Saturday, January 24, 2015

Hemingway's Gender Constructs in _The Sun Also Rises_

While I am very much still investigating what makes Hemingway's writing "masculine," I'd like to depart from considerations of structure and instead examine his characters' dialogue. I think that Hemingway best demonstrates Jake's view (and perhaps Hemingway's own) of women through the dialogue exchanges between male and female characters. One exchange I find particularly telling is in Chapter VII:
"Have another brandy," the count said.
"Get it on the hill."
"No. Have it here where it is quiet."
"You and your quiet," said Brett. "What is it men fell about quiet?"
"We like it," said the count. "Like you like noise, my dear." (68)

Hemingway is constantly bringing up the "differences" between men and women in this way, often positing Brett as the universal "female" voice and himself or Cohn as variations of masculinity. I think it is worthwhile to note these dialogue exchanges and asides by Jake to grasp at Hemingway's gender constructs in his novel, The Sun Also Rises.
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 24, 2015 at 12:59 PM

    I haven't finished the novel yet, but he also seems to portray women as unreliable and manipulative characters and men are portrayed as the opposite. Frances is portrayed worse than the other women I've encountered so far in the story, but Brett also has bad qualities. Since Brett is portrayed as the universal "female" voice, just like you said, her bad qualities seem to be the "evidence" that men are better than women.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownJanuary 25, 2015 at 6:45 PM

      I agree that women have been portrayed as "unreliable and manipulative" in these first few chapters that we've read. Brett and Frances don't seem to have very good qualities, as Keegan has stated. I also think that it is important to note that Brett has been portrayed as a drunk. I wonder why that is?

      Delete
  2. UnknownJanuary 25, 2015 at 9:00 PM

    I agree with you, Rachel; I think it's interesting that Brett is portrayed as a drunk, and even though Jacob drinks a great deal himself, he is somehow posited as a sober voice of reason or "redeemer" among his social circle. I might just be speaking/writing from a biased point of view, because I've studied Hemingway's relationship to his protagonists (allegedly Hemingway wrote semi-autobiographically in all of his novels), but I find after re-reading _The Sun Also Rises_ that Hemingway projects a lot of himself and his views into his central characters. Was he a misogynist? Anyhow, it is curious that Brett and Frances are portrayed so poorly, but in such a way that readers are possibly aware of this bias.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristi VeachJanuary 26, 2015 at 12:44 PM

    I find Hemingway's gender roles an interesting part of the book. The two female characters that have been presented so far have been presented as unreliable and outgoing. I like that he gives the female characters a personality of their own, and does not confine them to constrained gender roles. Lady Brett is not quiet and coy, as a Lady would be expected to be. He also pushes Jake outside of the masculine gender role, clearly defining this by his injury.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJanuary 27, 2015 at 2:05 PM

    The Sun Also Rises almost seems like a different book from the first 70 pages to 70-130. I agree with the previous comments, the women are dominant and manipulative. Cohn and Jake act more feminine (in pages 1-70) than many of the women I have encountered so far. They are concerned with drama and emotional. However, pages 70-130 definitely changes my view on the characters of Jake and Cohn. The women are no longer dominating the men. Robert and Jake do "manly" things like go fishing and camp out.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)