The Rising of the Characters in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway’s novel entitled “The Sun also Rises” is a story of different men from different backgrounds. The main character or protagonist in the story is Jake Barnes. Along with him in his journey were Robert Cohn whom to be his closest friend, Lady Brett Ashley whom to be the love of his life, Mike Campbell whom to be Brett’s fiancé, and Bill Gorton whom to be the other friend of the group. The story started in a biographical description of Jake on his friend Robert Cohn. He called him Cohn while he narrates his story, their story.

Jake is a World War I veteran whom soon becomes a journalist while Cohn is a rich Jewish writer. Cohn asked Jake to go with him to the South America but Jake refuses to go with him. When they went to a disco club, they saw Brett. Jake reminisce the memory when he and Brett met during the World War I. It was actually a great time for them to have their relationship but Brett refuses to make up with him because she learned that because of Jake’s wound, he is already impotents and she could did not want to sacrifice her sexual urge just for Jake.

Soon, Brett and Mike met that made Brett fall in love with him. Brett became Mike’s fiancé and would like to go to Spain to spend their moment together and watch the fiesta. They met Jake, Cohn, and Bill during their trip. During the journey, they could not able to find each other so they went to Spain in pairs – Jake and Bill as a pair, while Mike, Brett, and Cohn as the other pair. They had a great time during the first night but it’s been Brett who has the greatest night because she had the opportunity to know Pedro Romero, a handsome but young bullfighter.

Brett decided to go with Romero but soon went back to Mike and said that she does not want to ruin Romero’s life and career. The story ends when Brett asked Jake to accompany her to Mike. Brett realizes that Jake is a good companion during their journey together. Jake and Cohn have many similarities and differences throughout the whole novel. Even if they have different backgrounds, they are similar in the way on how they treat a woman and how they think about the larger perspective of human life.

Because in the beginning of the novel, Jake illustrated the biography of Cohn, he had stated all his strengths and weaknesses that made the readers understood the personality of Cohn in the beginning of the novel while Jake’s character emerged and evolved into a larger scale as the novel went through. Jake described Cohn depending on how he perceived Cohn’s identity whether on his career, personal life, or love life. “He was more enthusiastic about America than ever, and he was not so simple, and he was not so nice,” (Hemingway 16).

Even if Cohn was not a war veteran, both of them have simple dreams and per4spectives in life. It was seen on their journey in Spain and the way they treated women especially Brett. Even if Cohn did not acknowledge his feelings right through Jake’s naked emotions, he knew that he likes Brett, next to Francesca. Because they both like Brett, they wanted Brett to be happy even if the cause is strange to both of them. However, Jake is more prank than Cohn. Cohn does not show his feelings so much while Jake is open to his feelings or emotions in different people.

The difference between Cohn and Jake aside from the fact that Jake went to the war while Cohn did not is that Jake is more open to reality while Cohn was not that broad when it comes to the real situations. Another thing is that Jake is a journalist while Cohn is a writer. It means that Jake is more on the actual or real revelation of the reality while Cohn is more on the fictional sense of the world. “The publisher has praised his novel pretty highly and it rather went to his head.

Then several women had put themselves out to be nice to him, and his horizons had all shifted,” (16). Cohn lived in a fictional life with all the praises and acknowledgement of the people behind him while Jake lived in a realm where there is battle, fear, hatred, and sufferings that he needs to overcome while he is living. Their differences evolved into a wider scenario as the novel went on. However, in the beginning of the novel showed their big differences as Jake did not want to go where Cohn wants and vice versa.

Cohn wants more on the historical side while Jake wants on the cultural side of the country they want to go. “So there you were. I was sorry for him, but it was not a thing you could do anything about because right away you ran up against the two stubbornness: South America could fix it and he did not like Paris,” (20). However, the thing is that Jake is more convicted with what he says rather than Cohn. When Jake wants something, he pursued it even if there are things that might be interrupted. Nevertheless, he worked on it to avoid circumstances that Cohn could not obtain.

This is what Jake learned in the war that Cohn did not learned while having his rich life and popularity as a writer. As a whole, both Jake and Cohn showed their contrasting and similar personalities throughout the whole novel. All the other characters helped them obtain their characterization and realization in the beginning and end of the story that mould them to become significant protagonists in the novel. The author showed balance information on how to perceive the characters in different angles and concepts that would not overlap Jake and Cohn’s establishment of characterization.

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The Rising of the Characters in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. (2016, Sep 05). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/the-rising-of-the-characters-in-ernest-hemingways-the-sun-also-rises/

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