THE SUN ALSO RISES

Lecture week 2

The Sun Also RisesWeek2 Setting

Lecture week 1

The Sun Also Rises Week1

Powerpoint Lectures

I am trying to update the powerpoint presentations I have done in class so far. Stay tuned

The Setting – Important Details

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is a phrase used to describe the 1920s, principally in North America but also in London, Paris and Berlin. The phrase was meant to emphasize the period’s social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. ‘Normalcy‘ returned to politics in the wake of World War I, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood, Art Deco peaked, and finally the Wall Street Crash of 1929 served to punctuate the end of the era, as The Great Depression set in. The era was further distinguished by several inventions and discoveries of far-reaching importance, unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle.

The social and cultural features known as the Roaring Twenties began in leading metropolitan centers, especially New York, Paris and Berlin, then spread widely in the aftermath of World War I. The United States gained dominance in world finance. Thus when Germany could no longer afford war reparations to Britain, France and other Allies, the Americans came up with the Dawes Plan and Wall Street invested heavily in Germany, which repaid its reparations to nations that in turn used the dollars to pay off their war debts to Washington. By the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread. The second half of the decade becoming known as the “Golden Twenties“. In France and francophone Canada, they were also called the “années folles” (“Crazy Years”).^[1]

The spirit of the Roaring Twenties was marked by a general feeling of discontinuity associated with modernity, a break with traditions. Everything seemed to be feasible through modern technology. New technologies, especially automobiles, moving pictures and radio proliferated ‘modernity’ to a large part of the population. Formal decorative frills were shed in favor of practicality in both daily life and architecture. At the same time, jazz and dancing rose in popularity, in opposition to the mood of the specter of World War I. As such, the period is also often referred to as the Jazz Age.

Economy

The Roaring Twenties is traditionally viewed as an era of great economic prosperity driven by the introduction of a wide array of new consumer goods. The North American economy, particularly the economy of the US, which had successfully transitioned from a wartime economy to a peacetime economy, subsequently boomed. The United States augmented its standing as the richest country in the world, its industry aligned to mass production and its society acculturated into consumerism. In Europe, the economy did not start to flourish until 1924.

In spite of the social, economic and technological advances, African Americans, recent immigrants and farmers—along with a large part of the working class population—were not much affected by this period. In fact, millions of people lived below the poverty line of US $2,000 per year per family.

The Great Depression demarcates the conceptualization of the Roaring Twenties from the 1930s. The hopefulness in the wake of World War I that had initiated the Roaring Twenties gave way to the debilitating economic hardship of the later era.

Culture

Suffrage

On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the last of 36 states needed to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. Equality at the polls marked a pivotal moment in the women’s rights movement.

Lost Generation

The Lost Generation were young people who came out of World War I disillusioned and cynical about the world. The term usually refers to American literary notables who lived in Paris at the time. Famous members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. These authors, also referred to as expatriates, wrote novels and short stories expressing their resentment towards the materialism and individualism that permeated during this era.

 Social criticism

As the average American in the 1920s became more enamored of wealth and everyday luxuries, some began satirizing the hypocrisy and greed they observed. Of these social critics, Sinclair Lewis was the most popular. His popular 1920 novel Main Street satirized the dull and ignorant lives of the residents of a Midwestern town. He followed with Babbitt, about a middle-aged businessman who rebels against his safe life and family, only to realize that the young generation is as hypocritical as his own. Lewis satirized religion with Elmer Gantry, which followed a con man who teams up with an evangelist to sell religion to a small town.

Other social critics included Sherwood Anderson, Edith Wharton and H.L. Mencken. Anderson published a collection of short stories titled Winesburg, Ohio, which studied the dynamics of a small town. Wharton mocked the fads of the new era through her novels, such as Twilight Sleep (1927). Mencken criticized narrow American tastes and culture in various essays and articles.

Expressionism and Surrealism

Painting in North America during the 1920s developed in a different direction than that of Europe. In Europe, the 1920s were the era of expressionism, and later surrealism. As Man Ray stated in 1920 after the publication of a unique issue of New York Dada: “Dada cannot live in New York”.

