Critical Analysis Of Justin Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

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To analyze the characters, help was found when reading articles from three scholars as well as reading a casebook on Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. The first article which helped with analyzing the characters is Justin Mellette’s article called ‘Floating I saw only the sky’: leisure and self-fulfillment in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises written in 2014. The article focuses mostly on Jake Barnes and how much the role of leisure activity plays in his development throughout the book. He is being compared to the other characters in the book and it therefore gives information about Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn and Brett Ashley whom are essential for this analysis. One comparison Mellette makes is one between Cohn and Jake. He states that while Jake appreciates…show more content…
This article focuses mostly on Brett Ashley but also comes across Jake and Cohn and their relationships to Brett. Crăniun’s analysis of Brett is focused on her identity and the fact that her identity is more complex than first believed. Crăniun argues that Brett’s identity is like a puzzle and that she juggles between her exterior self and her real self. Brett’s exterior self portrays a confident and self-possessed woman while her real self portrays a confused and insecure woman. Crăniun also argues that Brett is financially dependent on the men she is with. She also reflects the two traditional stereotypical images of women which are being a wife and a prostitute. However, Crăniun argues that Brett could never be either of the two stereotypes. The articles does not mention Jake and Cohn that much other than their relationships to Brett. Crăniun argues that Jake for example is always by Brett’s side no matter how hard it is for Jake. Jake is madly in love with Brett and vice versa. He can, however, not satisfy all of Brett’s needs. As for Cohn, Crăniun argues that he is obsessed with Brett and gets jealous when he sees her with other…show more content…
Cohn gets this idea after he has read the book The Purple Land. Mellette discusses that Cohn, after having read the book, turns to escapism and romantic ideals. Cohn goes to Jake to ask him to go to South America with him offering to pay for both. Cohn claims that he has always wanted to go on a trip to South America and feels like his life is going too fast and that he is not living it fully. Jake understands that Cohn wants to go away to get away from himself, but Jake insists that “going to another country doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.” (my underlining). This suggests that Jake has tried exactly what Cohn is trying to do and is trying to talk Cohn out of it, because it will not help him. Cohn feels like something must happen to him and claims that he does not like Paris anymore. Mellette suggests that Cohn “is unwilling to analyze his state of unhappiness beyond his platitudinous conclusion that “something” needs to happen to him.” Going to another country will just mean a change in scenery and because Cohn does not have a purpose with the travel to South America, that is what will happen to

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