The Sun Also Rises: Ernest Hemingway’s Work on Absurdism
Author : Dr. Vivek Kumar Dwivedi and Dr. Pradeep Sharma
Abstract :
Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926) is a remarkable debut novel. This work of fiction set a distinctive contemporary writing style in the genre and helped Hemingway carve out a niche for himself. The novel has a simple theme – expression of the frustration the young generation of the time had with life in the West after WWI. The novel deals, albeit indirectly, with social issues faced by people after the war. However, this is also a fictional representation of the young generation’s fascination with the emerging philosophical thought in the West after the war years, that is, the thought that came to be popularly known as ‘Existentialism.’ “Existentialist angst,” the feeling termed in fictional as well as non-fictional literature, was an expression of meaninglessness, purposelessness, and a general despair. Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, under investigation in the present research, brings the existentialist angst to life in terse prose and short dialogues where the dominant characters seek an easy outlet for their pent-up emotions and frustration in alcoholism and partying. Nonetheless, serious academic research work on absurdist elements in The Sun Also Rises is scanty. The present paper critically analyzes the thematic aspects of The Sun Also Rises, keeping in view the tenets of predominant philosophical thoughts of the time that influenced the contemporary writers, i.e., existentialism and absurdism, as critical lens. Critical discourse analysis and close reading have been employed as research methods. The analysis reveals that the narrative structure, character delineation, and the overall thematic perspective of the novel are testimonies to the presence of the seeds of existentialist and absurdist thought in Hemingway. The findings of the study are significant as contribution to the understanding of absurdism in Hemingway’s literature, even before the ideas were documented as a philosophical trend.
Keywords :
Absurdism in literature, Hemingway’s fiction, existentialism, the Lost Generation, Meaninglessness, Purposelessness.
