Connie Hunter-Gillepsie - The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingways

The Sun Also Rises

Text by

Connie Hunter-Gillespie

(M.E., Miami University)
Department of English
Connersville High School
Connersville, Indiana

Illustrations by
Richard Fortunato

Research & Education Association

MAXnotes for
THE SUN ALSO RISES

Copyright 1996 by Research & Education Association. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-67408

International Standard Book Number 0-87891-049-2

MAXnotes is a registered trademark of Research & Education Association, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854

I-1

What MAXnotes Will Do for You

This book is intended to help you absorb the essential contents and features of Ernest Hemingways The Sun Also Rises and to help you gain a thorough understanding of the work. The book has been designed to do this more quickly and effectively than any other study guide.

For best results, this MAXnotes book should be used as a companion to the actual work, not instead of it. The interaction between the two will greatly benefit you.

To help you in your studies, this book presents the most up-to-date interpretations of every section of the actual work, followed by questions and fully explained answers that will enable you to analyze the material critically. The questions also will help you to test your understanding of the work and will prepare you for discussions and exams.

Meaningful illustrations are included to further enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the literary work. The illustrations are designed to place you into the mood and spirit of the works settings.

The MAXnotes also include summaries, character lists, explanations of plot, and section-by-section analyses. A biography of the author and discussion of the works historical context will help you put this literary piece into the proper perspective of what is taking place.

The use of this study guide will save you the hours of preparation time that would ordinarily be required to arrive at a complete grasp of this work of literature. You will be well prepared for classroom discussions, homework, and exams. The guidelines that are included for writing papers and reports on various topics will prepare you for any added work which may be assigned.

The MAXnotes will take your grades to the max.

Dr. Max Fogiel
Program Director

Contents

Each Chapter includes List of Characters, Summary, Analysis, Study Questions and Answers, and Suggested Essay Topics.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1899 to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence Hemingway. His mother was musically gifted and religious, but he did not follow his mothers musical ambitions for him. Rather, he shared his fathers interests in hunting and fishing. In school he took up boxing.

He began his journalism career in 1917. During World War I, he fought in the Italian infantry. Sustaining serious wounds caused him to treasure life, fear death, and handle himself well in the face of danger. He was a Red Cross ambulance driver until he was wounded. He returned home after falling in love and being rejected by the nurse who cared for him.

In 1921, Hemingway married for the first time and went to Paris where he joined a coterie of other literary minds, including Ezra Pound, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and others. His first book, Three Stories and Ten Poems, was published in Paris in 1923. During this time he also frequented Spain and became familiar with bullfights and fiestas, which later provided material for books.

In 1926 he divorced his first wife and married again the next year. With publication of The Sun Also Rises in 1926, Hemingway became a distinguished writer of his time. This book was declared the voice of the lost generation.

In the 1930s, Hemingway settled in Key West and later Cuba, but still traveled to Spain, Italy, and Africa. He published several novels during this decade. In 1940, he divorced his second wife and married his third. In 1945, he divorced his third wife and married for a final time in 1946.

In 1953 he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea, his most popular work. In 1954 he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his powerful, style-forming mastery of the art of narration. He has been named one of the most powerful influences on the American short story and novel.

In 1960 he was institutionalized for bouts of paranoia and depression and received electroshock treatments. They were unsuccessful, though, and he committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho, in 1961. His father had also committed suicide.

When Hemingway went to Paris in 1921, he experienced a culture shock. Gertrude Steins phrase lost generation referred to the prevalent attitude of the day. The phrase came into usage because all maps were useless andthey had to explore a newfound land for themselvesthis generation was lost (Mizener 122). In essence, these people could accept nothing about current attitudes.

They wanted to begin over through experience to work out a code of conduct to live by and respect. Members of the Jazz Age included painters, writers, rioters, artists, and the idle rich all living decadent lives. These people were American expatriates who had come to Paris as a haven for creativity and Bohemian lifestyles.

Actually, many were escaping conservative American attitudes. After World War I, politicians seemed untrustworthy, and Prohibition was politically popular. There was an upsurge of fundamentalist ministers, book and movie censorship, and groups like the KKK. Paris streets, in contrast, were filled with silent movie stars, beautiful people, and lots of liquor.

Days of cars, installment loans, and refrigerators had changed womens roles, too. They now sported short skirts, sheer dresses, bobbed hair, and lipstick. Instead of binding their waists, they now bound their breasts. This was the first generation of women to drink, smoke, dance wildly, and deal with marital problems by divorce.

Paris provided those quick divorces and diversions for this lost generation. Writers of the time had energy and optimism (Mizener, 122). They were idealists who scorned conservative, American attitudes. They were dissatisfied with their own country and preferred to live elsewhere. It is said all writers eventually passed through Paris because the European world allowed them to discover the possibilities in themselves as Americans (Mizener, 124).

Jake Barnesnarrator; World War I American veteran; newspaper editor from Kansas City living abroad; impotent due to a war injury.

Robert CohnJewish; from a wealthy family; 34; mediocre writer; has difficulty with women.

Lady Ashley (Brett)Jakes love; 34; is married to Lord Ashley but getting a divorce; has several affairs; an alcoholic.

Bill GortonJakes fishing/bullfighting buddy he meets in Spain; writer

Mike CampbellBretts fiance; rich but on an allowance; an alcoholic.

Pedro Romeroaficinado; 19-year-old bullfighter; has affair with Brett

Juanito MontoyaPamplona hotel owner; passionate bullfight enthusiast

Frances ClyneRoberts girlfriend from America; uses Robert

Marcial Lalanda