Spiritual Characteristics of The Lost Generation
Spiritual Characteristics of The Lost Generation as Shown in The Sun Also Rises
1. Introduction
1.1Introduction to Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) occupies an important place in American literature. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois. During his lifetime, he received many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in 1954 for The Old Man and the Sea. In 2001, two of his books, The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms, were named on the list of 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.
Many readers and scholars view differently about Hemingway?s works. Reynolds asserts that Hemingway "left stories and novels so starkly moving that some have become part of our cultural heritage.”(2000:15). According to Oliver, Hemingway's legacy to American literature is his style：“W riters who came after him emulated it or avoided it.”(1999:140-141).On October 31, 1926, The New York Times published a review with this praise:
No amount of analysis can convey the quality of "The Sun Also Rises." It is a truly gripping story, told in a lean, hard, athletic narrative prose that puts more literary English to shame. Mr. Hemingway knows how not only to make words be specific but how to arrange a collection of words which shall betray a great deal more than is to be found in the individual parts. It is magnificent writing, filled with that organic action which gives a compelling picture of character. This novel is unquestionably one of the events of an unusually rich year in literature. (
1.2 Introduction to The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises, published, in 1926, is Ernest Hemingway?s first important novel. According to Hemingway biographer and scholar Jeffrey Meyers, it is "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work"(1985:192). The novel deals with a group of aimless expatriates in France and Spain. They are members of the cynical and disillusioned Post-World War I Lost Generation. The leading male character, Jake Barnes, was physically injured in World War I. He falls in love with lady Brett Ashley, who pursues the flapper life. Lady Brett drifts through a series of affairs. Jake feels he is tricked by the war and is dismayed, so he drinks day and night. Then Both Jack and Lady Brett Ashley and several accompanies go to Pamplona for the annual festival of bull fights for the enjoyment of mental risk. There, Lady Brett Ashley refuses the love of Robert Cohn, one of jack?s friends, but she falls in love with Pedro Romero, a nineteen year-old bull fighter. After some time, they find they do not fit each other and Lady Ashley does not want to ruin the future of the young man, so they break up. Finally, Lady Brett Ashley returns to Jack. They want to restart their life but they know they can not live together.
This novel is full of surface excitement ---love, sexual rivalry, caféhopping, dancing, smoking in France, the bull fight in Pamplona, finishing excursions in the Spanish countryside. However, it reflects people?s hopeless and aimless emotions and buried values after the war. Although the novel does not talk about the war, readers can infer from Jack, who becomes impotent because of the injures in the war, and from other characters that they all suffer physical and mental pains from the war. Therefore, the war is the source of the tragedy.
The themes of the novel can be seen from the beginning of the book: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever" (Ecclesiastes ,2009:195).
With the publication of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway was recognized as the representative of the Lost Generation”. Nagel states that “After his reputation was sealed with the publication of The Sun Also Rises, he became the spokesperson for the post-World War I generation, having established a style to follow.”(1996:87). Mellow poin ts out that “The Sun Also Rises epitomized the post-war expatriate generation for future generations” (1992:302).
The Sun Also Rises gained an immediate success and almost instantly became a bible for many disillusioned individuals because it was the first novel that fully captured the feelings of
moral decay and social alienation. It was shared by the Lost Generation: "You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You're an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés." (Stein, 2007:23).
1.3 Introduction to the Lost Generation
In fact, the term "Lost Generation" was originally coined in a conversation by Gertrude Stein, a member of the expatriate circle in 1920's Paris. Then the expression was used to describe youngsters from the United States and England who had rejected traditional American and British conventions for the more appealing lifestyle of Paris.
In American literature, the Lost Generation is a term used to describe a group of American writers who were rebelling against what America had become by the 1900?s. At this time, America had become “go into some area of business” (Crunden, 185). H owever, the Lost Generation writers felt that America was not such a success story because the country was devoid of a cosmopolitan culture. Their solution to this issue was to pack up their bags and travel to Europe?s cosmopolitan cultures, such as Paris and L ondon. Here they expected to find literary freedom and a cosmopolitan way of life.( https://www.wendangku.net/doc/4616019236.html,/wiki/Lost_Generation).
They seeked the bohemian lifestyle and rejected the values of American materialism, and a number of intellectuals, poets, artists and writers fled to France, and Paris was the center of it all. “The "Lost Generation" defines a sense of moral loss or aimlessness apparent in literary figures during the 1920s. These literary figures also criticized American culture in creative fictional stories which had the themes of self-exile, indulgence (care-free living) and spiritual alienation.”(https://www.wendangku.net/doc/4616019236.html,/Departments/hpolscrv/jbolhofer.html ).