Fashion

Immortalized in movies and magazine covers, young women’s fashion of the 1920s was both a trend and a social statement, a breaking-off from the rigid Victorian way of life. These young, rebellious, middle-class women, labeled ‘flappers’ by older generations, did away with the corset and donned slinky knee-length dresses, which exposed their legs and arms. The hairstyle of the decade was a chin-length bob, of which there were several popular variations. Cosmetics, which until the 1920s was not typically accepted in American society because of its association with prostitution became, for the first time, extremely popular.^[8]

The changing role of women

With the passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920, women finally attained the political equality that they had so long been fighting for. A generational gap began to form between the “new” women of the 20s and the previous generation. Prior to the 19th Amendment, feminists commonly thought that one could have either a career or one could have a husband and a family, for one would inherently inhibit the development of the other. This mentality began to change in the 20s as more women began to desire not only successful careers of their own but also families.^[9] The “new” woman was less invested in social service than the Progressive generations, and in tune with the capitalistic spirit of the era, she was eager to compete and to find personal fulfilment.^[10]

The 1920s saw significant change in the lives of working women. World War I had temporarily allowed women to enter into industries such as chemical, automobile, and iron and steel manufacturing, which were once deemed inappropriate work for women.^[11] Black women, who had been historically closed out of factory jobs, began to find a place in industry during World War I by accepting lower wages and replacing the lost immigrant labor and in heavy work. Yet, like other women during World War I, their success was only temporary; most black women were also pushed out of their factory jobs after the war. In 1920, seventy-five percent of the black female labor force consisted of agricultural laborers, domestic servants, and laundry workers.^[12] Legislation passed at the beginning of the 20th century forced many factories to shorten their workdays and pay a minimum wage. This shifted the focus in the 1920s to job performance in order to meet demand. Factories encouraged workers to produce more quickly and efficiently with speedups and bonus systems, increasing the pressure on factory workers.^[12] Despite the strain on women in the factories, the booming economy of the 1920s meant more opportunities even for the lower classes. Many young girls from working-class backgrounds did not need to help support their families as prior generations did and were often encouraged to seek work or receive vocational training which would result in social mobility.^[13]

Achieving suffrage meant having to refocus feminism. Groups such as the National Women’s Party (NWP) continued the political fight, proposing the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923 and working to remove laws that used sex to discriminate against women.^[14] But many women shifted their focus from politics to challenge traditional definitions of womanhood.

Young women, especially, began staking claim to their own bodies and took part in a sexual liberation of their generation. Many of the ideas that fueled this change in sexual thought were already floating around New York intellectual circles prior to World War I, with the writings of Sigmund Freud, Havelock Ellis, and Ellen Key. There, thinkers outed that sex was not only central to the human experience but that women were sexual beings with human impulses and desires just like men and restraining these impulses was self-destructive. By the 1920s, these ideas had permeated the mainstream.^[15]

The 1920s saw the emergence of the co-ed, as women began attending large state colleges and universities. Women entered into the mainstream middle-class experience, but took on a gendered role within society. Women typically took classes such as home economics, “Husband and Wife”, “Motherhood” and “The Family as an Economic Unit”. In an increasingly conservative post-war era, it was common for a young woman to attend college with the intention of finding a suitable husband.^[16] Fueled by ideas of sexual liberation, dating underwent major changes on college campuses. With the advent of the automobile, courtship occurred in a much more private setting. “Petting”, sexual relations without intercourse, became the social norm for college students.^[17]

Despite women’s increased knowledge of pleasure and sex, the decade of unfettered capitalism that was the 20s gave birth to the ‘feminine mystique’. With this formulation, all women wanted to marry, all good women stayed at home with their children, cooking and cleaning, and the best women did the aforementioned and in addition, exercised their purchasing power freely and as frequently as possible in order to better their families and their homes.^[18] This left many housewives feeling frustrated and unsatisfied.

Literature

Further information: 1920s#Literature

The Roaring Twenties was a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period. D. H. Lawrence‘s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex.

Books that take the 1920s as their subject include:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is often described as the epitome of the “Jazz Age” in American literature.
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque recounts the horrors of WWI and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front.
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald portrays the lives and morality of post-World War I youth.
• The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is about a group of expatriate Americans in Europe during the 1920s.

