Why you should read The Sun Also Rises…
1. It is considered one of the best war novels ever written, yet
there are no actual war scenes.
2. Hemingway’s style is unlike anything that had come before and
has been often imitated but never captured.
3. His journalistic style is quick and easy to read.
4. His love for France and especially Spain is palpable.
Why you may struggle with The Sun Also Rises …
1. Hemingway’s “tip of the iceberg” style requires reading
between the lines; the reader is expected to infer a lot.
2. Hemingway’s use of dialog is existential at times; i.e., it is
difficult to ascertain who is speaking without backtracking.
3. A pervasive sense of doom – regarding the war and the
relationships – colors the narrative.
4. The novel is set primarily in France and Spain, and Hemingway
uses the French and Spanish language without specifying the
English meaning.
Still interested? A few suggestions before you begin…
The Sun Also Rises is informed by WWI and the “lost
generation” that followed in its wake. Here are a few facts to
help provide context.
WWI was called the “war of the machine” because it was the
first industrial war that saw men slaughtered by technology,
seemingly indiscriminately, without the “glory” of hand-tohand combat.
This type of warfare caused men to question the nature of God
and whether there was an order to the universe and to
existence.
An effect of this questioning was the philosophy
“existentialism” which sought to emphasize “existence” over
“meaning.” In other words, if God is not unknowable and
possibly not present, we must focus on what we can know –
objects, the present moment, rituals that provide meaning and
stave off chaos.
Note this famous example of existential poetry by William
Carlos Williams:
the red wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
This is an example of “imagism” – if we are unable to truly
know whether God exists and whether there is a greater
meaning to the world, we can only focus on the concrete
objects around us (image = object with no other meaning
attached).
The “lost generation” felt the need to create a new sense of
meaning in a world rendered meaningless and Godless.
Hemingway translated “existentialism” into a Code, complete
with a Code Hero:
Code:
 We must accept the difficulties of our lives (we have no
choice)
 We must not cause trouble for or condemn others
 We must not pity ourselves (everyone is mortal)
 Ritual should be used to control anxiety and fear (sports /
bullfighting / writing)
 We should establish immediate understanding with others
who understand
 We must see things as they are, not as we wish them to be
Code Hero:
 Maintains courage and honesty and control, even in the
face of death (war / bullfighting)
 Avoids the nightmare of chaos and passivity through
action
 Chooses action over thinking
 Makes the most of him/herself and of the world
As you read, notice who seems to follow the code and who
doesn’t. Also, notice how Jake Barnes sets up Cohn as an
“antihero” in the first chapter. Cohn represents the “outdated”
rules of chivalry, while Jake and his friends represent those who
subscribe to the “Code.”
Setting: Form and Structure
The setting of this novel is considered to be “contrapunctual” –
which means the setting echoes and reinforces the plot.
Part I – Paris, France.
Major characters and their relationships introduced. The city
setting echoes the ennui of the characters and their
dissatisfaction with their lives.
Part II – Spain
Bill and Jake go fishing in the countryside; others join them in
Pamplona for the bullfight. The countryside echoes Bill and
Jake’s relaxed mood; the city then reminds them of how
dissatisfied they are and they begin to fight.
Part III – France (countryside) / Madrid, Spain
Epilogue – Jake spends a few days alone in the countryside,
then joins Brett in Madrid. Jake’s return to the countryside
parallels his need for recovery/rejuvenation. Return to the city
brings futility of relationships to a climax.
Fast Facts – The Sun Also Rises
Pages – 247 (Scribner’s Paperback Edition)
Author – Ernest Hemingway
Date Published -- 1926
Setting – France and Spain / post - WWI
Point of view – first person narrator: Jake Barnes
Genre – Novel
Issues/Conflicts – WWI / Love / Loss / Faith /
Beyond the Basics…
Overview of novel and autobiographical connections:
Photos, quotes and interesting information:
http://www.timelesshemingway.com/
Interesting essay on why Hemingway is considered great:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/hemingway_e.ht
ml
Time magazine ranked it among the best 100 novels:
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/0,24459,the_sun_also_rises,00.ht
ml
Reasons why the novel has been challenged or banned:
Author Information -- The Sun Also Rises
Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, once described her
husband as having “so many sides to him you could hardly make a
sketch of him in a geometry book.” Hemingway truly was “larger
than life” and this brief synopsis will not do either the man or his
talent justice. Please note the excellent resources listed below,
including A & E’s Biography entitled “Wrestling with Life,” which
most libraries carry.
Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois in 1899, a town he
once disparaged as having “wide lawns and narrow minds.” After
graduating from high school, he moved to Kansas City to write for a
newspaper. Similar to Frederic Henry, he entered WWI as an
ambulance driver for the Italian army and was wounded. In a Milan
hospital, he met and fell in love with a nurse named Agnes von
Kurowsky, the inspiration for Catherine Barkley. After his recovery,
he returned to Europe as a war correspondent. In the 1920’s he
moved to Paris to write fiction. He published The Sun Also Rises in
1926 and A Farewell to Arms in 1929. In addition to writing ten
novels and numerous collections of short stories, Hemingway was
married four times, fathered three sons and was an avid fisherman,
hunter, boxer, and sportsman. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature
for The Old Man in the Sea, published in 1952. In 1962, after a long
struggle with alcoholism and debilitating depression, Hemingway died
of a self-inflicted gun wound in his home in Ketchum, Idaho.
More information on Hemingway’s life and works:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/hemingwaybio.html
http://www.ehemingway.com/?page_id=13
http://www.biographyshelf.com/ernest_hemingway_biography.html
http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=71930
Printable Bookmark! Please print and then cut to use as a reference as you read!!
Only basic information has been provided to avoid “spoilers.” The “Intro” column indicates
the chapter in which each character is first introduced. Enjoy!
Jake Barnes
Robert Cohn
Lady Brett
Ashley
Mike
Campbell
Bill Gorton
Pedro Romero
Montoya
Frances Cline
Count
Mippipopolous
Wilson-Harris
Georgette
Belmonte
Harvey Stone
First person
narrator; American
veteran of WWI;
writer; based on
Hemingway himself
Wealthy American
living in Paris;
Jewish; not a
veteran
British socialite;
awaiting a divorce
Bankrupt Scottish
war veteran;
engaged to Brett
American war
veteran, but not an
expatriate; fishing
buddy to Jake
19 year old
bullfighter
Owner of inn in
Pamplona;
bullfighting expert
Cohn’s ex-girlfriend
Wealthy Greek
count and war
veteran
British war veteran
Prostitute
Bullfighter past his
prime
Expatriate gambler
Note: entries dealing with bullfighting are marked with an asterisk and are Hemingway's own
definitions from his book about bullfighting, Death in the Afternoon.
ABSINTHE A green, bitter liqueur with the flavor of wormwood and anise.
AFICION (Sp.) Passion, as Jake Barnes explains it; a devotion so complete as to make one
more than an expert.
ANGEL Someone who supports the arts financially, who hovers around the arts, keeping
them alive.
ARRIBA (Sp.) Get on up!
ARRIERO (Sp.) A man who drives mules; muleteer.
BAL MUSETTE (Fr.) Low-class dance hall.
* BARRERA (Sp.) The red painted wooden fence around the sanded ring in which the bull
is fought. The first row of seats are also called barreras.
BATEAU MOUCHE (Fr.) Pleasure boat on the Seine River in Paris.
BAYONNE French town near the Spanish border.
BIARRITZ French resort on the Atlantic, near the Spanish border.
BRIOCHE (Fr.) Breakfast roll.
BURGUETE Spanish hill town near where Jake and Bill go fishing.
CENTIME Unit of French currency, one hundredth of a franc, similar to an American
penny.
CHE MALA FORTUNA! (It.) What bad luck!
CIRCE The enchantress who in Homer's Odyssey bewitched men and turned them into
swine.
COGIDO (Sp.) Seized; picked up and gored by a bull.
COL A gap between mountain ranges, used as a pass.
CONCIERGE (Fr.) Doorkeeper or superintendent of an apartment building; the manager
of a hotel.
* CORNADA (Sp.) A horn wound; a real wound as distinct from a bruising scratch.
DARB (slang) A person or thing considered excellent (Bill uses it ironically in reference to
Cohn).
DILIGENCE A public stagecoach used in France.