2 Spiritual Characteristics of the Lost Generation as Shown in The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises successfully depicts the picture of the roaring twenties and the debauchery that existed during the decade. The main characters in the novel have no real goal or sense of
enjoyment. All of them lose their sense of values, their beliefs, morals, patriotism, even religion. They lose their hope and are disillusioned. They try to escape from a world that they hate because this world no longer truly satisfies them. They begin to indulge themselves and totally lose themselves. The novel vividly demonstrates the main characteristics of the Lost Generation: disillusion; escapism, and indulgence.
Main characteristics in the sun also rises are as follows.
2.1Disillusion in The Sun Also Rises
Disillusion is one of the characteristics of the Lost Generation. This is vividly shown in the novel through the main characters, especially through Jack and Brett. Jack is the narrator of the story. He suffered physical injuries in the war. As a result, he is unable to pursue a sexual relationship with Brett, which makes him disillusioned. The war brings him not only physical pain but also psychological pain, and in fact what really hurts him is this psychological pain. He loses direction in his life. All his dreams and values are ruined. After the war, Jake and his friends all follow the same schedule: wake up, work for a few hours, have lunch, drink, meet friends, drink, go to the café, drink, go to a club, drink, go home, drink, go to sleep. They are constantly moving from one place to another with endless social appointments. They are always drinking lots of alcohol, They do not have any important or necessary things to do. In other words, they live a life lacking in meaning, direction, and emotional connection. This lifestyle is full of disillusions. Their beliefs and values have been blown away, even their religion. God is also dead in the war. Jack believes that some people have God, but God never works very well for him. This indicates the loss of faith. In the novel, Jack frequently remarks “to hell”. He says to himself, “To hell with women, anyway. To hell with you, Brett Ashley.” (2009: 306).
After the war, Jack even leaves his own country to seek a carefree life. He loses his confidence in his own country and is disillusioned of his country. This can be viewed through the remarks of Bill “You?re are an expatriate. One of the worst type. Haven?t you heard that? Nobody that ever left their own country ever wrote anything worth printing, Not even in the newspapers.” (280).
The Lost Generation feels everything is meaningless, as Jack says: “I can?t stand it to think
my life is going to so fast and I?m n ot really living it. Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.” (200).Jack is convinced that only bull fighting can make people feel mental risk. His illusion is broken during the war, so after the war he is disillusioned and only gains pleasure from bullfighting. By travelling to Spain with his accompanies, going fishing, watching bullfight, he wants to seek mental risk, to relieve the pain both physically and psychologically, but finally he can?t realize his plan and desire as well as his emotional despair. The remarks of Bill clearly prove this.
“You?re an expatriate. You?ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all yo ur time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes?”(280).
Part of Jake?s character represents the Lost Generation and its unfortunate position: he wanders through Paris, going from bar to bar and drinking heavily at each, and his life is filled with purposelessness and disillusion.
Jack is also a typical member of the Lost Generation. Their experiences in World War I undermined their belief in justice, morality, manhood, and love. Without ideals to rely on, the Lost Generation lived an aimless and disillusioned life.
The formation of Brett?s character is to a large extent due to the influence of the war, too. During the war, Brett?s true love died of dysentery. Then she divorced her husband. Still in the war, she falls in love with Jack. She thinks she can find her true love again, but the fact is that Jack is impotent. She totally loses her hope. She thinks she can not find her true love any more. She is despaired and disillusioned, so she chooses to live an indulgent life, having affairs with other men to her heart?s content Cohn, the Count, Romero and Mike. The war has destroyed her true love, and she cannot face this fact. She even falls in love with a nineteen-year-old bullfighter, though she is engaged to Mike. In fact, the only man she truly loves is Jake, but she can not have him. Therefore, she is disillusioned. This is shown in the dialogue between Jack and Brett.
“Don?t touch me,” she said. “Please don?t touch me.”
“What?s the matter?”
“I can?t stand it.”
“Oh, Brett.”
“You mustn?t. You must know. I can?t stand it, that?s all. Oh, darling, please understand!”
“Don?t you love me?”
“Love you? I simply turn all to jelly when you touch me.”
“And there?s not a damn thing we could do,” I said.
“I don?t know,” she said. “I don?t want to go through that hell again. When I think of the hell I?ve put chaps through. I?m paying for it all now.” (211-212).
