Kategoriak: All - love - relationships - careers - gender

arabera liz knueven 10 years ago

302

The Sun Also Rises

The narrative explores the intricacies of gender dynamics and relationships, highlighting the complexities and challenges faced by the characters. Central to the story is Brett Ashley, whose attractiveness and intelligence are overshadowed by her selfishness and inability to maintain faithful relationships.

The Sun Also Rises

Gender roles

Brett becomes a trophy for the men, they seem to pass her around without much consideration to how she feels about it.

She ultimately finds herself unsatisfied playing the role that she has been assigned, feels that she could have done better had she lowered her standards.

The boys (expecially Jake) feel like they're not masculine enough for Brett or other women

Inadequacy leads them to settle for lonliness.

the s

Passivity

A Source of dissatisfaction
Passivity in relationships and other affairs lead the characters to unhappiness and disengagement from normal activities.

Don't strive to get what they want, simply feel that life can pass them by, and it wont really matter to them.

"Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it?"

They realise that they have been allowing life to slip past them without ever truly living it.

Love
Brett is the only one who really knows what she wants out of a relationship (personal satisfaction)

Ends up hurting Jake out of this selfishness, Jake is passive and never actively tries to engage Brett in a real relationship, even though he would really like to.

She notes to him at the end of the book that "[they] could've had such a damned good time together,"to which Jake can only reply "isn't it pretty to think so?"

Both of them acknowlage the fact that they should not have been so passive in their relationships.

Careers
Jake and Bill are the only productive ones, the others have either failed in their careers or simply stopped trying.

Jake seems to have settled for the gossip column, he hasn't aspired to move beyond marginal small talk.

effects of war

Need for a coping mechanism
Caused some of them a sort of trauma, whether psychological or physical.

Most of the charachters in TSAR have found alcohol as a useful tool to block out the dreadful past and the equally dull future.

Jake finds that his physical affliction causes him an equal amount of psychological pain.

Violence
Their friend circle is often involved in drama, there are fights and fallouts all over.

Jake notes that "it all seem[s] like some bad play"; they're never able to enjoy each other's company or stop the competition.

They find comfort in bullfighting for its violence, feels natural after the war.
Isolation
Jake and some of the other men who have been wounded find it hard to assimilate back into society, and find it hard to connect with others who don't share the same experinces.

Gender

There's only one main woman in the book...
turn her into more of a prize than a lover
Brings up competition between the men

Demeaning view of Women

Women
Brett Ashley

Charachteristics

But she's not...

kind or sympathetic

faithful

sensitive

Selfish

Dates for status or personal satisfaction

Example: Relationship with the Count

She knows what she wants

leads to her overlooking any relationship with Janke

her inner drive and selfishness leads her to hurt the menn she thinks she loves.

intelligent

attractive

Men
Mike

Doesn't really appreciate women

Controlling

Cohn

Doesn' t do too well with the ladies (or really anyone for that matter)

Romero

easily picks up Brett

Jake

Can't seem to relate to women