Summary:
Hemmingway, in "The Sun Also Rises", is trying to convey the utter devastation war can cause on those it captures in its grasp. He is making the reader aware of the risks of fighting for our country.
Throughout one's life many events mold a person's identity. For most these events occur in early childhood or adolescence. However, for Brett, Robert, Mike, Bill and Jake of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises one such event occurs during their adult lives. The aforementioned event, of course, is the Fiesta of San Fermin. Hemingway depicts the fiesta as metaphor for war in the novel with certain choices of diction such as "the fiesta exploded"(Hemingway 156), "like a shrapnel burst"(Hemingway 157) and "the pipes shrill and the drums sounding"(Hemingway 157). The image of war infers the magnitude of change that war brings upon in every wretched soul it touches. This ability of war parallels the fiesta's ability to inspire the same change in its participants. Thus, Hemmingway portrays the fiesta as a setting that invokes change with its apparent absence of time, its lack of consequences for actions and its constant threat of death.
The utter lack of any comprehension of time is evident throughout the novel. It is unveiled in three different ways during the fiesta. The first method of clarification delineates itself from the utter lack of sleep the gang has while the festival is occurring. The lack of sleep shows itself through the absence of time spent in their bedrooms as well as Bill's observation that "We go too long without sleep in these fiestas (Hemingway 207)." The second critical factor that their sleep, when they do sleep, seems to be very short. This originates from their late nights and early mornings. The third and final factor that creates an apparent absence of time is the simple observation that they are always drunk. Being drunk tends to obscure a person's sense of time. This factor also occurs in war since the soldiers are often "drunk" with fear, which goes back to Hemingway's metaphorical war allusion. Lack of sleep has many profound side affects on people as does lack any sense of time and being drunk. They tend to dim one's wit, conscience and practical thought process. This allows Mike, Brett, Robert, Bill and Jake to reveal their true identity to their friends since they cannot comprehend any consequence for the exposure at the current time.
The deficiency of any immediate consequence for their actions presents itself as an obvious trait of the Festival Of San Fermin in the text. Such events as Cohn's attack on Mike and Jake have no immediate repercussions. Many such events take place during the fiesta. This includes drinking all night and day long, and lack of sleep which both seem to have no effect on the Expatriates. The lack of consequence allows each of the friends to try and do things they would never try or do anywhere else as demonstrated by Cohn's attack. It is not until the group "sobers up" after the fiesta that hey realize the consequences for their actions do exist. For instance, Robert's attack and other actions during the festival cost him his friends, since they now know what he's really like as a result. So, these actions owe there existence to the absence of consequence and changed each character in different ways. Some of the actions destroyed former beliefs, ideals and even fears of the group's members. Here the setting uses these actions as instrument to inspire change in the group.
Looming over the heads of the characters during the fiesta is the threat of mental and physical death. The running of the bulls, the matador in the bullfight, death of the metaphorical "steers" in the pen, and the death of the bull demonstrate the threat of physical death. During the running of the bulls a man is "gored and lay face down in the trampled mud" (Hemingway 201) and eventually dies opening the eyes of some of the expatriates to the possible threat of death during the fiesta. The steers symbolize the four men of the group and the goring of the steer in the pen forebodes both a mental and physical element of the threat. The threat of mental death discloses itself through the act of always being drunk, the lack of moral sense in the fiesta, the lack of sleep, the conflict between friends and watching the bullfights. The death of innocence, former values, sense of identity and any semblance of a grip on reality show as a possibility for these instances/events. Thus, this risk that each member of the gang takes in enjoying the festival is the loss of their lives, morality, identity, and sanity.
Hemmingway is trying to convey the utter devastation war can cause on those it captures in its grasp. He is making the reader aware of the risks of fighting for our country. After the festival friendships are either broken, like that between Robert and all the rest of the group, or strengthened. Each of the members though are affected by the fiesta in a way that will change their lives forever, such as Brett's realization of how much Jake's friendship means to her "we could have had such a damn good time together" (Hemingway 251), Cohn's epiphany that he does not fit in with the rest of the group "I guess it isn't any damn use" (Hemingway 198), and Bill's new found afficion "Some encierro" (Hemmingway 203). This too is also true of war. War changes those unlucky enough to participate in it for the rest of their lives. Friends are lost in war, sometimes even by your side, and friendships, almost like that of brothers, are forged during a war. The effect war has on the minds of many veterans is referred to as shellshock. Shellshock is a near complete loss of sanity due to images and events witnessed during war. Hemingway's constant allusions and metaphors to war are his ways of saying, hey, look what war does to people. Loss of time, lack of consequences for one's actions and threat of physical and mental death all occur on the battlefield and all lead to the negative changes that war causes on an individual. Another thing about war is that while it crushes some it also reveals true leaders in others. This allusion shows itself through eventual role of Bill as the group's nucleus following the fiesta. The qualities Bill shows during the festival allow him to be the link between each member. He always stood up for his friends and was not afraid to state what he was really feeling both of which helped him to attain this role of nucleus. Hemingway is telling the reader do not risk all these things unless you are sure you can pass the test. So, Hemingway challenges the reader by asking, Can you live through the test? Are you willing to take the risk? Are you a real man"
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