The Sun Also Rises Ending Analysis

Endings, whether beloved or hated, are meant to give the reader a good sense of closure and, if done well, some sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately, not all endings give their readers closure, let alone any satisfaction. Robert Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, a fiction novel focusing on the life of Jake Barnes, a World War I veteran, and his adventure to Spain with a small group of his friends, falls into this category of inappropriate endings. The ending of The Sun Also Rises is not appropriate because instead of concluding the story, it leaves the reader at the beginning of a cycle seen throughout the book. This aforementioned cycle dominates the characters’ lives, ruling over them, helping the reader predict their every move. The cycle

“She was sitting up now. My arm was around her and she was leaning back against me, and we were quite calm” (34). “We sat close against each other. I put my arm around her and she rested against me comfortably” (250). It is as if the entire book is starting over again, because it is. The reflection phrase just keep repeating itself. The characters continuously try to figure what is ailing them but can’t seem to seek any other solution besides traveling to a new place. We know that traveling is the next step in the cycle, Jake and Brett will try to find happiness anywhere else but their homes, but they will fail.
The ending of the book puts the readers right back at the beginning, sitting in a cab with Jake and Brett. Their lives are basically the same, they have not developed or changed in any fulfilling way. The end of The Sun Also Rises creates a false hope that something in the future will be better. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (250). But that is all it is, hope. Old habits die hard, that is something these friends learn the hard way. An ending is not the same as a conclusion, a conclusion finishes something, brings some closure to a subject. The words may cease, but we know what happens after “The