The Sun Also Rises

"I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main theme is manliness..." once said by Ernest Gaines . Although Ernest Hemingway takes a different route to manliness in his book, The Sun Also Rises. It is made evident with the radical reevaluation of what it is to be masculine, and the rendering of Jake's manhood, useless because of an injury obtained during World War 1 that the recurring theme is the male insecurity. First, the male insecurity is shown as World War 1 questioned what it real means to be virile. The prewar ideas of being a man was you need to be brave, strong, and fight to the end. During the war it showed the brutal trench war, disease, and hunger the soldiers had to go through. There was rats, lice, and trench foot. With the lice came trench fever, a painful disease that began with sever pain followed by high fever. Then, trench foot, a fungal infection of the feet caused by the cold, wet and unsanitary trench conditions. Many soldiers died from either disease or injury, but the soldier who saw them died in a daily bases began to have phycological problems. Later they would come to realize if they died or lived, it depended more upon luck than bravery. Thus questioning what in reality means to be a man. With regards to, the war renders his phallus useless because of an injury. With the feelings that Jake has for Brett makes him feel less of a man, because he feel that he can't satisfy her. Then with Jake Barnes confession to Brett, Lady Ashley in chapter seven, "Couldn't we live together, Brett? Couldn't we just live together?" Then Brett response,
"I don't think so I'm just a tromper you with everybody. You couldn't stand it." Meaning that he can't satisfy her need for Intercourse. In other words, in order for her to be satisfied, she would have to commit adultery. She will have to go behind Jake's back and go with other men to satisfy her needs. Then, she knows that he won't be a will stand it. With her response he knows for