Gender Changes in the Sun Also Rises
By: regina • Essay • 1,012 Words • December 9, 2009 • 1,191 Views
Essay title: Gender Changes in the Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway is a story of being apart of
the “Lost Generation” in the 1920's. The Great War had changed the ideas
of morality, faith and justice and many people began to feel lost. Their
traditional values were changed and the morals practically gone. The “Lost
Generation” rejected Victorian ideologies about gender, sex and identity.
The main characters, Brett and Jake, redefine masculinity and femininity,
drifting away from the Victorian ideals of sexuality and identity.
Lady Brett Ashley is a perfect example of how women in the “Lost
Generation” changed. Brett strives for an individuality that Victorian women
would not look for. She also seeks more activity in the social sphere. By
doing these things, Brett rejects the Victorian ideals of proper behavior of
women and marriage. The time after the Great War is a perfect stage in
which Brett can begin to express herself freely. She enters the social scene,
which is predominately male, even though she is not socially accepted. She
goes to bars and gets drunk, she even goes to bullfights, which are bloody
and violent, to try to become accepted by her male counterparts as not just
a ‘woman’ but a person equal to them. Brett also uses sex to break free of
the traditional Victorian ideals and to explore a new lifestyle where women
are free to do as they please. “Victorianism established clear [emphasis
added] sexual boundaries and a single standard of monogamy for men and
women that ensured a stable family and allowed for passion within
committed relationships. ” (White) Brett obviously throws these boundaries
out the door. She is characterized as a female unconstrained by sexual
repression, going about sleeping with whomever she feels fit, unstoppable
by the Victorian ideologies of what women and sex should be. However, her
many meaningless, broken relationships with men are repeatedly as
tumultuous as the new, modern world in which she lives.
Throughout her many attempts to set herself apart from the traditional
world, she still acts uncertainly about what she wants. Lady Brett in many
ways is torn between the new modern woman and the idealistic Victorian
woman. You can see this in her dependence on men for money, as in her
engagement to Mike Campbell who is “...going to be rich as hell one day”,
and her need for a secure place for her to delve into her sexuality. Maybe
something like what Count Mippipopolous, a very sane and stable
man, could have provided her with.
Jake Barnes is an example of loss. Not only does he lose his morals
and traditions in the era following the Great War, but he also loses his
“masculinity” in a tragic war accident that ended in impotence. This accident
drastically changes Jake’s views on masculinity. Traditional ideas of what it
means to be a man have been changed by the war. “Jake tries to define
himself as a man even as a war related genital wound denies him the