical name is Jacob. He cannot sleep at night, because he wrestles with fate. He works for a newspaper. Now he is impotent because of a wound after World War I and he cannot consummate his love with Brett. He suffers a lot because of her behaviour but he cannot get rid of the feeling of love. Jake is the only man who has little responsibility. He has the deepest feelings. In Spain while he was talking to Montoya they discuss the difference between Aficion and Aficionados. Montoya regards Jake as an Aficionado, a man who really passionately enjoys bullfights. The difference between aficionados and non-aficionados is like the difference between the Spanish local people and this Americans. There is no use of drinking out of the local’s wineskin, drinking and dancing with them; their happiness is just an illusion, some flashing American without roots to understand the feeling of the fiesta. In the storyline the relationship between Jake and Montoya changes. At the beginning they are good friends and Montoya is proud o...