Loss of Identity

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Silvio Marcel Mйndez Rourk

Professor Jacob Leland

English 101 Writing Literary Memoirs

September 27 2007

Loss of Identity

The book, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, describes feelings and ideas that Americans had during the boom of the 20’s regarding the fear of change or loss in national identity. Loss of morality and increasing fear because of loss of identity during this period has created a general fear of dismemberment of culture and society consequence of the II World War. The Sun Also Rises is a socially loaded book because of the deep social identity problems occurring during the 20’s that are reflected through the novel. The novel goes deep into the social uncomforting of the time, trying to find and clarify national identity yet in the end does not find it, but only finds temporal but non lasting satisfaction in anything.

In the novel, The Sun Also Rises, we can see that the times are deeply troubled by the matter of social identity. For example, The Sun Also Rises makes great emphasis on the subject of what people think of other places or nationals. The book describes what people think inside the United States of people living abroad and leaving behind or abandoning their country. Accordingly we can see this noticeably in the following quote from the book: “You’re only a newspaperman. An expatriated

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newspaperman. You ought to be ironical the moment you get out of bed. You ought to wake up with your mouth full of pity.”(120). Here the novel establishes the way foreigners are considered if they leave their native countries. This does not have to be applied to Americans as in the book but to any given country, moreover the book begins to show signs of discomfort and fear, “‘It would be very bad, a torero who speaks English…The people would not like it not yet’” (190) here the fears towards the future changes of society and fear of acceptance are as clear as crystal.

The book intently accuses a national of being an “expatriate” of not being an American because of the way a he acts now that he has abandoned the country. We can see that when the book says, “lost touch with the soil,” meaning that in order for a national to be considered national he has to live within ones country and have a connection with the country, something that this character does not do. What's more it also insinuates the way a national should be and act. The expatriate has abandoned his country and therefore cannot work. This last statement is reinforced in the book by saying that the character does not wake up with irony or pity because he has lost that connection with his country and constantly calls him an expatriate. Again, the book states that he has “lost touch with the soil” so as to say that he has lost that earthly sense of connection with his homeland and therefore can not write for the American culture of the time. This is because for an American, and even worse an American expatriate, to be living abroad would mean social and cultural disconnection from the homeland because he will have been dominated and

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overcome by the way of life of other countries and customs. Henceforth making it impossible for a national to work for their country as mentioned in the book: “Fake European standards have ruined you… You hang around cafйs” (120) this clarifies the previous idea meaning that the before quoted has happened, someone has lost connection to ones country and has become an expatriate and no longer a true national, implying that if someone is a national or as in the book, American, one is to reside in their country therefore complying with a certain set of rules that are not established but exist.

The book establishes a national as being someone that does not have a great deal of ethnic differences be it race or color, special characteristics or ways of being different from other people in their surroundings although this is not completely fair. While reading the book the characters or society act unfairly in the ways they criticize people, for example: “He looked into the glass. ‘And as for this Robert Cohn,’ Bill said, ‘He makes me sick, and he can go to hell’ ” notice Robert says sick for no real reason but does just because he is different to them, giving an all but too obvious feel of superiority in all matters regarding being different or not American which is extremely excessive and unjust. This statement can also exist determined by the grate amount of social and racially derogatory