The Escapist Era

Alcoholism.

            There are quite a few reasons to go on a trip. Sometimes it is an attractive solution as a means to escape ones own mundane life. Sometimes it appears to be a good way to escape (or forget) something a person has done, seen, or experienced…But is traveling a legitimate solution of any of these problems? I would side with Jake, the protagonist in Ernest Hemmingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises who theorizes: “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another” (19). As we explore the themes of the novel, it is important to consider the larger meaning of this work; many of the themes and motifs in the book illuminate many of the realities of travel as a means of escape, especially as applied to the Lost Generation.

After reading some background information on Ernest Hemmingway it is quite obvious that he was drawing off his own experiences while constructing the plot of the novel. For many years, Hemmingway was part of the Lost Generation, a group of well-known American writers who lived in Paris and Europe after World War 1. He, along with the other writers of his time, was grappling with the many negative affects of war on a person’s psychology – especially the idea of life as meaningless. This is part of the reason that the Lost Generation came to Paris in the first place, to escape America in hopes of finding some deeper meaning to life. The reality of the situations is that many of them spent the majority of their time in Paris simply drinking their worries away. The characters in The Sun Also Rises entertain themselves in the same manner: with drinking, dancing, and lechery. It becomes pretty clear that the only reason they are all in Europe in the first place is to escape and no character in the novel seems to have much drive (with the exception of the bullfighters). As the plot unfolds, the problems remain intact (such as Brett’s inability to give up her sex life for true love), and no resolution or epiphany ever really occurs. It was this stagnancy that made life so hard for these expatriates. Perhaps the only epiphanic moment occurs at the very end when Jake seems to come to terms with the fact that the thought that Brett and him could live happily ever after was nothing more than a “pretty” thought (251). In the end nobody really finds what they are looking for. This unhappy ending was the reality most of the Lost Generation, many of whom led complicated lives involving alcohol-induced illness (see F. Scott Fitzgerald), convoluted love lives, and in many cases suicide (Hemmingway himself committed suicide in 1961).

This particular examination of travel seems to infer that it is ideal to make the best of what’s around at home, rather than search for missing pieces of the puzzle in strange places.