The "Hemingway Hero"
Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway's novels is the concept popularly known as , an ideal character readily accepted by American readers as a "man's man". In The Sun Also Rises, four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett plans to marry her fiancée for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a ...
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to confront all weaknesses, fears, failures, and even death.
Jake Barnes, as the narrator and supposed hero of the novel, fell in love with Brett some years ago and is still powerfully and uncontrollably in love with her. However, Jake is unfortunately a casualty of the war, having been emasculated in a freak accident. Still adjusting to his impotence at the beginning of the novel, Jake has lost all power and desire to have sex. Because of this, Jake and Brett cannot be lovers and all attempts at a relationship that is sexually fulfilling are simply futile. Brett is a passionate, lustful woman who is driven by the most intimate and loving act two may share, something that Jake just cannot provide her with. Jake's emasculation only puts the two in a grandly ironic situation. Brett is an extremely passionate woman but is denied the first man she feels true love and admiration for. Jake has loved Brett for years and cannot have her because of his inability to have sex. It ...
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forced to create a new relationship for themselves, perhaps one far more dangerous than that of mere lovers- they have become best friends. This presents a great difficulty for Jake, because Brett's presence is both pleasurable and agonizing for him. Brett constantly reminds him of his handicap and thus Jake is challenged as a man in the deepest, most personal sense possible.
After the departure of their first meeting, Jake feels miserable: "This was Brett, that I had felt like crying about. Then I thought of her walking up the street and of course in a little while I felt like hell again" (34, Ch. 4). Lady Brett Ashley serves as a challenge to a weakness Jake must confront. ...
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The "Hemingway Hero". (2004, August 21). Retrieved April 19, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Hemingway-Hero/13053
"The "Hemingway Hero"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Aug. 2004. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Hemingway-Hero/13053>
"The "Hemingway Hero"." Essayworld.com. August 21, 2004. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Hemingway-Hero/13053.
"The "Hemingway Hero"." Essayworld.com. August 21, 2004. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Hemingway-Hero/13053.
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