Swimming slowly, in the sea, at San Sebastian : convalescence, memory, and the body in Ernest Hemingway's The sun also rises

Abstract

“Emotion,” Spinoza writes, “which is suffering, ceases to be suffering once we form a clear picture of it.” The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is the story of Jake Barnes struggle to form a clear picture of his suffering amongst the Lost Generation of post-World War One Europe. In this thesis, we will take a thorough look at Hemingway’s use of the images of football, youth, and war in relation to the characters of Robert Cohn and Jake Barnes. We will find through looking at the relationship of these characters and these images, where to locate meaning in the novel. The thesis will also use the larger body of Hemingway’s work, fiction and non-fiction, biography, and letters. Through looking closely at the novel and its greater context, we can see how Hemingway offers a protagonist who overcomes both his personal disaster and the crisis of the age: nihilism.