Essays on Works by American Expaitriate Writers

Extract

[...] And still, he does not say anything to Brett but entirely puts the blame on Robert Cohn. Cohn is another type of victim. One feels compassion for Mike, but Hemingway created in Cohn an almost detestable character. In essence he is not a bad man, he has been a scapegoat throughout his life, but it is difficult to feel compassion for him. As several characters observe it in the book, Cohn is useless, he is just sitting there and not adding anything to the conversation. [...]

[...] She is not satisfied with her life and thus tries to make up for its emptiness by wandering from man to man, trying to achieve a personal quest for love and happiness. Mike, Brett's future husband, might be considered to be the victim in the book. Brett likes him for sure, but obviously does not love him and keeps on being unfaithful to him. He on the other hand is crazy about her. To prove her his love and over all to keep her, he turns a blind eye on her affairs. [...]

[...] Nicole now acts like a jealous wife, harassing her husband about Rosemary instance on page 184 when she tries to make Dick confess that he is attracted to the young actress. In some chapters Nicole literally acts with madness, for example on page 211 when the Divers have an accident and Nicole gets completely hysterical. This is the moment of the book where Nicole plumbs the depths: in the following book, the reader assists to Nicole's rebirth, one might say. [...]

[...] His answer is amazingly powerful by its extreme bitterness –especially with the use of the word "pretty"- and by the fact that he seems resigned about something he is unable to fight against. But although the end is tragic, another interpretation that might be considered complementary would be that these two sentences imply that Jake and Brett will always love one another in some way. The title as well gives a little bit of hope : life can be difficult, sad, bitter, but in the end the sun also rises. [...]

[...] When Dick is sent to prison and beaten by carabinieri in Rome, she acts with a lot of authority, crying “passionately”, “angrily”(p.250) and growing “hysterical”(p.252) in order to free Dick. All of the characters mentioned above confirm Fitzgerald's quote: their actions show from the beginning who they really are. Nevertheless, three of the main characters of the same two novels do not act straight from the beginning in line with their genuine personality. In The Sun Also Rises, Brett is not in reality the strong and independent woman she seems to be. [...]