Character Analysis Of Ernest HemingwaysThe Sun Also Rises

In his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway displays the destructive lives of expatriate characters living in Paris during the 1920s through the eyes of narrator Jake Barnes. By creating characters with such strong personalities, Hemingway created a story that â€Å"is much more a novel of character than event [where] the action would seem empty were it not for the rich texture of personalities that interact throughout the book† (Nagel 90). One of the defining features of some of the protagonists is their uncertainty about who they are, and their quest to change and form their identity comes to a culmination when they decide to go to Spain to watch the annual bullfights at San Fermin. The careful boundaries that they constructed†¦show more content†¦Yet, at the same time, there is the symbolism of the steer in the bullfights. Similar to Jake, the steers are castrated and thus unable to propagate. As he tells Bill, the â€Å"steers [are] in the corral to receive [the bulls] and keep them from fighting, and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like old maids trying to quiet them down† (Hemingway 138). While the bulls serve as a reminder to Jake, the simultaneous presence of the steers in the corral implies that he can never truly move on in his life without his wound impacting his life. Using powerful imagery to describe the bulls, such as the comparison to old maids, could echo Jake’s possible worries that one day he, too, will be an old maid, with no family to support him and no path in life to follow. In the big scheme of the bullfight, the steers are unimportant and feminine, leading Jake to question himself. Does his injury mean he is a steer, or is he greater than his injury? For Jake to figure out who he is, the idea of the bullfight could with him, and it is possible that he returns on a yearly basis to work out his problems with his identity. To others, Jake’s dedication to the bullfight is evident. When Jake and Bill arrive at Pamplona, the hotelkeeper, Montoya, decides that Bill is â€Å"not aficionado like [Jake] is† (Hemingway 136). Going on to describe aficionado as â€Å"one who is passionate about the bull-fights†,