The Lost Generation faced an incomprehensible amount of pain and devastation caused by war. Two of the main themes present in the novel are the empty lives of individuals and the failure of communication. These two themes are connected in various ways and complement each other, but neither would exist if the war had never happened. People of the war generation cannot express the impact the war has had on them, which affects them heavily emotionally and psychologically. The combination of having an empty life and keeping dark, sad, lost, and lonely feelings inside leads to alcoholism and depression. Hemingway's goal was to allow readers from a different time period to have the ability to understand the impact the war had on war veterans and those around them. In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway explores how traumatic events lead to communication barriers following a tragedy. Many characters have difficulty speaking frankly and honestly, can only speak honestly in some circumstances, and do not know how to deal with their problems. Conversations between characters aren't entirely honest, and characters often don't say everything they think. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The characters keep many secrets and only seem to share confidential information when they are not in a good mood. Characters have difficulty speaking frankly and honestly, tending to hide their feelings, emotions, and intentions. Bill is a great example of struggling to speak frankly and honestly. After serving as a war correspondent, Bill has experienced traumatic memories of war and consistently uses humor to deal with his emotional and psychological damage. Bill once stated, “Never let yourself be discouraged.” (Hemingway, 79). Bill is telling Jake not to reveal his emotions in public and to keep his feelings and emotions to himself. If these two don't show their emotions in public they will never discuss it and the result will be that they will never get over their pain. An equally important reason why characters have difficulty speaking honestly is a lack of trust, Jake says: “I distrust all plain and simple people, especially when their stories hold together” (Hemingway, 12). This is a big problem because if the characters don't trust each other they definitely won't share their sensitive issues with each other. Also, one night Jake reads newspapers about bullfighting and ends up crying himself to sleep. This was because he felt insecure about his masculinity due to his injury. Instead of discussing his feelings and emotions with his friends, Jake hides them and uses newspapers to make himself feel better. Discussing problems with another person is much more effective and would allow Jake to get rid of his problems by getting everything off his chest. Therefore, characters have difficulty speaking frankly and honestly, tending to hide their feelings, emotions and intentions. Characters are only able to speak honestly under certain circumstances, particularly when they are not in a good mood or when they are in pain. When Jake and Georgette are having a drink, Jake states to Georgette, "We probably would have gone on and discussed the war and agreed that it was actually a calamity for civilization, and maybe it would have been better to avoid it." (Hemingway, 24-25).When Jake said this he was not in a good mood at all, otherwise he would not have been with Georgette and would not have said something to her that in her eyes would lower his masculinity. Likewise,.
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