The Sun Also Rises Masculinity Quotes

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Portraying Gender Traits What is masculinity and femininity? Masculinity is defined as “pertaining to or characteristics of a man” and femininity is defined as “having qualities traditionally ascribed to women” (Dictionary.com). Some masculine traits include confidence and dominance and some feminine traits include emotional and caring. In Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, these traits are portrayed inversely throughout the novel by actions and dialogue. For example the masculine characteristics are portrayed by the females in this novel, Brett Ashley and Frances Cline, and the feminine traits are depicted by the males Jake Barnes and Robert Cohn. The plot development within the novel occurs because of the character’s ability to embrace their…show more content…
She also portrays masculine traits, such as dominance. Frances makes this long speech to Robert, insulting him and being mean. In this rant she says things like, “‘We must all help young writers. Don’t you think so Jake? But you’re not a young writer. Are you Robert? You’re thirty-four.’” and, “‘When I made you get rid of your little secretary on the magazine I ought to have known you’d get rid of me the same way.’” (Hemingway 56-57) This shows that she is hateful and dominating. Frances said she made Robert get rid of the secretary, that shows that she has control over him. Additionally, Robert just sits there and takes it all. Frances is yelling at him and he is not even trying to defend himself. Also she degrades him by sarcastically reminding him that he is getting older and he should already be an accomplished writer. Frances also shows dominance when Jake is talking about another woman when he is kicked under the table by her. “Somebody kicked me under the table. I thought it was accidental and went on…… I was kicked again under the table and, looking, saw Frances, Robert’s lady, her chin lifting and her face hardening.” Frances actually kicked Jake for speaking about another woman. This shows that no matter who is offendeing her, boyfriend or not, she will make it known. She is basically disciplining Jake and Robert like dogs. When they do something she does not like she yells and kicks them. That is a concrete example of dominance. Throughout human history, it was always the man that was in charge and the wife had to obey. The man was always right and the women had no rights. The man was dominant, but in this case, Frances is the dominant

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