* ENCIERRO (Sp.) The driving of fighting bulls on foot, surrounded by steers, from one
corral to the corral of the ring. In Pamplona this refers to the running of the bulls through
the streets with the crowd running ahead of them.
FINE (Fr.) Ordinary brandy.
FLAMENCO (Sp.) A very lively Andalusian gypsy song and dance, with snapping
castanets and clicking heels.
GENTILLE (Fr.) Pleasant and kind.
GLOBOS ILLUMINADOS (Sp.) Paper sacks set on fire that fly up like flaming balloons;
part of the festival at Pamplona.
HARDBOILED Slang for a tough guy whom nothing affects.
IRATI RIVER River in Spain's Basque province where Bill and Jake go fishing.
JOTA (Sp.) Spanish folk dance and music.
LOURDES A town in southwest France with a famous Roman Catholic shrine. Millions of
pilgrims go there yearly.
* MATADOR (Sp.) A killer of bulls in a bullfight.
MATTOCK A tool for loosening the soil; like a pickaxe, but with a flat blade.
MENCKEN, H. L. American editor and columnist known for his iconoclastic view of
middle-class America; a model for young people in the 1920s.
* MULETA (Sp.) Heart-shaped scarlet cloth of serge or flannel, folded and doubled over a
tapered wooden stick equipped with a sharp steel point at the narrow end and a grooved
handle at the widened extremity. The muleta is used to defend the bullfighter; to tire the bull
and regulate the position of his head and feet; to perform a series of passes of more or less
aesthetic value with the bull,--and to aid the bullfighter in the killing.
NEY'S STATUE A statue of Marshal Ney in Paris. Ney was one of the most celebrated of
Napoleon's generals.
OSPEDALE MAGGIORE Hospital in Milan, Italy, where Jake recuperated after being
wounded in the war.
PAMPLONA Mountain town in the Basque provinces of Spain where the annual festival
of San Fermin is held.
PATRONNE (Fr.) Manager (here of a nightclub).
PELOTA (Sp.) A Spanish game like handball.
PESETAS (Sp.) Spanish money.
* PICADOR (Sp.) A man who pics bulls from on horseback under the orders of a matador.
PIMP Slang term for a man who sets other men up with prostitutes.
POULE (Fr.) Slang for chick, girl.
* QUITE (Sp.) The taking away of the bull from anyone who has been placed in immediate
danger by him. It especially refers to the taking away of the bull from the horse and man
after he has charged the picadors.
RIAU-RIAU Wild music played during the festival of San Fermin.
SAINT JEAN DE LUZ Small French resort town near the Spanish border, where Mike
Campbell goes after the fiesta.
SAN SEBASTIAN Beautiful old Spanish town near the French border on the Bay of
Biscay.
SOMMELIER (Fr.) Wine steward.
V.A.D. Voluntary Aid Detachment, a group of volunteer nurses during World War I. Brett
was one of them.
* VERONICA (Sp.) Pass with the cape as the bull charges.
WICKETS Turnstiles going into the bullfighting arena.
Menu Ideas – The Sun Also Rises
French / Spanish recipes
Creating the Mood!!
Here are some ideas to set the mood and get the conversation started to
help you appreciate Hemingway’s classic. Enjoy!
Introductory Game Ideas:
Hemingway is known for his spare prose and unique style of writing.
He was famously quoted as saying:
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that
you know. So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from
there. . . . If I started to write elaborately . . . I found that I could cut that
scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true
simple declarative sentence I had written. Up in that room I decided that I
would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do
this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline."
When challenged to write a story in 6 words, he replied: “For Sale:
Baby Shoes, Never Used.”
Once everyone has arrived, challenge members to write one true
sentence. To Hemingway, this meant to write only about what you
know, using concrete nouns and very few intensifiers.
Or, give members Hemingway’s earlier challenge -- to write a story
using only 6 words.
Too intense? Try renting A and E’s Biography of Hemingway from
the library and watch it together – his life was stranger than fiction
and truly gripping from the moment his mother dressed him as a girl
to his unfortunate death from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=71930
Discussion Questions -- The Sun Also Rises
The following questions approach the novel from a number of
different angles, i.e., how the novel functions as a work of art,
how it reflects the time period, how it addresses fundamental
questions of humanity, and how it engages the reader.
