Sun Also Rises Morality

Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises tells the story of characters that are living in a post World War I world. Hemingway’s writing gives the reader insight into the cultural norms of the time. The main characters have complicated moral codes and religious beliefs that they contradict through the choices they make. Over the course of the novel, the actions that they find acceptable and unacceptable show the reader how they are changing. Characters such as Jake, Robert, and Brett are all examples of this. None of them are satisfied with the lives they are currently living, and the story tells how they come to terms with this, regardless of whether they make decisions for better or for worse.

First, Jake Barnes morality is questioned throughout

In fact, Brett is the one who is worshipped by those surrounding her. She has a way of mesmerizing those who she wants, bringing them under her control. However, she never allows anything or anyone to control her. This is shown when she falls for the bullfighter, Pedro Romero. Brett has a brief relationship with him before she realizes what it being with him entails. She tries to describe the breakup with Romero to Jake in a way that makes it sound like what she did was for him, but Brett did it for her own sake. She enjoys being free (or at least she tells herself she does), and marrying a man like Pedro, a man who is respected by his community and requires a wife who will be able to match him, would take that away from her. “You know I’d have lived with him if I hadn’t seen it was bad for him. We got along damned well.” (246). She acts on the desires she is feeling at certain moments regardless of whether it is morally correct or not. She lacks the ability to commit to anyone one person, which is why Jake and her are constantly going off and on. “I suppose she only wanted what she couldn’t have.” (39). By the end, her tendencies are no different from how they started at the beginning of the novel. She is doomed to repeat a cycle of finding new lovers until she decides throwing them away again.

In Conclusion, Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises ends on a similar note to which the book began. Most of the characters made a full circle back to where they were, besides Jake. They were all willing to do anything for the sake of finding happiness, even if was by ways that were not moral. Despite this, none of them found what they were looking, and are just as messed up as