Important sources

https://schoolweb.rgsw.org.uk/english/a-level/…/bookrags_hemingway.pdf

http://www.bookrags.com/The_Sun_Also_Rises 

www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/…/The%20Sun%20also%20Rises%20Background.doc

The concept of the ‘lost generation’

Seeking the bohemian lifestyle and rejecting the values of American materialism, a number of intellectuals, poets, artists and writers fled to France in the post World War I years. Paris was the center of it all.

American poet Gertrude Stein actually coined the expression “lost generation.” Speaking to Ernest Hemingway, she said, “you are all a lost generation.” The term stuck and the mystique surrounding these individuals continues to fascinate us.

Full of youthful idealism, these individuals sought the meaning of life, drank excessively, had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date.

There were many literary artists involved in the groups known as the Lost Generation. The three best known are F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos. Others usually included among the list are: Sherwood Anderson, Kay Boyle, Hart Crane, Ford Maddox Ford and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Ernest Hemingway was the Lost Generation’s leader in the adaptation of the naturalistic technique in the novel. Hemingway volunteered to fight with the Italians in World War I and his Midwestern American ignorance was shattered during the resounding defeat of the Italians by the Central Powers at Caporetto. Newspapers of the time reported Hemingway, with dozens of pieces of shrapnel in his legs, had heroically carried another man out. That episode even made the newsreels in America. These war time experiences laid the groundwork of his novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929). Another of his books, The Sun Also Rises (1926) was a naturalistic and shocking expression of post-war disillusionment.

John Dos Passos had also seen the brutality of the war and questioned the meaning of contemporary life. His novel Manhatten Transfer reveals the extent of his pessimism as he indicated the hopeless futility of life in an American city.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is remembered as the portrayer of the spirit of the Jazz age. Though not strictly speaking an expatriate, he roamed Europe and visited North Africa, but returned to the US occasionally. Fitzgerald had at least two addresses in Paris between 1928 and 1930. He fulfilled the role of chronicler of the prohibition era.

His first novel, This Side of Paradise became a best-seller. But when first published, The Great Gatsby on the other hand, sold only 25,000 copies. The free spirited Fitzgerald, certain it would be a big hit, blew the publisher’s advance money leasing a villa in Cannes. In the end, he owed his publishers, Scribners, money. Fitzgerald’s Gatsby is the story of a somewhat refined and wealthy bootlegger whose morality is contrasted with the hypocritical attitude of most of his acquaintances. Many literary critics consider Gatsby his best work.

The impact of the war on the group of writers in the Lost Generation is aptly demonstrated by a passage from Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night (1933):

“This land here cost twenty lives a foot that summer…See that little stream–we could walk to it in two minutes. It took the British a month to walk it–a whole empire walking very slowly, dying in front and pushing forward behind. And another empire walked very slowly backward a few inches a day, leaving the dead like a million bloody rugs. No Europeans will ever do that again in this generation.”

The Lost Generation writers all gained prominence in 20th century literature. Their innovations challenged assumptions about writing and expression, and paved the way for subsequent generations of writers.

The Sun Also Rises – Summary

Set in 1925, Hemingway’s first novel begins in Paris with the introduction of a number of characters, including three of its major characters: Jake Barnes, Robert Cohn, and Lady Brett Ashley. Jake, the first-person narrator, was a pilot during the war and suffered an injury that has left him sexually incapable (though, painfully, not without sexual desire). He now works as a newspaper man. Robert Cohn is a novelist working on his second book and breaking his relationship with Frances, the woman who wants to marry him. When he meets Lady Brett Ashley, he falls instantly in love. Brett lost her true love during the war; she’s currently waiting for her divorce to finalize so she can remarry. She and Jake love one another deeply, it seems, but can do nothing about it because of his wound.

In Part II, Jake, Robert, and another Paris compatriot, Bill Gorton, head to Spain where they will meet Brett and her fiancé, Mike Campbell, for the annual bullfights at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. When Brett and Mike are delayed in San Sebastian, Jake and Bill decide to travel to Burguete for a few days of fishing. Robert stays behind to wait for the others. We also learn that Brett and Robert had earlier taken a trip to San Sebastian together.

