Earnest Hemingway

Cafe Select: Cafe Select, one of the many real life locations in The Sun Also Rises.While reading The Sun Also Rises, it seemed important to me to get a better sense of the “Lost Generation” literary movement the novel has come so strongly to represent. This is because, as in Daisy Miller, I initially had a difficult time appreciating a book that was rooted so deeply in the culture of its time. And, also like Henry James and Daisy Miller, I discovered that the connection between the plot of the novel and the period it symbolizes was hardly subtle. In fact, the plot resembles the life of its author strikingly enough to make it seem almost autobiographical.
Much like Jake and his companions, the writers of the Lost Generation were a group of American expatriates, living in Paris after the World War I. Many of them were veterans, including Hemingway himself, who, like Jake, was severely wounded during the war. Their work was dominated by themes of moral disillusionment, and cynicism towards the culture of aggressive nationalism they felt was responsible for the war. They traveled frequently throughout Europe; indeed, many of the locations in The Sun Also Rises were actual haunts of the Lost Generation writers. They were even known for the same bohemian lifestyle as Hemingway’s characters. Hemingway was for most of his life an alcoholic, and it’s easy to picture him as Jake going on weeklong drinking binges with his own artist friends.
Having read more on Hemingway and the other writers of the Lost Generation, I feel now like I have a much better connection with the novel. More than simply showcasing a cultural phenomenon of his time, Hemingway was examining his own personal social circle. Jake’s spiritual homelessness becomes much more real when read this way; he isn’t just meant to typify an entire age, but also to embody the life of the man who created him.