“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” -Henry David Thoreau.
Thoreau’s statement about being lost relates to the journey of the protagonist in the book, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Jake Barnes. Jake struggles with understanding his identity as a person while he tries to please the woman he loves, but cannot have. As Jake’s mindful journey comes to an end, it is during the time that he spends with himself where he truly finds peace with who he is, and what he is supposed to do in life. Throughout the plot, Jake is lost in a fake reality due to the fact that he is apart of “The Lost Generation”. He can’t escape it because it is the life he chose, and it is the aspects of this life that constantly pull him back into being ‘lost’. It is the time away from his apparent true love, Brett, that gives him the opportunity to live a life composed of actual reality, as opposed to entangling himself with Brett who represents one of the factors and reasons why Jake is lost, and unable to truly escape “The Lost Generation” lifestyle.
In Jake’s life, Brett, represents the one thing that shades his judgement of reality, and her presence denies him the opportunity to focus on his own life. Since the first day that Jake met Brett at the hospital where he was treated for his injury, she has impacted him in a way that, whenever they converse, Jake drifts into a false reality that brings him to the point of being lost in an unrealistic world created by the facade of his close friendships. This ill-fated judgement leads Jake to follow Brett around Europe, doing whatever she asks out of his love for her. This reality brings Jake to the point where his, “life is going so fast and [he’s] not really living it. (Hemingway, 18)”. This quote is so powerful in terms of the plot because, originally, this is a statement made by Cohn. Jake’s hate for Cohn is extreme, and it is ironic that Jake is able to come to the point, in his life, where he is able to live life to the fullest, unlike Cohn. Jake realizes that he is going through life without a true meaning behind his actions, and is only trying to please the women he loves, but cannot have. His ability to block out the complexity of life around him and realize, unlike Cohn, that simplicity allows him to truly understand all aspects of life, and that he will never be perfect, but “isn’t it pretty to think so? (Hemingway, 251)”. Subsequently, this quote shows that Jake has realized that his life will never be perfect because of who is, and what he embodies.
Jake’s journey to Spain, while on vacation, is filled with emotions of love, hate, jealousy, and pain. Through watching Cohn, his most disliked friend, almost steal Brett from him, to giving her away to a young Spanish matador, Jake’s actions and emotions are strongly swayed by Brett’s. He is lost in an unrealistic world whenever he’s around her because his love for Brett shades his judgement and prevents his ability to be his true self. One of the only times in the plot where Jake is able to escape the idea of being lost, and experience the beauties of life without worrying about her is when he and Bill, his close friend, travel to Bayonne to fish. While there, the two are able to truly enjoy the simplicity of life and the beauty that the lifestyle provides. Though things seemed to look upward for Jake, his choice to go back to Pamplona and see Brett draws him back into the lost reality where he lies victim to his inability to escape his love for Brett. The lost reality is a nightmare for Jake because it is, “something [that he] had been through and that now [he] must go through again [and again], (Heminway, 71)”. This relates to the fact where he and Brett often enter a fake reality together as she tell him that she is ‘miserable’, and he tries to comfort her. This process always causes Jake pain because Brett will forever betray him, as he gets close to her, due to the fact that he is incapable of physically loving her.
Jake endures more pain and anguish, and tries to take it away through means of alcohol, and solitude. Once the trip ends, Jake departs from his friends, and stays in San Sebastian. There he has an epiphany that changes his life forever. As Jake stays in San Sebastian, he takes a lot of time to himself. During this time, he finds out who he really is as a person. This happens when Jake goes to the beach one day and, ”I dove deep once, swimming down to the bottom. I swam with my eyes open and it was green and dark. The raft made a dark shadow. I came out of the water beside the raft, pulled up, dove once more, holding it for length, and then swam ashore, (Hemingway, 242)”. This sequence of dives represents every time that Jake lived in the ‘lost’ period of his life. Each time he let Brett drag him into the lifestyle of being lost, he reached the “green and dark” parts of the water that didn’t allow him to see where he was going or what he was doing in his life. Though, each time it seemed that Jake had escaped the “green and dark” parts of the water, Brett was the thing in his life that made him “dive once more” back into the dark waters. Finally, when he had his epiphany, it was the point in his life where he “pulled” himself” up through the lightening layers of the water, and came out as a new man. Realizing, through his rebirth, that he and Brett would never work, because as he rose through the lightening layers of water, he gained the realization that his love for Brett is what caused him to be continually lost and depressed. He was able to overcome the barrier known as Brett, and is now, as it was shown through his ‘sturdy strokes’, able to live his life confidently. He begins to live his life confidently knowing that he/it will never be perfect, due to the fact that he is forever apart of “The Lost Generation”, but in turn has found a way to be okay with that.
Jake’s overall existence, during his period in time of being lost, relates to “The Lost Generation”, that Gertrude Stein refers to when speaking about all the expatriate writes living in France. Possibly the greatest writers of all time followed Thoreau’s quote because the “The Lost Generation” separated themselves from the rest of the world, and were able to create the best stories of all time because they were composed of the very ideals they discovered while on their own.Jake is apart of the group situated with the term “The Lost Generation” because his life values of partying and lust, do not fit in with those of the post-war American societal and cultural rules. The idea of being lost, comes from the values situated with being apart of the “Lost Generation”, and the fake reality they drag you into. Jake’s epiphany, that acts as the, safe, life raft, deters him shortly from the idea of being lost and provides him with a little reassurance of what reality actually is, but because he is apart of “The Lost Generation”, his lifestyle will forever situate him in the existence of this fake reality that defines those who are apart of “The Lost Generation”.
Works Cited:
- “Henry David Thoreau Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/henrydavid107675.html. Accessed 7 Mar. 2017.
2. Hemingway, Ernest, “The Sun Also Rises”, 1954
I wrote this paper on the main character from The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes. The paper highlights his journey and then his eventual epiphany. The epiphany is a main focus point because it is a very relatable feeling for all people, even though Jake’s story is not.
Tyler, I loved your focus on the language, particularly in the second half of this paper. Your thoughtful analysis is clear and convincing. You connect Jake’s “rebirth” with a clearer understanding of himself and his relationship with Brett effectively. Good work here!