Honors Reading Response: Novel Two

The Sun Also Rises....By: Ernest Hemingway

I strategically chose to read this book in hopes that not only would I enjoy it, but also that it may provide an additional perspective that could prove useful after reading, "The Paris Wife" written by Paula McLain about Hemingway's first wife's life with Earnest. The Paris Wife was set during the time period when Hemingway wrote this book, The Sun Also Rises.

The Sun Also Rises is a novel written by Earnest Hemingway during the 1920's. It is about a group of American friends who travel to Paris to watch the Running of the Bulls festival. The way that the story is written is, in my opinion, very beautiful and it makes me want to do the same as what the characters are doing. The characters are constantly eating at the various cafes, watching the bullfights, and just enjoying each other’s company while meeting new people as well.

One of the first things that I noticed about the book was the title. Right away, I wondered what it meant or the relevance it held in relation to the books story line. This lead me to take it upon myself to research and find out just what the deeper meaning of the title is. What I found was that the title of, The Sun Also Rises was very strategic. The meaning behind it is that the title suggests an importance of time and main idea with many "cycles". At the same time is has a sort of upbeat or hopeful feeling to it because of its reference to the "sun rising" and in synonymy, new beginnings rather than endings.

These "cycling" themes were shown through for example one of the most prevalent themes, which were the bullfights. Bull Fights were almost constantly being described or mentioned throughout the story line. Also, whenever bullfights would be described in the book in some way, it was almost always a precursor to something else that would soon be occurring in the story. For example, the killing of the steer by the bull at the start of the fiesta seemed as though it was a clue or a sign of Mike’s later attack on Cohn.

There were definitely many connections and similarities between The Sun Also Rises by Earnest Hemingway and The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, which described the life Earnest Hemingway, was living during the time that he wrote this book. The relationships between the characters in this novel reflected those of the members of "the lost generation". Another connection that is shown in this book is when the main female character, Brett, is given the ear of a slain bull by the handsome matador who killed it and with whom she would later have an affair with. This exact event happened (without the affair) to Earnest Hemmingway’s wife in real life.

Overall, I enjoyed this book however I did not quite enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed reading the Paris Wife. I did however thoroughly enjoy reading about what it was like to live in Paris for a sizable amount of time, which was included in both of the novels. In the end, despite not having enjoyed it quite as much as the Paris Wife, I would still recommend it to someone who is interested in any form of Parisian culture, just maybe not quite as enthusiastically.