Close Reading on the Sun Also Rises free essay sample

Except when Jake and Bill went on their fishing trip, drinking is always excessive, and most characters enjoy getting drunk. In general, excessive drinking provides a way of escaping the reality for these characters. Being drunk allows them to avoid thinking about their problems and, ultimately, confronting them. For example, drinking could help Jake not thinking about his impotence, and the fact that he would never be with Brett. Drinking could prevent Brett from the thinking of herself as a slut, and the thinking that her life was aimless and miserable. In Mike’s case, getting drunk becomes an excuse for him to express his true feelings (usually his resentment on Cohn and his insecurity about the engagement with Brett). Under Hemingway’s description, the outcome of excessive drinking is always bad, like Mike’s rudeness and violence. Excessive drinking always makes Jake and his friends have a worse emotional experience than they expected, such as the fight when Cohn beat Jake out. We will write a custom essay sample on Close Reading on the Sun Also Rises or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Some drinking scenes in the previous chapters are different from this one. These differences are subtle but crucial in the development of the content. In the beginning chapters (Book I), Hemingway implies that Jake’s routine life contains lots of drinking. A common day of his would have following activities – wake up, work for a few hours, have lunch, drink, meet a friend, drink, go to cafe, drink, go to club, drink, go home, drink and sleep. Jake’s excessive drinking is due to his personality. Jake is a conservative character and narrator. He likes to hint at things rather than state them outright, especially when they come to the war or his impotence. It might because Jake felt ashamed with his injury, which he believes it made him less manly. So he got annoyed with people talking about it. At the same time, he loves Brett, but they could never be together because of his injury. This increases his resentment about his injury and other things related to it, such as his resentment to Robert Cohn. These repressed emotions were never talked frankly with anybody in the beginning of the novel, when all of them were in Paris. However, the drinking scene changed when Jake and Bill went fishing in Spanish countryside. On their way to Burggett, Bill and Jake were engaged in a conversation with some Basque peasants which involved drinking (p. 09 – p. 113). Drinking happened there was not excessive as it was in Paris. It is more of an accelerator helping people to start a conversation (p. 109). Similarly during their fishing, drinking also functioned as a healthy social factor that helped Jake and Bill to be more frank. They talked about a lot after they had some wine after fishing, even topics Jake would usually avoid. For exa mple, when Bill asked Jake about his feeling toward Brett, Jake directly told him he had loved Brett for a long time, and he was not bothered that Bill asked him (p. 128). They even talked about Jake’s religion. These conversations involved drinking are probably one of the most important factors that cause Jake’s mental development including his view about religion and his affection toward Brett. Compared to the previous two drinking scene, this passage in the final chapter shows Jake has reached a much more peaceful state to see Brett again. When Brett worries about him might be drinking too much, he replied that he is not getting drunk and he drinks wine because he likes it. This shows Jake does not treat drinking as a method to avoid his impotence and his twisted affection toward Brett, even though he might not like excessive drinking at all. He drinks because he likes it. He does things out of his heart. He is frank to himself now. This frankness could also be seen in the last sentence of this novel, where Jake said â€Å"‘Isn’t it pretty to think so? ’† when Brett still fancies that Jake and her would be together (p. 251). It shows Jake finally accepts the fact that he is impotent and he would never be with Brett, and not just be resentful about it like he was in the beginning of the novel. Together with the previous two drinking scenes, it is very clear to see the progress of Jake’s mental development. Brett is also acting different in this conversation compared to other conversations that involved drinking. Also in the very beginning of the novel, she drank excessively. She drank almost every time she showed up: She went to dancing, she drank. She got drunk and ran to Jake’s apartment; she still drank (p. 40). She sent a count to buy drinks when she went to Jake’s place the second time (p. 62). To Brett, drinking not only provided a way to escape the painful fact that she lost her true love in the war, but also acted as a social function in which she could flirt with the men and pick up her â€Å"dates†. Sometimes these â€Å"dates† would even offer her lots of money (p. 41). In this case, drinking even means make money. However, in this dialogue, Brett is seriously advising Jake not to get drunk. She repeats â€Å"‘Don’t get drunk’† three times to show her sincerity and her concern about Jake. It shows that Brett is having a big change of her attitude toward Jake. Brett seems to become more accepted toward Jake’s love. Maybe because, she just realizes the differences between Jake and other guys (she could be frank with Jake, but not with other guys), and wants to cherish the true love between her and Jake. This is also coherent with Brett’s intimate behavior (â€Å"We sat close against each other† p. 251) in the last part when Jake and Brett sat in the cab wandering around Madrid. Brett’s mental development is probably due to her affair with Romero. She gives up this relationship because she realizes she could not change herself to be a traditional woman that Romero likes. She then starts to cherish those men who can really love who she is, and Jake stands out of those men with his self-sacrifice-like action to help Brett to get Romero. However in this conversation and the rest content in this chapter, her final realization is less profound compared to Jake. There is another thing about this conversation that has an important correlation with previous chapters. In this conversation, Jake suggests to take a taxi and ride through Madrid. Yet, a similar situation occurred in the beginning chapters of this novel when Jake first met Brett in a dancing-club. That time, Jake took Brett outside of the dancing-club, and Brett was the one to suggest that they â€Å"‘drive around’†. The interaction between Jake and Brett was also quite the opposite with the drive-around in Madrid. In the Paris taxi-drive, Jake tried to hug Brett, but Brett refused him. Yet, in this conversation and its following context, Brett wanted to hug Jake first, but Jake was acting out some sense of rejection with the words â€Å"I settled back,† (p. 251). The different reactions between Jake and Brett in this scene are also a representation of their different mental statements, where Brett became more accepting of Jake’s love, while Jake became more accepting of the fact he would never be with Brett.