Literature Analysis #2

1.  I read The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.  The main character and narrator of the story is Jake Barnes, who lives in Paris.  The beginning of the book reviews the life his friend, Robert Cohn, had as a boxer in college.  Robert Cohn is a romantic who wants to write books and is controlled by his girlfriend Frances.  A couple chapters in, the reader meets another person Jake knows named Brett.  It is unclear what relationship she and Jake have until they kiss in a cab, and it is revealed that they are lovers, however a war injury prevents Jake from sleeping with her.  Brett, even though she is engaged, attracts the attention of and flirts with all of the guys around her, including Cohn.  Cohn goes with her on a trip to San Sebastian, and because Cohn is such a romantic, he falls madly in love with Brett after the trip.  This relationship that Cohn had with Brett makes Jake more jealous than any of Brett's other relationships because Cohn is a good friend, and so his actions just emphasize more what Jake can't do with Brett.  By the middle of the book, it is apparent that Brett doesn't love any of the men she strings along; she only loves Jake, but that isn't enough to overcome the fact that they can't be together.  Every time Jake and Brett talk, they avoid the elephant in the room with small talk that always ends in a forbidden love goodbye.  Jake travels with Bill to Spain to go fishing with Cohn and to see the bull-fighting, and Brett and her fiancée, Mike, who is oblivious to everything and a drunkard, are invited to join them.  In Spain, Cohn grows more attached to Brett, but she starts fooling around with a young bull-fighter named Pedro Romero.  Cohn gets more and more jealous, and he beats Romero into a bloody mess, being a former boxer.  The group splits up from there, and Jake goes to Saint Sebastian, where soon he gets urgent telegrams from Brett saying that she needs him to come because she is in trouble.  When Jake travels to San Sebastian, he meets Brett in her hotel, and she cries after they talk a while because she hates that their future together will never happen.  They go to drink at a bar, where we see that Jake needs to get drunk because it is too painful to face their nonexistent future together sitting across from Brett, and she comments on how great a life they could've had together.

2. The theme of this novel is that you can still live some sort of a life even if your are dissatisfied with your life situation, but it may not be the life you want. My favorite quote is the last line of the book when Jake responds, " 'Isn't it pretty to think so?' " to Brett's statement that they would have had a good life together.  This is a great example of the theme of the novel because it shows that Jake has accepted that he can never be with Brett the way he wants to, and instead of wasting his life with the romantic illusions that Robert Cohn and Brett have, he is set on living it, even if he's miserable and lonely.

3.  The tone is very objective and unemotional.  There are long passages where the only thing that is being described is the path the narrator takes to a certain destination.  The narrator, who is the main character Jake Barnes, goes into a lot of detail about turning down this road and that, listing off the names of streets and buildings, like the author is of the assumption that the readers have an extensive knowledge of the layout of this particular area in Paris.  For example, "We turned to the right off the Place Contrescarpe, walking along smooth, narrow streets with high old houses on both sides...We came onto the Rue du Pot de Fer and followed it along until it brought us to the rigid north and south of the Rue Saint Jacques and then walked south, past Val de Grace, set back behind the courtyard and the iron fence, to the Boulevard du Port Royal."  If the tone wasn't unemotional, then it would be expected that these streets and roads are being mentioned because they have some important significance to the character. Instead, Hemingway seems more concerned with illustrating his knowledge of Paris, rather than entertaining his readers with something pertinent to the lives of the characters.  Perhaps, with these listings of street and cafe names, Hemingway is attempting to include a part of a character's life that isn't normally included.  He is describing the journey to the destination, while other authors simply write "When they arrived at..."

