Jake Barnes and Nature in The Sun Also Rises: A Brief Escape from Being Lost

Throughout The Sun Also Rises, Jake Barnes must deal with life after World War I. In this new world suffering from despair and confusion, Jake must deal with his loss of faith in humankind and God. He must also deal with his inability to make love because his penis was badly damaged in the war. Everyone involved in World War I seems lost and dysfunctional in the text, and like Jake, "all [they] wanted to know was how to live [life]." Since Jake cannot depend on religion or his so-called friends, Jake must find an outlet to somehow enjoy his life. Jake finds this in Chapter XII, as he fishes with Bill Gorton in Burguete, Spain. As Jake communes with Nature, we find he briefly abandons his group of friends reckless activities, such as heavy drinking. Nature provides Jake a pragmatic way of living, the best way for him to deal with a life empty of joy, love, and sex.

World War I brought death and destruction upon Europe. As much as the war terrorized the land, it terrorized the soldiers of the war, including Jake Barnes. Jake, after the war, became a reporter in France. During the war, his penis was shot off, only leaving his testicles. Because he is left with the ability to produce sperm, he obviously have desires. However, Jake cannot satisfy his sexual desires. He loves Lady Brett Ashley and the two desperately want to be together, but because he cannot make love, he will never be with her. Therefore, Jake finds human sexual relationships meaningless, as well as belief in God. When Bill asks Jake in Chapter XII if he is a Catholic, Jake responds "Technically." Two lines later, after Bill asks "What does that mean?", Jake responds, "I don't know." Jake, because of the war, has lost faith in God and sexual relationships. His friends are drunks who try to fulfill their sexual and physical desires while coming short of finding happiness in their lives. To Jake, a miserable life seems inescapable.

An odd thing happens, however, when Jake and Bill Gorton manage to escape for a week-long fishing trip. Bill is a joker; his scars from World War I run so deep he has to crack jokes to deal with what he saw during the war. He has a large personality, especially seen in his conversations with Jake while having a picnic near a river. They discuss the death of William Jennings Bryant, with Bill making a sarcastic speech commemorating the man. He humorously says, "Remember the woods were God's first temples." The men are chatting with each other, enjoying chicken, hard-boiled eggs and wine, and reveling in the sun after hours of fishing. During this time, Jake states while resting that "It felt good lying on the ground."

In fishing and relaxing in the glow of Nature, away from the decadence of the city, Jake and Bill are finding a new way to live their lives. The men are living in a practical way. They are fishing for trout instead of purchasing the fish. Both men can talk to each other in an environment free from the pressures of city life, where the Lost Generation negatively responds to their everyday surroundings. They can discuss more personal problems, such as Jake's terrible penis wound. Through this honest conversation, Jake learns to accept who he is as a man because Bill, another emotional casualty of the war, honestly discusses the wound and tells Jake "you're a hell of a good guy. Anybody ever tell you were a good guy?" Jake and Bill Gorton connect, through the comforting atmosphere of Nature and from escaping their friends. At the end of the chapter, when Jake discusses the fishing trip, he says "There was no word from Robert Cohn nor from Brett and Mike." Jake is happy his friends are not with him. If they were, Jake could not escape the feelings of his generation for that brief vacation and find some sort of inner peace.

Although Jake and Bill bond through their trip, they must return back to their old relationships and situations from which they were briefly free. In Chapter II, Jake states that "you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another." Even though Jake moves from one place to another, visiting several cities, he will never leave behind the insecurities embedded in him through his wartime experiences. His time with Bill fishing will enable him to be aware of the tragedy of life, and to effectively cope with it through a pragmatic sense of behavior.

Hemingway, Ernest. "The Sun Also Rises." Scribner, 2006.