The Destructiveness of Sex

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Recommended: Gender in literature

Throughout Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, the reader can see the aimlessness of the characters involved. This is supposed to represent the erratic and lost disposition of what was known as the “Lost Generation”. The “Lost Generation” is known as the generation of individuals who came of age during World War I. Throughout the novel many relationships take place with a certain female named Lady Brett Ashley and many male characters. Many problems arise because of this which clearly shows the destructiveness of sex in this novel. Sex has a very deep effect on the decisions of the men in this novel which leads to the destruction of relationships.

The main relationship that takes place in this novel is between Brett and a man by the name of Jake Barnes. Jake is a wounded soldier from World War I. His injury has caused him to be impotent and is the potential reason for all of his relationship issues with Brett. They are deeply in love with each other but cannot bond on an intimate level due to Jake's impotence. Because of this Jake knows that Brett will never commit to him due to her want of sex. Jake's impotence is a barrier between him and the love of his life. This situation causes Jake to increase his drinking habits and question his own masculinity as he drinks his pain away. Because of Jake's impotence, Brett also throws herself into meaningless affairs with other men. Even though she will not commit to Jake, she will not give up her relationship with him either. However, she often brings other men around Jake and tells him of her affairs and before Jake can really say anything about it or how he feels about it, she will digress from the topic. Brett knows that she will never have an affair with Jake while he...

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...one together but also has the ability to turn each other against one another and split them apart. Her carefree attitude about sex puzzles the male character and causes heartbreak for all of them in one way or another. For Jake, his impotence and her want of sex will always keep them from consummating their relationship. For Cohn what was meaningless sex to her has transformed to feelings that will never be mutual. And for Mike, he will never fully be happy with his wife due to the spontaneous and constant affairs she has with random men. In the end sex has indeed led to the destruction of relationships throughout the novel.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

Gandal, Keith. The Gun and the Pen: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and the Fiction of Mobilization. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.

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