Remember Where You Came From

Above Paris

("Photo credit Destination360 Paris")

In Earnest Hemingway’s celebrated novel, The Sun Also Rises, he depicts the lives of a group of expatriates living and working in Paris while traveling around Europe as well. Hemingway brings his reader along on a journey around France and Spain that brings in many actual destinations and landmarks of these two countries. By using places that actually exist outside of the literary world, Hemingway brings a sense of authenticity to his novel. The multiple references to the different “Rues” and “Boulevards” in Paris and the hotels and cafes in Spain bring the reader inside this seemingly exclusive circle of expat writers in the 1920’s.

On page 82 of the novel, Jake Barnes and his friend Bill go out to dinner at a restaurant “on the far side of the island”. The two men note that the restaurant is crowded with American people. Jake explains that the reason for the crowd is that “someone had put it in the American Women’s Club list as a quaint restaurant on the Paris quais as yet untouched by Americans”. This quote is somewhat ironic. Since someone declared that this restaurant was authentic Parisian and had a somewhat old world charm the American tourists flooded it, thus making it no longer an authentic French restaurant but rather another tourist attraction. Many people who travel abroad search for what they think is an authentic experience. People long for these types of encounters for diverse reasons. They can either be truly interested in the culture they are visiting and wish to learn different customs and traditions of the culture. Or, they could be in search of authenticity as a way to brag to their friends back home that they have “eaten a genuine French meal at an authentic French restaurant”. If the former is true it is probably necessary to leave a tourist driven city and visit a lesser-known locale in order to get a really authentic experience.

The experience at this restaurant led me to many questions about Barnes’ sentiments towards his fellow compatriots. In this particular scene it seems as though Barnes feels that he is above the other Americans in Paris because of his permanent residence in the city. He is annoyed that other Americans have ruined a “quaint” Parisian restaurant. I think that Barnes has successfully assimilated into the Parisian culture but at what cost? He seems to have forgotten his roots and become an implanted native Parisian who finds American tourists a nuisance to their own lives.

I think that while traveling or living in a foreign country it is important to explore your location and learn about its culture. These expeditions simply add to each of our unique perspectives on life. But, I also believe that it is important to know where you come from and embrace that background while mixing in new ideals from your current surroundings.