Lose Yourself

A new city, a new bar Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, is commonly referred to as the novel that defined the “lost generation,” but it’s interesting to explore what this title really means. As Deborah Tall states in her essay, The where of writing: Hemingway's sense of place, the word ''lost'' resonates with the political and spiritual crises of the time. Yet to be lost is, of course, a geographical condition--we are lost when we cannot find our destination or way home. To be spiritually lost, then, draws on the anxious figure of physical displacement. …But perhaps we doubt our place in the world, in part, because we are not adequately rooted in it, physically.

While many believe these characters are lost simply because of the tragedies they experienced in the war, I would suggest that this novel focuses more on Tall’s last comment, that they are lost because they have no physical foundation or sense of place. From Hemingway’s dialogue, in seems that in every location they visit, the most important part of the trip is always getting drunk, so they are barely aware of where they actually are. Even though they may physically be spending most of their time in France, they spend most of their time under the influence of alcohol, and therefore mentally, they are actually spending most of their time lost in their own realities. This causes them to get so lost in their own battles, that they can’t see the world around them to even try and change their ways.

This is exemplified even in the beginning of the novel, when Jake tells Robert, “All countries look just like the moving pictures,” to try and defend his reasons for why they should not travel to South America. Because he spends so much of his time traveling under the influence of alcohol, Jake is never able to experience the location he’s in, and only sees the location as a moving image, instead of for the cultural impact and society changes it carries. Throughout his travels, Jake can only see the problems he faces with Brett, because he makes no changes in his actions as he changes locations. He tells Robert that “going to another country doesn't make any difference. …You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another,” because no matter where he travels, he maintains the same mental state, and drowns his sorrows in alcohol to mask the reality around him. It is not a result of traveling to Europe that gets them lost, but instead their actions in Europe that condemns them. They are lost because the only place they are firmly rooted is in alcohol, not an actual location, and they are too comfortable with it to try and overcome their addiction.