The Sun Also Rises offers a snapshot of Hemingway's world and allows the reader to see firsthand the social changes that took place around the time of World War I. In this era, a new class of women, free from suffocating bonds with men, developed, thus bringing about a complete redefinition of the relationship between men and women. Members of this "lost generation" rewrote the values ​​of the Victorian age and re-established a less rigid set of morals to implement in the modern world. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Many critics associate Ernest Hemingway with the idea of ​​anti-feminism. However, this opinion is not necessarily based on factual evidence. The Sun Also Rises introduces a new type of woman, the independent woman, who is the exact opposite of anti-feminism. In many ways, this first novel is Hemingway's goodbye kiss to the Victorian ethic under which he grew up (O'Sullivan 81). In this novel, Hemingway creates Lady Brett Ashley to portray the liberated and modernist female character. Brett represents the new, overtly phallic women (Fantina 84). Moving away from the image of the inferior, submissive housewife, the new woman was an outspoken, free-thinking peer and, above all, a friend. With the creation of Brett Ashley, Hemingway flirts with the idea that the line that previously divided men and women had been blurred or, in some cases, completely absent. During and around the time of the Great War, female behavior began to change. It was perceived that women were beginning to "act like men." Instead of grace, many women had taken on an affectation of masculinity, as evidenced by their hats, their jackets, their long strides, and the healthy movement of their arms as they walk. More radical behaviors included smoking, drinking, living alone, and sexual activity (O'Sullivan 78). Brett Ashley is the embodiment of this idea of ​​the new woman. “She is a drunk,” Hemingway writes of Brett (38). “She wore a jersey sweater and a tweed skirt, and her hair was combed back like a boy's,” (Hemingway 30). He drinks to get drunk. He smokes cigars. He has promiscuous, no-strings sex with men other than his girlfriend. She does what "decent" women shouldn't do. However, through this debauchery of tradition, Hemingway reaches new heights for the female character. Brett is neither a wife nor a prostitute (O'Sullivan 83). She breaks the stereotypical molds that society has been conditioned to place women into. However, Brett Ashley's genius lies not in Hemingway's ability to create the Great American Bitch, but rather in his ability to create an idea of ​​woman as friend (O'Sullivan 81). Especially where Jake is concerned, the idea of ​​women as an exclusive love or sexual interest is erased and replaced by friendship, something previously thought to be impossible to achieve between members of the opposite sex. Jake's war injury prevents him from consummating his love with Brett. With the opportunity for physical love made so impossible, one might wonder what holds this relationship together. As it turns out, Brett and Jake seem to have a legitimate liking for each other; something beyond the realm of the purely physical. In this light, Brett and Jake share a relationship much like one that might exist between two men. The lines are blurred and Jake is able to see through the sexual cloud surrounding Brett and see her as a person. Jake and Brett are the same. More than that, they are friends. In many ways, Jake's friendship with Brett is a lotsimilar to the one with Bill Gorton. Although often separated, the two can immediately re-establish bonds when reunited. When Bill visits Paris, he and Jake exchange stories about the past. Bill shares stories from his time in Vienna. He admits that it wasn't a great time and that it seemed better than it was (Hemingway76). He attributes this to his four-day drinking binge. Later in the novel the two converse again, but this time in more depth. From their conversation in the countryside, the bond between the two is evident. The men freely discuss topics such as religion, literature, and personal problems, and also talk about Jake's impotence (O'Sullivan 88). Bill even goes so far as to express his love for Jake. "You're a really good boy, and I love you more than anyone on earth. I couldn't tell you that except in New York. It would mean I was a faggot," (Hemingway 121). The importance of Jake's friendship with Bill is that it bears striking similarities to his friendship with Brett. The idea that Jake can have comparable, but not physical, relationships with both a male and a female reinforces the blurring of gender boundaries in The Sun Also Rises. Both Jake and Bill, Jake and Brett are able to accept each other's downfalls and frayed pasts and see each other for who they truly are. The idea that Brett and Bill could both influence Jake in similar ways again emphasizes that the new female and the new male are not different at all. Many people considered this new platonic relationship disastrous and directly attributed to the death of romantic love. However, instead of reading The Sun Also Rises as a story about the death of love, we can read it as a story about cautious faith in the survival of the two most basic components of every human relationship: love and friendship. It can be seen as the unification of two separate sexual spheres of the nineteenth century and a break with the moral imperatives of the Victorian age, while also demonstrating the