A good discussion tends to start with our “heads” and end with
our “hearts.” So, you may want to save subjective opinions of
taste until after you have discussed the more objective elements
of why this work is considered a classic. It is tempting to begin
with, “What did everyone think?” But if a number of people
really didn’t like the novel, their opinions may derail a
discussion of the novel’s merits. On the other hand, I
recommend starting with a few accessible questions and asking
every member to respond to ensure that all voices are present
and heard from the beginning. Just a few suggestions!
Enjoy…
Warm up questions:
 Which character did you empathize with the most? Which
characters did you dislike the most and why?
 Did the context of WWI help you empathize with the
characters? Why/not?
 Which of the three sections did you enjoy the most? The
least?
1. Reread the epigraphs:
“You are all a lost generation” – Gertrude Stein
“One
generation goeth, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for
ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to its place where it
ariseth.
6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it turneth about
continually in its course, and the wind returneth again to its circuits.
7 All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place whither the
rivers go, thither they go again.
Notice the verses that directly follow:
All things are full of weariness; man
cannot utter it : the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9 That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that
which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Why does Hemingway join Stein’s comment and this passage from
Ecclesiastes? How can this passage be interpreted in a positive light?
How in a negative light? Why might this passage actually be a
comfort for the “lost generation”? In a novel which seems devoid of
God, why do you think Hemingway took his title from a passage
from the Bible?
2. Reread the first sentence of the novel:
“Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of
Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by
that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn.”
Why do you think Jake begins this novel with Cohn? What do
we learn about Jake from his derision of Cohn? Did you like
Cohn? Why/not? Notice how Hemingway sets up the climax
of the novel (Robert and Jake’s fist fight) in these first two
sentences. Since Jake is our narrator, we are predisposed to like
or at least empathize with him. Did you? Is Jake a reliable
narrator (do you trust his judgement and perception)?
3. Notice how, in the first few pages, Jake insists on using passive
language to describe Cohn – Cohn “was married by the first girl
who was nice to him…she left him and went off with a
miniature-painter…The divorce was arranged… he fell among
literary people… He had been taken in hand by a lady” Barnes
repeatedly points out that Cohn finds meaning and status in
outward “prizes” – boxing trophies, Ivy league education, rich
mother. How is Barnes trying to distinguish himself through
this? Jake is setting them up as foils – what are the most
striking differences between them?
4. We quickly learn that Jake is impotent – physically as well as
spiritually – due to his involvement in the war. How does this
affect him in his relationship to Cohn? In his relationship with
Brett? In his opinion of himself?
5. How did you react to the anti-Semetic remarks addressed to or
used to describe Cohn? Is this novel simply a product of its
time – and does this excuse the bigotry?
6. Here is Hemingway’s original first chapter:
“This is a novel about a lady. Her name is Lady Ashley
and when the story begins she is living in Paris and it is
Spring. That should be a good setting for a romantic but
highly moral story…
So my name is Jacob Barnes and I am writing the story,
not as I believe is usual in these cases, from a desire for
confession, because being a Roman Catholic I am spared
that Protestant urge to literary production, nor to set
things all out the way they happened for the good of
some future generation, nor for any other of the usual
highly moral urges, but because I believe it is a good
story… Cohn is the hero.”
7. This novel is a “Roman a clef” – which literally means a “novel
with a key.” The key is Hemingway’s actual life. Does it matter
to your enjoyment that Hemingway based the novel on his life?
8. Sheridan Baker wrote in 1967:
“Hemingway has written the courtly romance for
moderns, tough, dissonant, yet echoing forever the
ancient sweetness of being forever lovelorn and forever
longing, all underlined by the final knowledge of
damnation, knowing that it never could have been, yet
doomed to think that it might.”
Is this an accurate description? Is this how you interpreted Brett and
Jake’s last lines of “Oh, Jake…we could have had such a damned
good time together.” “Yes…Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
9. Sheridan Baker also wrote:
“Without the war as a causative background these would be
merely empty and sick people who drain their lives away into
the receding blue notes of a jazz orchestra; but the war was a
fact, and it was one which stripped the veil of pious sanctimony
and patriotic veneer from the spurious moralities and ethics or
traditional American “boosterism” in religion, philosophy, and
politics.”
