The Lost Generation
The Sun Also Rises explores the lost generation and the trauma and aimlessness and loss of purpose that the generation experienced. Jake goes through the entire book without much sense of purpose and doesn't engage in much besides alcohol and activities to take his mind off of things. He navigates through a post-war Europe that has lost its grandeur, instead indulging in pleasures such as drinking and traveling, in order to escape the emptiness and dissatisfaction of his life. He also does it to distract himself from his injury, representing a permanent wound on his mentality and person. It serves a reminder that he can never escape his past in the war. This is similar to how many people had scarring experiences during that time period, showing how WW1 has left something in Europe and the world that would never be forgotten. It also emasculates him, and Hemingway explores the roles of masculinity in a post-war society that left thousands of men with injuries similar to Jake's. World War One may have lasted only four years, but Hemingway shows the reader how the war never left the lost generation and Jake’s injury is a great symbolic reference of that.
The character’s inability to find fulfillment in relationships or society reflect how the generally aimless pursuits of the lost generation. Even the sparse prose of the book mirrors the emptiness of the lost generation, as Hemingway’s writing style shows how the characters struggle to find a clear sense of purpose. While they may move physically from place to place, the characters are emotionally and mentally stuck in the same place throughout the entire book. This further reinforces that idea of Hemingway’s depiction of those of the lost generation as being doomed to be aimless and lost for eternity. The disillusionment of the characters show how an entire generation was left fractured and broken, changed and scarred forever by a war that crumbled the foundations of a past never to return.
The character’s inability to find fulfillment in relationships or society reflect how the generally aimless pursuits of the lost generation. Even the sparse prose of the book mirrors the emptiness of the lost generation, as Hemingway’s writing style shows how the characters struggle to find a clear sense of purpose. While they may move physically from place to place, the characters are emotionally and mentally stuck in the same place throughout the entire book. This further reinforces that idea of Hemingway’s depiction of those of the lost generation as being doomed to be aimless and lost for eternity. The disillusionment of the characters show how an entire generation was left fractured and broken, changed and scarred forever by a war that crumbled the foundations of a past never to return.
