The novel explores the lives and values of the so-called “Lost Generation,” chronicling the experiences of Jake Barnes and several acquaintances on their pilgrimage to Pamplona for the annual fiesta and bull fights. Barnes’ genitals had been mutilated as the result of an injury incurred during World War I; he is subsequently unable to consummate a sexual relationship with Brett Ashley, though his anatomy still compels him to be attracted to her. The story follows Jake and his various companions across France and Spain. Initially, Jake seeks peace away from Brett by taking a fishing trip to Burguete, deep within the Spanish hills, with companion Bill Gorton, another veteran of the war. The fiesta in Pamplona is the setting for the eventual meeting of all the characters, who play out their various desires and anxieties, alongside a great deal of drinking.
Main characters
Jake Barnes: The narrator of the story, Barnes is an American veteran of World War I who suffered physical injuries that have made him physiologically impotent, and unable to pursue a sexual relationship with Brett. Having lost direction of his life as a result of his experiences during the war, Barnes attempts to content himself through hard work, drinking, and bull fights.
Lady Ashley, or Brett: An extremely attractive woman who is divorced from her husband after World War I, but not during the course of the novel, Brett is the object of lust for most of the male characters of the book. Portrayed as elusive and promiscuous, Brett, like Barnes, also lacks direction in life and finds emptiness in activities that she would have normally enjoyed during pre-war times. She is engaged to Michael.
Robert Cohn: His status as an outsider as a result of being Jewish has caused Cohn to develop an inferiority complex. Despite attempts to be civil and courteous, Cohn is the object of scorn from other characters. The novel’s plot turns on his attempt to recover a brief affair he had with Brett, leading him to tag along with the group of expatriates, much to their collective vexation.
Michael Campbell: A Scottish veteran of the war, Michael is close friends with Jake and Bill, and engaged to Brett. Though he attempts to hide his contempt for Cohn, his fiery temper usually manifests itself during periods of heavy drinking.
Bill Gorton: An old friend of Barnes, Bill is also a veteran of the war and is less cruel than Michael in his attitudes towards Cohn. Despite also being a heavy drinker, Bill is often more light-hearted than the rest of his peers.
Pedro Romero: The star bullfighter of the fiesta, Romero is introduced to Jake and his friends, falls in love with Brett, and then they split up when they recognize her inability to commit to a sustained relationship. His autonomy, steadfastness, and commitment make him a model for Jake, who possesses none of these qualities even though he aspires to them. Furthermore, the younger Pedro Romero having been born in 1905 represents the younger Civic Generation, often referred to as the Greatest Generation. This served to further demonstrate the Lost Generation’s feelings of insecurity and disillusionment compared to their next-younger Generation.
Major themes
The novel has heavy undercurrents of suppressed emotions and buried values. Its weary and aimless expatriates serve as metaphors for society’s lost optimism and innocence after the war. The topic of war is rarely discussed explicitly by any of the characters, but its effects are alluded to through the sexual impotence of Jake and his war wound, and the behavior of the other characters, whom Carlos Baker described as “floundering in an emulsion of ennui and alcohol.” [3] The war is also present as the tragedy that affects the way characters are able to deal with themselves, and post-war society. The themes of the novel are cast against the background of the Biblical quotation the book opens with: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4).
One way to read the novel is as an inverted novel of initiation. In traditional initiation stories, a young man leaves his home or community, goes through experiences that change his character or worldview, and returns to take his place in his community as a mature person. Jake Barnes, in contrast, leaves his autonomous position in Paris to join the group on their trip to Pamplona. His experiences there constitute an initiation, though not an initiation into the group but an initiation into self-reliance apart from the group. At the end, he renounces the detrimental influence of his friends and especially of Brett. If Brett is the “sun” of the title around whom the men revolve, Jake has succeeded in breaking out of the orbit and becoming an independent person (another sun) himself. Ultimately, the novel propagates the self-reliance and autonomy embodied by Romero, the bullfighter whom Jake admires.[citation needed]
Alternatively, the novel delivers a scathing indictment of the culture which relies on “simple exchange of values.” Meaning is impossible to find in this entirely relational system. Jake hints at the possibility of an escape, of “finding out what it’s all about,” with his work, his interest in the earthy activities of bullfighting and fishing, and his obvious dissatisfaction, yet he too is increasingly bound by the wretched ennui that seizes all. Only once the unsustainable, unreal, novel-society has disintegrated entirely is there any hope of progression, and this hope is but scant; the values of accumulation and expenditure on which the novel relies are those which underlie modern Western culture.