Brett wants a happy life and true love, but the relent war destroys everything. At the end of the novel, Brett says to Jack ：“Oh, Jack,” Brett said, “we could have had a damned good time together.”“Yes,” I said. “Isn?t it pretty to think so?” (387).
2.2Escapism in The Sun Also Rises
Escapism is another characteristic of the Lost Generation. The Lost Generation rebelled the traditions, but they were all born in the old times. The old values were too severe for them to bear, so they chose to escape for self-protection, to escape from themselves and the cruel reality.
The main character Jack Barnes is a typical example of this escape. He escapes from himself. At the beginning of the novel, when Robert Cohn proposes that he and Jack go to south America to seek romance after Cohn has read the novel of W.H.Hudson, Jack thinks that it is funny to go to other places in order to make a cha nge. He says to Cohn: “Listen, Robert, going to another country does not make any difference. I?ve tried all that. You can?t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There is nothing to that.”(201). Jack sees through Cohn?s naivety and illusion, but when it comes to his own problem, he becomes confused. Jack is physically injured in the war and becomes impotent. After returning to the daily life, he is not willing to face it and always tries to escape it. At the beginning of the novel, when he meets a girl in the restaurant and the girl asks him what has happened to him and why he is sick, he answers “I got hurt in the war,
oh, that dirty war.” Just like the novel goes, “We would probably have gone on and discussed the war and agreed that it was in reality a calamity for civilization, and perhaps have been better avoided .I was bored enough .”(204).
The war brings tremendous disasters to him. Jack loves Brett very much, but he never bravely admits to himself the fact that he is physically injured .He can not give Brett the complete love. On the contrary, he pursues Brett all the way and tries to escape from himself, which makes him more grieved. The psychological pain resulting from the physical injury is greater than the physical pain. He is totally defeated by the war both physically and psychologically. The only way to relieve the pain is to escape from himself, trying not to think about this pain. This is clearly shown in the talk between Jack and Brett. “Don?t talk like a fool, besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it.”(212). What Jack thinks is “Not to think about it. Oh, it was swell advice. Try and take it sometime. Try and take it.”(216).
But in fact Jack can?t really escape from himself at all. A lthough he pretends to be physically healthy, at night he can?t do it, because the pains become more severe. Just as Jack says, “It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.”(218). “There is no rea son why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light. The hell there isn?t it” (306).All these disturb him frequently at night. He loses himself, and has no choice but to escape.
At the end of the novel, when Brett says to Jack: “Oh, Jack, we could have had such a damned good time together.” Jack answers that: “Yes, Isn?t it pretty to think so?” From Jack?s answer, readers can infer that Jack still lives the life of escaping. He has completely lost himself.
Robert Cohn?s es capism is from reality. He is a wealthy writer. Though he is an expatriate like many of his accompanies, Cohn is different in that he has never fought in the war. He holds on to the romantic prewar ideals of love and fair play, yet, against the backdrop of the devastating legacy of World War I. Sadly, Cohn?s value system has no place in the postwar world, and Cohn cannot sustain it. （Chang,2007）.
He is completely unaware of the inner emptiness which all the other characters must have faced in their own live s. Cohn?s lack of war experience leads to the result that he has never really experienced life nor really knows about life. He merely reads about life written in books since he is a writer. In the first chapter of the novel, he even plans to go to South America for a change,
according to the book written by W.H.Hudson. Jack knows this is ridiculous, because the war has taught people that life is not what people hope it to be. People live in a cruel world, and there is nothing people can do to change it. The reason why Cohn acts like this is that his life experience teaches him to refuse to reconcile the illusion with the reality. He lives in his own ideal world. As Mike repeatedly says in the novel: “I?m not clever. But I do know when I?m not wanted. Why don?t you see when you?re not wanted, Cohn? Go away .Go away, for God?s sake. Take that sad Jewish face away. Don?t you think I?m right?” (330).
He knows that Brett has a fiance and she is indifferent to him, but he has the illusion that his affairs with Brett have emotional value. After Mike insults him, he just thinks that Mike drinks too much, and escapes from the reality. He even feels happy because he thinks everyone knows he has been away with Brett. After he knows the relationship between Brett and Romero and beats Romero, he can?t accept the fact and says to Jack
“I just couldn?t stand it about Brett. I?ve been through hell, Jake. It?s been simply hell. When I met her down here Brett treated me as though I were a perfect stranger. I just couldn?t stan d it. We lived together at San Sebastian. I suppose you know it. I can?t stand it any more.”(343).
