Jake's Pleasures

Analytical Essay # 46448

English > Analysis
Literature > American

Jake's Pleasures

A look at how Ernest Hemingway defines his heroic character, Jake Barnes, in his novel, "The Sun Also Rises".

2,005 words () | 1 source | MLA | 1999 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how an important theme in Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" is the ability and need for one to find pleasure in the small things that life has to offer. It looks at how Hemingway believed that, in the big, noisy and chaotic world of the early twentieth century, it is essential for one to find meaning and value in small things, such as a good meal or a cool evening breeze. It discusses how Jake Barnes is able to do so and, thus, emerges as the most likeable and heroic character in the novel. It analyzes the way in which Jake Barnes is able to find pleasure in the simple things that life has to offer, such a good meal or bullfighting, and considers the significant disappointments and frustrations of his life, i.e. his ill-fated love affair with Lady Brett Ashley, and the way in which his ability to find contentment in life's small pleasures allows him to deal with such problems.

From the Paper:

"Jakes Barnes is an American journalist who spends most of his time vacationing in Europe with friends. Early in the novel, the reader is introduced to the flamboyant Lady Brett Ashley, who is obviously the love of Jake's life. The conversation between the two has a maddening aimless quality to it, but the reader is able to learn that while the two love each other, they have never, nor will they ever, achieve happiness together. The reader also learns that Jake has suffered a war injury which leaves him unable to fulfill his sexual desires. Jakes tries to forget about his injury, as he tells Brett " what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it? (Hemingway 26). However, it is obvious throughout the novel that Jake is frustrated by his injury and by his hopeless love affair with Brett."