Would you agree with the observation that The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's version of the moral wasteland Europe has become after the First World War ?

Any work of literature has a number of themes and this novel The Sun Also Rises is no exception . Both T.S.Eliot and Hemingway were deeply troubled by the events of  the war , and the way that Europe was completely devastated , physically and emotionally after the war . Hemingway himself served on the Eastern Front in some of the ugliest and in many ways arguably the most pointless fighting of the war (in a war filled with it ) . One clear theme is the way the novel explores morality and the various moral codes that the characters in this novel ascribe to . Let us consider Jack for a moment , who describes "morality" as "things that made you disgusted afterward " . He quickly corrects himself , saying that this must be the definition of "immorality" . Throughout the novel it is clear that Jack is more interested in his own problems and issues , and then , only secondly , those of Brett .



Now , if we compare Jake's moral code to that of Cohn , there is a stark difference , as Cohn shows himself unable to understand the morality of Brett and also unable to follow it . We have to note how Brett and Romero are got together , deliberately going against the morality of the group . This leads to a betrayal and the loss of respect between Jake and Montoya and Cohn . Jake shows how throughout the novel he continually becomes more and more self-centered and selfish .


If we consider Brett for a moment , we see that she is presented as wandering in a kind of moral vacuum . She shows self-disgust and also disgust with Jake , even though this is shown to be unfair . She stands against conventional morality by engaging in numerous brief affairs which shows her to be a self-destructive personality . These string of affairs are an escape mechanism to flee from her relationship with Jake , whom she really loves but is unable to have sex .


Thus morality is an important theme as characters reject conventional forms of morality and build their own system of morals , justifying them as they go , for their own reasons . Such morals have a lot to say about characters in this book and the kind of desperate , detached and selfish lives they lead . For example , Pamplona also represents those who have empty values and those who have meaningful ones . Pedro Romero , the bullfighter , symbolizes the best values because he takes the violence out of a violent sport through his artistry . Brett represents those with empty values , the party goers who do nothing with their lives.


Paris is perceived in this chapter as a wasteland because of the way people treat one another and the fact that there are prostitutes , that gay men can be openly gay , because of its perversions . Jake feels particularly and strongly about this lack of moral virtue and actually gets angry when Prentiss and others do not seem to be as sickened by it as he is .


The interaction between the gay men and the prostitute Georgette is particularly galling to Jake as he sees two immoral creatures being horrible to each other . This lack of any human decency fills him with rage .