possibility of love's survival in the more realistic yet nihilistic twentieth century (O'Sullivan 76). While there's no doubt that there is substantial love between Jake and Brett, it's not what defines their entire relationship. Unlike Brett's relationships with other men, her relationship with Jake is not based on lust and animalistic sexual desire. Brett can count on Jake for love, help and support. When Brett realizes that she has fallen in love with Romero, she experiences some form of emotional shock. She repeatedly exclaims to Jake that “I'm [her] done for” (Hemingway 187). However, despite her overly dramatized performance, Jake stays with her and listens. When Brett finally asks, “Oh honey, please stay with me and help me get through this,” Jake offers the unhesitating response of “Of course” (Hemingway 188). Jake comes to Brett's rescue again after she decides that her relationship with Romero is not in either of their best interests. Broken and stranded in Madrid, she turns to the one person she can undoubtedly count on, Jake Barnes. After receiving a text from Brett, Jake abandons his plans to go be by her side. Upon his arrival, Brett tells him about his ordeal with the child bullfighter. Throughout it all, Jake is there, listening and being a friend. "I saw that she was crying. I could hear her crying as I held her. She was shaking and crying. I hugged her" (Hemingway 247). There is no hint of sexual desire between the two in any of the aforementioned scenes. Brett and Jake offer each other a glimpse into their souls. They are honest about their personal failures and shortcomings. Although imperfect, their friendship is imbued with the survival mechanisms of honesty, a shared history, and serious love (O'Sullivan 87). Jake knows that despite thehis love for her, nothing will change their relationship. However, he accepts her as she is and for this reason the relationship between the two is made lasting and long-lasting. The change in the man-woman relationship in this era was not brought about simply by the birth of the new woman. The role of men also began to change, favoring the end of romantic love and the emergence of the new idea of ​​the possibility of friendship between the sexes. Hemingway uses characters such as Jake Barnes and RobertCohn to represent these changes and also to show why romantic love and the chivalrous man have no place in the post-war environment. Jake's war wound is representative of the loss of traditional masculinity. Without the use of the penis, much of the male identity disappears; represents the authority that men have over women. After the war, with the onset of injury, Jake becomes a representative of the decline of male power. He can no longer represent the traditional male, because he is powerless (O'Sullivan 87). The war divided the old world from the new; old Jake from new Jake. With women becoming more virile, it was difficult for men to be men; the wound had severed them from the anatomical source of their undoubted virility (Forter 26). In the past, the penis differed hierarchically between men and women. It was a symbol of male power over female (Forter 26). Jake's injury robs him of his virility and the root of male social power. Jake's interaction with society shows that his new role as a man is not necessarily negative. Because of his impotence, Jake cannot continue to define himself by his sexual abilities. He can't show Brett what he can do for her sexually. Instead, he is forced to develop other aspects of his personality. Although he can't be with her in a physical and romantic sense, something still unites the two. This promotes the concept of friendship over sexual love. Metaphorically, Jake's injury is necessary. In order for the new woman to gain power, the new man must give it up. This change is accentuated by the lack of transformation in other men. Men like Cohn and Romero do not accept Brett and the evolving female. Because Jake accepts Brett and the idea of ​​the new woman, he is able to maintain a relationship. Brett says, "It was kind of a shock that he was ashamed of me. He was ashamed of me for a while, you know... They insulted [Romero] about me at the bar, I guess. He wanted me to grow out my hair. I, with long hair, I would look to die for” (Hemingway 246). In this situation, Romero cannot give up his outdated views on what a woman should look like. While it is ultimately Brett's awareness that young Romero's corruption will ruin him that causes the relationship to sour, it is certainly plausible that his inability, as well as Cohn's, to abandon antiquated ideals also plays a role in the dissolution . of the relationship. Robert Cohn represents the Victorian values ​​of the past: “He believes in romance – the romance of distant and exotic places, romantically described in turgidly romantic prose – as well as in the romance of mutually satisfying loves” (Forter 27). He is the only sensitive character in a completely desensitized world. For this reason, Cohn doesn't fit. He is repeatedly shown crying and unable to drink with the big boys (Forter 27). Hemingway creates these circumstances to demonstrate that just as Cohn does not fit in with his peers, Cohn's old-fashioned views do not fit in with the new morality of society. After her short-lived romance with Brett, Cohn immediately falls in love with her and constantly pines for her love. He can't understand that Brett doesn't need him. He didn't come to accept the new woman, who..