Sun Also Rises

In the novel The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway conveys the idea that just because someone has short spurts of fun does not mean that they have a stable or continuing feeling of happiness or contentment. In Hemingway’s novel, the characters have a jolly time drinking wine and watching bull fights, but no one ever truly feels happiness or even satisfaction over a period of time. Whether it be partying in Paris, fishing, or watching bull fights in Spain, the characters (especially Jake) are entertained for most of the novel, but every character shows a sense of vulnerability and sorrow. The novel displays that activities that distract one from their sadness cannot and does not translate to their happiness. The novel’s main events begin in

Even at the start of the novel, the reader can see how he longs to be with Brett and how she pushes him away. During the day he works and at night he goes to restaurants and cafes to drink wine and have fun. All of those activities keep his mind off of Brett, but what happens when he returns home and is alone with his thoughts? Jake describes his feelings well when he thinks “It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.” (Hemingway 32) He means that one can easily escape thoughts, emotion, and most of all sorrow while he or she is busy during the day, but once alone, there is no way to escape and one has to accept that they are not happy despite the how hard they try to say they are when true feelings are diminished by

On the exterior, that summary would be a short, but correct one. Once you look on a deeper scale and analyze emotions and thought, it becomes something more. It becomes a novel about people who are dissatisfied with their life. The characters use instances such as bullfighting and wine and parties, etc. to make them feel happy, but that is not true happiness. All characters put on a smile at times and have fun, but no character achieves happiness in the novel. Each and every characters uses these fun activities as a way to escape their sorrows, and although they may think that they are satisfied with life during those moments, once left alone to think about their lives, the realization kicks in. They are not happy. Distractions from sorrows for a period of time does not equate to happiness, satisfaction, or even contentment in