The Sun Also Rises "Warfare" Essay

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Nobody Wins In Warfare Looking back in history, war always seems to be a man’s duty however; many times it weighed just as heavily on women and children as it did on men. War is terrible, to put it vaguely and is something that, much like a poison or a sickness, affects anyone and everyone who comes in contact with it. Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises takes place in post WWI times and is a superb example of how war affects the lives of all around it. Digging into the lives and relationships that major characters in this novel have, one can conclude that WWI affected them all on some level. Jake had the most taken from him in the war, his ability to have sex and his feeling of masculinity. No longer being an active soldier, Mike felt little focus and even less purpose in life because now he had nothing to live for but the wealth he was to inherit. Bill, who was lucky enough to walk away from the war physically unharmed, was emotionally taken back to a place of passiveness and compassion. Lady Brett was once in love with a man who died of dysentery during the war, taking away her first and only real love. Finally, we have Robert Cohn, who was never in the war at all, and that is how it affects him; he is ridiculed for not being a veteran among other things. Not only affecting the men, Jake, Mike and Bill, that fought, WWI affected Lady Brett Ashley and Robert Cohn just as much as it did the soldiers on the front lines. I argue that The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s views on how war affects all people who come into contact with it. Most obviously affected is Jake. Everybody seemed to know just as well as he, that he was hurt by the war in a way that all men fear. Jakes masculinity was completely taken by the same job that was supposed to make him more of a man. On the surface, Jake is what every woman thinks they want; smart, strong, religious,

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