In Pamplona for the festival and the bullfights, the assembled group — Jake, Robert, Brett, Mike, and Bill — becomes torn apart by internal tensions. Robert cannot keep away from Brett, cannot keep his eyes off her, even in the presence of her fiancé. This behavior annoys everyone, Mike the fiancé especially. His insults to Robert are particularly brutal. Meanwhile the group takes trips to the various bullfighting events. The most surprising turn for everyone appears in the form of Pedro Romero, the nineteen year old bullfighter of magnificent talent and good looks. Brett falls in love with him, and has an affair with him. An enraged Robert beats the bullfighter fairly significantly, though not enough to prevent him from performing in the ring.

Robert flees Pamplona, and the others suspect he has returned to Paris and to Frances. Brett leaves with Pedro Romero. In Part III, Jake spends a few days alone, swimming and relaxing, in San Sebastian. He receives a note from Brett that she’s in trouble, and needs him to meet her in Madrid. He goes, meets her, and learns she ended her relationship with the young bullfighter in order not to ruin his career. She’s also broke. In the final scene, Jake and Brett ride through the streets of Madrid in a cab, Brett speculating on what “a damned good time” they could have had together. Jake retorts, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway’s Life

Author:

Most contemporary readers know the rudiments of Ernest Hemingway‘s life: He worked as a journalist at the Kansas City Star, from which he learned his simple, terse, hard style. He was wounded in World War I, fell in love with a nurse in the hospital while recovering from his wounds, and turned that series of events into A Farewell to Arms (1929). He lived in Paris in the 1920s, hanging out with Gertrude Stein and other literary and artistic figures, and he turned those years into a number of stories in addition to the posthumously published memoir A Moveable Feast (1964). When in Europe he loved to go to Pamplona, Spain to watch the bullfights, and he turned one of those trips into The Sun Also Rises (1926). He was a correspondent during both the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and turned the first of those experiences into For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). He lived at Key West and in Cuba, and turned his fishing days from that time into The Old Man and the Sea (1952), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. Over the course of his life he married four times, drank a lot, took a few hunting trips to Africa, and killed himself with a shotgun in 1961.

Born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway was raised in a substantial seven bedroom home by a strong and musically talented mother and a doctor father with the depressive tendencies Hemingway would inherit. This was a time of enormous transition for America — during his youth his father drove a buggy and then a Ford automobile on his rounds. Every summer the family migrated to their cottage on Walloon Lake in northern Michigan, where Hemingway learned to handle himself about the woods and lake.

In 1917, after graduating from high school, Hemingway moved to Kansas City and worked on the Star, but eager to join the war effort he volunteered to serve as an ambulance driver for the American Red Cross. In Europe six weeks, he was blown up on the Italian front by an Austrian trench mortar. His love for his Milan hospital nurse, Agnes Von Kurowsky, was not reciprocated.

Back in the States, he worked for a couple of papers and then married his first wife, Hadley Richardson, some eight years his senior. The couple moved to Paris, where his writing career was established and their first child was conceived. He also began his affair with Pauline Pfeiffer, who would become his second wife. They would live in Key West, Wyoming, and even her parents’ home in Arkansas. At Key West he started an affair with Martha Gellhorn, who would become his third wife. Gellhorn, a writer also, helped Hemingway establish a home in Cuba, the Finca Vigia. The couple traveled to cover the Spanish Civil War; Hemingway participated in creating and did the voiceover for the propaganda film The Spanish Earth.

During World War II, Hemingway toured the Gulf of Mexico hunting German submarines. He later landed a correspondence assignment, and in that role witnessed the Normandy invasion, the liberation of Paris, and the march across France and into Germany. During the war he abandoned Gellhorn for the woman who would become his fourth and final wife, Mary Welsh Monks.

He and Mary lived in Italy, Cuba, and Idaho, and they traveled extensively, including hunting trips to Africa. Starting roughly in 1955, Hemingway’s fits of depression increased in frequency and intensity. Eventually he underwent electro-shock therapy at the Mayo Clinic. On July 2, 1961, in his Ketchum Idaho home, he killed himself with a gun, as his father had before him.

A Grain of Wheat – Ngugi wa Thiongo

This will be the first novel analysed. Topics to be covered include: The portrayal of race, relationships, religion, heroes, etc. Along with an indepth look at Ngugi’s style.

Introduction

This blog was primarily setup to assist students of CAPE Literatures in English – Prose component. Do enjoy the essays published and feel free to comment. I hope the information shared will be helpful in your endeavours.