Does the war make them more significant? Empathetic?
10.
According to Carlos Baker, Hemingway stated that this
novel was not a “hollow or bitter satire,” but a tragedy. How
do you respond to this distinction?
1. Notice how Hemingway relies on concrete nouns and very
little “ornament” to create a scene:
“At noon we were all at the café. It was crowded. We were
eating shrimps and drinking beer. The town was crowded.
Every street was full.” (205)
How is it apparent that Hemingway was a reporter at various
times in his life? Notice how Hemingway’s spare style echoes
the terse, clipped, flat lives of his characters.
2. Although Hemingway’s style is known primarily by his short,
declarative sentences, occasionally he employs longer, complex
syntax to express emotion or drama:
“They had hitched the mules to the dead bull and then the whips cracked, the
men ran, and the mules, straining forward, their legs pushing, broke into a
gallop, and the bull, one horn up, his head on its side, swept a swath smoothly
across the sand and out the red gate.”
“In your mind you see the phenomenon, sweating, white-faced, and sick with
fear, unable to look at the horn or go near it, a couple of swords on the
ground, capes all around him, running in at an angle on the bull hoping the
sword will strike a vital spot, cushions sailing down into the ring and the
steers ready to come in.”
What is the effect of using run-ons in this passage? Any other
places come to mind where he uses this style effectively?
3. Hemingway is known for his “code” and his “code heroes.”
His code specifies that one must accept the difficulties inherent
in living with the knowledge of our mortality, see things as they
are and not as we wish, and display courage, honesty and
control at all times, especially in the face of death. Other than
Jake, who seems to follow this code most accurately?
4. One of the trademarks of the “lost generation” – those writers
who moved to Paris after WWI – was a refusal to rely on
religion to explain the inexplicable and indescribable. Where
does religion emerge in the novel? Does the novel feel
spiritual at all? What seems to be Jake’s “religion”?
5. Water is a dominant image and even symbol in the novel –
notice the mood of the story and of the characters when they
are fishing. What significance does water seem to have?
6. One critic believed this novel was
“a dialectical struggle between paganism and Christian
orthodoxy…note the festival is a religious one celebrated by
bullfighting that is a pagan blood sacrifice ritual.”
If God is dead, what seems to have replaced him?
7. What seems to be Pedro Romero’s significance in the novel?
Wrap up Questions!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Which character did you relate to the most?
Would you recommend the book to others?
If you could change anything, what would it be?
Do you believe this should be considered a classic?
Do you believe this novel should be taught in high schools?
The Film -- The Sun Also Rises
A number of film versions have been made of A Farewell to Arms, including
an award-winning version in 1932 starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes, 1957
version starring Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones, and a 1996 version, titled In
Love and War, starring Chris O’Donnell and Sandra Bullock, which highlights
the biographical aspects of the novel. Your group could watch a version of the
movie together and discuss your impressions, or group members could watch a
version before the meeting and then discuss impressions as a group. Time
permitting, multiple versions could be viewed and then compared. Here are a
few possible movie questions:
 While viewing the movie, which characters were most unlike how
you pictured them while reading the novel?
 Which characters seemed “right on” in their portrayal?
 What plot elements were left out or changed in the movie?
 How was your enjoyment affected by what was left out/changed?
 If this movie were remade today, who would you cast as Frederic and
Catherine?
 The 1932 version, starring Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes, won two
Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Best Sound and was
nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Picture. Do you believe
these awards and nominations were justified? Which awards and
nominations seemed best earned or least earned?
More information on the film(s):
1932 version:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022879/maindetails
1957 version:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050379/
In Love and War:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116621/
Reviews
Part Summaries
What to read next
in 1934, the British writer Wyndham Lewis boldly entitled
one of his critiques, The Dumb Ox: A Study of Ernest Hemingway; and
vituperously described Hemingway's "he-man" as follows: "a dull-witted,
bovine, monosyllabic simpleton . . . the voice of the 'folk,' of the
masses . . . the cannon fodder, the cattle outside the slaughterhouse,
serenely chewing the cud - of those to whom things are done, in contrast to
those who have executive will and intelligence."