He still fails to face reality. He chooses to escape from it and is totally lost in himself, too.
2.3Indulgence in The Sun Also Rises
Indulgence is the third characteristic of the Lost Generation. The Lost Generation is morally lost or aimless. They live a life of indulgence (care-free living) and spiritual alienation. There are two forms of indulgence as shown in The Sun Also Rises, one in alcohol and the other in sexual relationship.
2.3.1 Indulgence in Alcohol
W. Crowley once remarked that “The Sun Also Rises is, in fact, a major example of the drunk narrative, in which alcoholism is inseparable from the modernist ethos of despair.” (1994:44). The Lost Generation takes alcoholism as a tool to show their rebellion and indulgence. They want to fight against the old values by excessive drinking and indulging themselves.
The Sun Also Rises is full of excessive drinking. Everyone in the novel, both male and female, at both daytime and night, drinks a lot .As Jack remarks in the novel “Mike was a bad drunk. Brett
was a good drunk. Bill was a good drunk. Cohn was never drunk.” (307). Of course, Jack is also a drunk. The war brings tremendous pains to them, so they drink a lot to relieve their pains. They indulge themselves in drinking to cure their physical and psychological loss.
The characters in the novel are flabby in their self-indulgence, and are influenced by a variety of illusions concerning themselves and life. They have no hope but to live a life of indulgence. Readers can see this from the remarks of Bill:
“You?re an expatriate. You…ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes.”
“It sounds like a swell life,” I said. “When do I work?”
“You don?t work. One group claims women support you. Another group claims you?re impotent.”
“No,” I said. “I just had an accident.” (280-281).
2.3.2 Indulgence in Sexual Relationship
Brett Ashley is a beautiful British socialite who drinks heavily. She divorced her husband after the war. Lady Brett drifts through a series of affairs despite her love for Jake, who has become impotent by a war wound. She is unwilling to commit to a relationship with him because it will mean giving up sex. Brett is engaged with Mike, but she still has affairs with others. Ironically, Mike does not c are too much. He even says “Mark you. Brett?s had affairs with men before. She tells me all about everything. She gave me this chap Cohn?s letters to read. I wouldn?t read them.”(303). Brett wants to make a change by living in another mode of life. As a vi ctim of the war, she just loses her direction and tries to live a true life in the cruel society. Brett even falls in love with the bullfighter Romero, who is only nineteen year?s old. Finally, they break up because they belong to different generations. Brett is still indulged while Romero has a bright future.
Brett?s personal search is perhaps symbolic of the entire Lost Generation?s search for the shattered prewar values of love and romance.Brett is one of the victims of the war and her distortion of sexual role is characterized by the period. In fact, for people living in the postwar
period, the life of true love is only a sight beyond reach .The true love is dead. Therefore, they choose to indulge themselves.
3. Conclusion
The Sun Also Rises represents the Lost Generation?s search for new values because the old values and standards had been destroyed by the war. The novel vividly shows the main characteristics of Lost Generation: disillusion, escapism and indulgence.
In this novel, the leading male character Jack is the typical example of the Lost Generation, and he represents the best of the Lost Generation. The best that is lost. He becomes an expatriate in France, suffering the pain both physically and psychologically, and drinking alcohol all day and night. His life is terrible with haunting nightmare and incurable wounds from the war. Escape leads him to nowhere, and drinking alcohol makes him lost in deeper desperation. He is disillusioned and feels that he is cheated by the old values. This generation has no choice but to live a “lost” life. The sun also rises, but this generation can no longer rise.
It is easy to draw the conclusion that the Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises can no longer rise nor stay. The spirit of the characters can not find a pleasant and safe home. They are totally disillusioned. To escape from the cruel realty, they indulge themselves in alcoholism, degenerate themselves in sexual relationship, cheat themselves in fake romanticism, or firmly close their eyes before the reality. They drink themselves to death, and they take drinking alcohol as a symbol to show their rebellion and a sign of indulgence.
The Lost Generation is victim of the war, and they have no hope and faith in life. The war not only causes physical injures to them, but also ruins the generation spiritually and morally. Their lives are distorted, and meaningless. Unfortunately, nobody can rescue them except themselves.
Sometimes people use silence to fight against reality; sometimes people use fighting to fight against reality; sometimes people use decadence to fight against reality; and sometimes people use escapism to fight against reality……Different people have their different methods to face the reality at their time. So does the Lost Generation. The Lost Generation, against the specific historical background face reality by means of losing themselves.
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