4.  Allusion - Ernest Hemingway assumes that the reader is familiar with the literature of the time period, or in this case Horatio Alger's various publications. "For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man of the same age to enter Wall Street direct from the French convent, equipped with a complete set of the more practical Alger books." (Page 9)
Simile - Hemingway shows the thought process of the character Bill Gorton with this example of one of the many similes he includes in The Sun Also Rises: 
" 'Can you bet on bull-fights?'...'It would be like betting on war.' " (Page 98-99)
Also, Hemingway uses a simile to depict Brett's figure. "She was built with curves like the hull of a racing yacht..." (Page 22)
Hyperbole - Hemingway also used this literary technique example to illustrate the character of Bill Gorton. " 'It's enough to make a man join the Klan' " (Page 88)
Humor - This example shows the similar, non-serious personalities of Jake and Bill together. "The waiter who served us was soaked through.  His white jacket was purple under the arms. 'He must drink a lot of wine.' 'Or wear purple undershirts.' 'Let's ask him.' " (Page 88)
Imagery - This literary technique example provides insight into how Jake Barnes views the world.  "It was a warm spring night and I sat at a table on the terrace of the Napolitain after Robert had gone, watching it get dark and the electric signs come on, and the red and green stop-and-go traffic-signal, and the crowd going by, and the horse-cabs clippety-clopping along at the edge of the solid taxi traffic." (Page 14)
Metaphor - Hemingway, through character Georgette, compares a room to a box, illustrating Georgette's perspective of her surroundings, and how she possibly feels enclosed or trapped on all sides, like you would package something in a box. " 'My God,' Georgette said. 'What a box to sweat in!' "  (Page 19)
Breaking the Fourth Wall - Ernest Hemingway has Jake acknowledge that he is narrating a story, and consequently, he makes the audience feel more connected to Jake.  "He was the archivist, and all the archives of the town were in his office.  That has nothing to do with the story. Anyway,..." (Page 96)
Stream of Consciousness Writing - Hemingway shows Jake's thought process as he is "praying" in a church using a stream of consciousness style for this one sentence.  "I wondered if there was anything else I might pray for, and I thought I would like to have some money, so I prayed that I would make a lot of money, and then I started to think how I would make it, and thinking of making money reminded me of the count, and I started wondering about where he was, and regretting I hadn't seen him since the night in Montmartre, and about something funny Brett told me about him, and as all the time I was kneeling with my forehead on the wood in front of me, and was thinking of myself as praying, 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, maybe never, but that anyway it 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 the thumb of my right hand were still damp, and I felt them dry in the sun." (Page 97)
Personification - Hemingway includes the personification as Bill Gorton is describing and admiring his face to show how Bill views his looks.  " 'It's an honest face.  It's a face any woman would be safe with.' " (Page 102)
Repetition - Hemingway uses repetition in this context to illustrate that Bill Gorton is slightly drunk so he's rambling a little bit to Jake.  " 'Let us rejoice in our blessings.  Let us utilize the fowls of the air.  Let us utilize the product of the vine...Let us not doubt, brother.  Let us not pry into the holy mysteries of the hen-coop with simian fingers.  Let us accept on faith and simply say...' " (Page 122)

CHARACTERIZATION
1.  Hemingway used direct and indirect characterization to describe the character of Robert Cohn through Jake Barnes's eyes.  Direct Characterization: "This changed him so that he was not so pleasant to have around." (Page 9) and the long description on pages one to five that discusses Robert
Cohn's good and bad characteristics and actions in his lifetime. The long description in the beginning talks about how shy and dedicated a character Robert Cohn is, but the quote foreshadows a future dislike of Robert Cohn because he is haughty and oblivious.
Indirect Characterization: " 'I don't know. I just don't believe it.  Have you known her a long
time?' " (Page 38) and " 'That moron,' said Harvey." (Page 43).  The first example is a statement made by Cohn in response to Jake telling him that Brett is engaged that tells the audience that he is as irrational as he is romantic because he is hoping that she will be with him since he loves her so much.  The second example shows the reaction of a minor character when he sees Cohn coming towards Jake and him, implying that in general people that know Cohn don't have a very good opinion of him.
Hemingway uses both direct and indirect characterization because the direct characterization in this book narrated by the main character will always be influenced by the relationship Jake has with Cohn; it will never be purely objective observations.  The indirect characterization in this novel is to show the differences and similarities between Jake's description of Cohn and the general consensus of Cohn's personality made by various minor characters that interact with him, letting the audience decide which descriptions of Robert Cohn's character are the most accurate.

2.  Yes, Hemingway's diction changes with each character.  Many parts of the novel are written as dialogue between two or more people, and it isn't made clear who says what so the reader must interpret who say what by becoming familiar with the different styles of speech of the characters.  For example, Jake always makes short, to-the-point statements when he talks.  He never include flowery language.  Brett always describes situations as "dull" and calls everyone "Darling."  Robert Cohn's statements, throughout most of the story, are full of wishful thinking and illusions, and they most always have a subdued tone to them.

3.  The protagonist, Jake Barnes, is a static character, but is very round.  Throughout the story, he remains ambivalent towards life because of his war injury, and he always has trouble dealing with the relationship he has with Brett.  Jake is a round character, though, because on the surface he seems unemotional and uncaring, but there are times in the book where the reader gets glimpses of his inner turmoil.  One of these times, he is lying in bed and starts crying because he couldn't tell Brett to stay the night, and he is always alone in bed.  Another time, he becomes the one with the romantic illusions for a brief moment when he asks Brett why they can't at least live together.

4.  After reading the book, I feel like I have met a character.  Part of this reaction results from reading a book with a first-person point of view of, in this case, the main character Jake Barnes.  With the first-person point of view, I got to read some of his thoughts and know the motives behind his actions.  Also, Jake breaks the fourth wall in the book by saying the quote that was listed above in the literary techniques: "That has nothing to do with the story."  That statement in itself influences the reader to feel that they are being personally told the story by the narrator, and it makes the narrator seem more real rather than an "I" constantly appearing on the page.  These two situations, combined with a number of other opportunities to see the many sides of Jake Barnes's nature, left me with the impression that I could most likely predict his reactions to many things because I know him so well now.