Insecurities In The Sun Also Rises

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To feel Inferior
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” (Eleanor Roosevelt). In the novel, “The Sun Also Rises”, Ernest Hemingway’s character Jake feels inferior to everyone and everything he is surrounded by. This relates to the theme is the male insecurities. Throughout the novel male insecurities are shown multiple times in many different ways. He uses people along with the environment to demonstrate. The book starts out with Jake describing Roberts Cohn life up to the present. He describes Cohn as a wealthy jewish boxer who was great at what he did, even football. Throughout this novel we find Jake attempting to be with brett but never succeeding. Jake is a successful person and has more than any other character in …show more content…

He describes Cohn as a wealthy jewish boxer who was great at what he did, even football. Throughout this novel we find Jake attempting to be with brett but never succeeding. Jake is a successful person and has more than any other character in the book. At one point during the novel Jake walks into a bar with a prostitute but never does anything with her. He kind of just wanted to talk with her in the bar. When Brett walks in he eaves the prostitute and goes home with Brett and kisses her goodnight but never goes in. This is when we find out that she loves him but never whats to be with him because he cannot physically love a woman. Jake was in WW1 and was injured in a way that he cannot have sex. This makes Jake feel like less of a man and after this everything points to him be inferior. Jake resorts to alcohol during the book to put all his misery behind him. During a fishing trip they take, Hemingway mentions the water multiple times. Water is a symbol of relief and new life but during the trip his friend catches bigger fish than Jake which points back to him feeling inferior.
The whole book is based on a love triangle where the main character Jake wants to be with Brett and loves her but Brett does not want Jake back. She says that she loves him that loves him. He wishes that he was able to have what Robert has and when he sees robert just throwing it all away it genuinely upsets