ELEVEN HEMINGWAY

Daybreak

In Book One of The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway keeps to the first person narrative as we have encountered in this class earlier in A Moveable Feast. Such a style, together with the circumstances and the personality of Jake, cannot help but reminds us of the author himself. The perspective of Jake brings us into his American Paris and introduces the American expatriates within it. We are reacquainted with memory, the intricacies of human relationships, the status of women and the idea of a better land elsewhere (the very essence of expatriation in this context). In terms of craftsmanship, Hemingway balances the emotions of his story with a literary austerity that delivers a realism that we now consider a Hemingway signature. 

The style of which this novel is written also highlights another theme — memory. The Lost Generation of Paris represent a golden period that one cannot but feel nostalgic even if one is to be living in it simply of its splendor and the romantic ideals it associates with. The spacial information of Paris is skillfully weaved in the description by Jake. We give him credit for its veracity, and this may be Hemingway’s trick to lean us towards his protagonist’s reliability. Indeed, on one hand, the excessive amount of dialogue that seems to be ad verbatim included in Book One provides the reader with a “true” reflection of circumstances. However, because the narrative is a first person account, it makes us question the degree of accuracy upon a macroscopic examination. How did Jake remember each word of every sentence uttered? How did he recall each gesture with each conversation exchanged?

As Atherton calls him, Jake is a “storyteller”. He presents himself to us as an American within the expatriate community of Paris. Similar to Hemingway, Jake cannot be “sick of Paris”. He shares the attributes of a typical American expatriate of that time — social (and later, habitual) alcohol consumption, aimless wandering and socializing. The characters travel mentally and physically without goals. 

We observe his interactions within his social circle and their attitudes towards the city of lights and the wandering life through the perspective of Jake. Yet, the subjectivity of this perspective is made obvious to us  when Hemingway reveals Jake’s opinions of the people he engages with to us by penning Jake’s thoughts. 

Furthermore, the particularities within the expat community are also explored. Mrs. Braddocks, with “all [her] easy social graces”, seem to be a deadpan humor character as she tolerate Georgette’s impoliteness to an incredible degree.  The scene serves to present the differences between the American and the other groups of expatriates.

In one sense, Hemingway inserts what seems to be objective or neutral details in Jake’s descriptions to produce a realism. 

We went into the restaurant, passed Madame Lavigne at the desk and into a little room. Georgette cheered up a little under the food.

Jake also introduces us the people of his Parisian life in plain terms that has a charming candidness. 

The concierge, before she became a concierge, had owned a drink-selling concession at the Paris race-courses. Her life-work lay in the pelouse, but she kept an eye on the people of the pesage, and she took great pride in telling me which of my guests were well brought up, which were of good family, who were sportsmen, a French word pronounced with the accent on the men.

This form of description of gives us a strong sense of spatiotemporal order. It is agrees with the "itinerary” effect that Atherton discusses in his essay.

In addition, the small blurts of bluntness in Jake’s language adds more realistic elements of the account.

She smiled and showed all her bad teeth, and we touched glasses. 

Jake has no reservations about pointing out the physical flaw of Georgette in his narration and this affords a kind of realism to the reader because it is how one’s thoughts would flow in real time.

At the same time, Hemingway flirts with deception through his characters’ behaviour. 

"I wish to present my fiancée, Mademoiselle Georgette Leblanc," I said. Georgette smiled that wonderful smile, and we shook hands all round.  

"Are you related to Georgette Leblanc, the singer?" Mrs. Braddocks asked.

"Connais pas," Georgette answered. 

"But you have the same name," Mrs. Braddocks insisted cordially. 

"No," said Georgette. "Not at all. My name is Hobin." 

" But Mr. Barnes introduced you as Mademoiselle Georgette Leblanc. Surely he did," insisted Mrs. Braddocks, who in the excitement of talking French was liable to have no idea what she was saying. 

The ability to put on disguises is perhaps another feature of being an expatriate, simply because there are not many people who know one’s history, or at least well enough to have true information. Expatriation allows one to reinvent oneself, even for a moment, even just for fun. 

Hemingway’s personal perspective of woman manifests in Jake. He sees them as a measure of a man’s worldliness. To be more specific, sexual worldliness. We can infer this from Jake’s evaluation of of Robert,

Then several women had put themselves out to be nice to him, and his horizons had all shifted. For four years his horizon had been absolutely limited to his wife. For three years, or almost three years, he had never seen beyond Frances. 

This is in accordance to Hemingway’s views shared in his chapters with Fitzgerald in A Moveable Feast. Even though Jake states that he is “sure (that) he (Robert) had never been in love in his life.”, which can be interpreted as him using love, a benchmark of a higher order, as a criteria to judge one’s worldliness, the emphasis on quantity of sexual relationship and the tone suggest that sex is still the main yardstick. 

It is ironic that Jake, especially with his injury (that is later revealed to us to cause sexual impotence), would emphasize sexual experience as a benchmark for worldliness or manhood. Yet perhaps it is due to his crippled abilities that he is so concerned with it. This is particularly so in light of his failed union with Brett, the girl of his dreams. 

With them was Brett. She looked very lovely and she was very much with them. One of them saw Georgette and said: "I do declare. There is an actual harlot. I'm going to dance with her, Lett. You watch me."The tall dark one, called Lett, said: "Don't you be rash.”.The wavy blond one answered: "Don't you worry, dear." And with them was Brett. 

The repeated  “With them was Brett…And with them was Brett” suggests an obsession with the named lady. It immediately throws Georgette off the limelight where she was in no long before. As the chapter continues, Georgette’s significance fades into the background as she “danc[es] with the tall blond youth”. Jake’s purposeless, social obligatory responses, “Isn’t she” to Mrs. Braddock’s comment about Georgette already cues a loss of interest for himself and the reader. 

It is the dialogue between subjective opinion and objective facts synthesized in a narrative fashion that produces a frankness we identify as Hemingway’s. Thus far, we find literal, thematic and emotional similarities between the author’s fictional The Sun Also Rise and his autobiographical A Moveable Feast.