The Sun Also Rises Themes

People have fun in The Sun Also Rises, but that’s about it—what’s missing is a lasting sense of contentment or satisfaction with life in general. The cause of this is the massive social uphea...

The Sun Also Rises is just jam-packed with people who think they have their public images worked out, but really are just big old messes on the inside. Hemingway’s characters make a big show of b...

The idea of masculinity isn't a shiny Brawny paper towel ad in The Sun Also Rises. It's super-problematic. The insecurity of the central male characters produces an atmosphere of competition, rival...

The characters in The Sun Also Rises are serious drinkers—they drink like it’s their job. Actually, alcoholism practically is a profession for one of the characters (Mike), a slacker whose majo...

  Ah, l’amour, l’amour. Of course a novel set in Paris (city of love, duh), involves love. However, don’t forget that this is not exactly the romantic, sentimental Paris we usually ima...

Ah, ye olde city mouse vs. country mouse battle. In The Sun Also Rises, the country is shown as idyllic, but the city is hellish.There is an overwhelming sense that the modern world that Hemingway...

Nationality is a funny thing in The Sun Also Rises. While all of its characters are defined partially by their roots, there is an overwhelming sense that national boundaries are no longer satisfact...

World War I is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to mention (yes, it occurred to us that this is probably the only time anyone has ever compared World War I to an elephant). When the war d...