The Sun Also Rises Symbolism Essay

J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “Not all who wander are lost.”, and while this may be true for many people, it is certainly not true for all the characters in Ernest Hemingway’s book, The Sun Also Rises (TSAR). This novel, written in 1926, centers on Jake Barnes and his friends, who are all members of the Lost Generation. Hemingway leaves many loose ends at the end of TSAR, with many things still up in the air by the end of this novel. Hemingway utilizes many different literary devices such as symbolism and first person point-of-view to clearly present the main theme of his novel; the Lost Generation. Jake and his posse epitomize the people of the Lost Generation. Jake was wounded, physically and mentally, in the war just like many other members of the Lost Generation and he feels that he lost a very vital part of himself and his masculinity. Jake, however, has found one thing that helps to reiterate his masculinity and that is his passion for bullfighting. Jake states, “We often talked about bulls and bull-fighters... It was simply the pleasure of discovering what we each felt.” (137). Jake’s love for the bulls and the bullfights are the only source of passion that he appears to have in his life. Symbolism appears in this part of the novel, specifically during the fiesta and the bullfights because the bullfights symbolize Jake’s masculinity. His knowledge and passion for bullfights are the only type of manliness and masculinity that Jake can produce. Jake does not have a care in the world for almost everything in
The ending of TSAR has many loose ends and we seemingly have no idea where the characters will go or what they will do in the future, much like all the members of the Lost Generation. All the characters in this novel are lost and they will continue to wander for the rest of their lives unless they make a drastic change to how they