The Philosophy of Modernism in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

By the end of World War 1 the viewpoints of people in society had drastically changed. People were no longer living their lives with purpose due to the failure of previous beliefs. The people of the world once believe that God was on their side and that he would protect them, but after the first World War, people began to question this and so became the philosophy of “making everything new”, the philosophy of Modernism.

During this time period, artists had changed the way they present their work.

Visual arts became more abstract and “modern” through the use of minimalism and giving each work deeper meaning, music had changed and was given new ways to organize various parts of songs. Writing was used to show the direct effects of the modernist outlook. One piece of work that was used to show this was Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises.

Throughout the novel, Ernest Hemmingway uses the point of view of Jake Barnes, a World War 1 veteran who would be considered to be part of “The Lost Generation”, a generation of people whose outlook on life quickly diminished to nothing after the war had ended.

After the war many veterans had become expatriates, living in different parts of the world. Hemmingway does a good job demonstrating the modernist outlook through the eyes of Jake Barnes, an expatriate journalist who is living in Paris for one reason only, to indulge and live the party life, by using a first person point of view, as well as making sure that the point of view is character based instead of omnipotent.

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Jake Barnes isn’t properly introduced to us at the beginning of the story, instead we are introduced to the character of Robert Cohn. “Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn.” (Hemmingway 12) By introducing a character with the older paradigm of masculinity from a character that is being used to show the changed paradigm of masculinity, Hemmingway sets the basis for Jake’s behavior within the rest of the novel. The concept of making a new paradigm of masculinity is by first introducing the older paradigm to the readers.

During the first exchange between Robert Cohn and Jake Barnes, Robert is trying to convince Jake Barnes to take a trip to South America with him. Jake replies with “Listen Robert, going to another country doesn’t make any difference. I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that.” Hemmingway includes this quote through Jake’s point of view to show that during that time period, travel was pointless because anywhere you go, people’s outlook will likely be the same.

Jake Barnes also doesn’t show consideration for when two of the characters in the plot are absent. “I did not see Brett again until she came back from San Sebastian… Nor did I see Robert Cohn Again. I heard Frances had left for our England and I had a note from Cohn saying he was going out of the country for a couple weeks… Brett was gone, I was not bothered by Cohn’s troubles. I rather enjoyed not having to play tennis…” Within this passage everyone close to Jake throughout the novel goes absent, however Jake shows no sadness whatsoever, instead he shows content with the fact that he no longer has to play tennis. Hemmingway uses this point of view to show the modern outlook of moving forward and making advancements without anything holding back progress.

The modernist standpoint focuses on making things new, and Hemmingway focuses on Jake Barnes point of view to show this through various situations where Jake does not react as one normally should. He cares not for anything other than his own indulgence and is stuck between the changing paradigms of masculinity.