Stasis In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Sets in The Sun Also Rises

Stasis is often defined as a period or state of equilibrium or inactivity; however, Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, defines stasis in a new way. Throughout the novel, the storyline repeats itself, despite switching settings and characters. Despite the vast cast, many of the characters speak in the same way that Hemingway narrates the novel. The repetition of dialogue and action results in a torpid novel. Hemingway’s style serves to magnify the lack of joy and inactivity from the beginning to the end of the novel. The Sun Also Rises proves that there can be motion that leads to nowhere and that not all books have happy endings. One of the most prominent occurrences in the storyline is Lady

The group of friends travels to various places in Spain and France. They start out in Paris, one of the busiest and modern cities of that time. Soon after, they go to Pamplona, which is known for the fiestas and running of the bulls, but they could still be in Paris by the way that they act. They’re moving, but their storyline isn’t going anywhere any time soon. For the duration of the novel, the group of friends (the term used loosely) seem to eat and drink non stop. Jake describes each meal and drink, all of which seem to be barely discernible variations on one another. And no matter what Jake and Brett do, they end up in the same cycle of drinking and flirting. Brett, as stated before, repeats her flings with men, but never ends up with any of them and it’s only lightly implied that she will marry Mike. Jake is often found getting drunk in bars and mulling over the fact that Brett will never truly love him. By the end of the novel, the reader is left is left with the sensation that the novel has gone nowhere. Ultimately, Hemingway starts and ends his novel with very similar scenes, which emphasizes the fact that the characters are stuck in an endless cycle of despair. The repetition and lack of joyous behaviour causes the optimistically titled novel to become a depressing and bleak one