Jake Barnes in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is an American veteran of World War I who lives and works in Paris as a newsman. Jake Barnes is the typical Hemingway Code Hero in this novel, but he does fail to meet certain aspects of the code. First, he is not a man in the traditional sense of the word. Due to a wound in WWI, he is essentially sexless. The Hemingway code hero indulges in all aspects of the word pleasure, mainly those of alcohol and women. Second, he breaks the Hemingway code by violating the trust of another man, especially when he violates it for a woman. He introduces Brett Ashley to Pedro Romero, the famous bullfighter, against the wishes of his friend and fellow bullfighting afficionado, Montoya. However, in many ways, Jake Barnes does meet the standards of a code hero. He handles his liquor well, and he loves hunting, fishing, and the outdoors.
Ernest Hemingway, Paris, circa 1924.
Ernest Hemingway seated in 1925 with the persons d...
JAKE FOSTERHe has faced death, and is not afraid of it. Jake is also disillusioned with life after surviving WWI, like many young adults after the First World War.
Behind the traditional concept of the code hero lies the disillusionment of the 'lost generation' of younger people, resulting from WWI. The code hero has to create a new set of values and concepts, because the traditional ones embedded in Christianity had not saved man from catastrophe. The Code hero had to find a place, then, that was not dominated by these precepts. Many members of the lost generation found this refuge in Paris, as did Jake Barnes. The spiritual values of code heros were not Christian; they essentially believed that there was no afterlife after death, so life must be experienced to the fullest. If facing total oblivion after death, the...
Good analysis, but...
I must say, you hit the important aspect, Jake Barnes is the Hemingway Hero of the novel, but not a complete one. However, how you arrived at that conclusion is only partially correct. Jake Barnes is the Hemingway Hero precisely because he was rendered impotent in a war accident. The whole idea of the Hemingway Hero is, as you aptly put, to struggle with death and life. Hemingway believed that life was a constant struggle, and how an individual reacted to that struggle makes that individual a hero or not. Jake was rendered impotent, but had met Lady Ashley. They are really very much in love with each other, and yet their relationship cannot be as Brett refuses to have a relationship with someone impotent. Thus the struggle of Jake and Ashley, a love that cannot be. How Jake takes this struggle, with dignity and stoic, render him a Hemingway Hero. However, as you put correctly, because of Jakes betrayal to his friend Montoya, setting up Brett and Pedro, he is not a complete hero, illustrating the idea of disillusionment and the "Lost Generation." Overall, good essay, though perhaps quoting the novel and a more in depth read could achieve a more accurate picture! (83)
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