War, Men, and Toxic Masculinity in The Sun Also Rises

 

Like the characters in Mrs. Dalloway, all the people in The Sun Also Rises have been affected by World War I, and they all deal with it in different ways. In this blog post, I would like to explore how the war affected the male characters, mainly Jake, the count, and Robert. 

Firstly, we can look at Jake, the narrator and the character we get to know the most. By common sense, we should have gotten to know him quite well since we’re inside his head all the time, but it feels like we know him only at the surface level. Whenever he is at a party, he internally comments on what other people do and say, and when he talks to people, he gives only one-word answers. He never describes his feelings, and it seems like he’s more of an onlooker for most events rather than an active participant. This may largely be due to his injury, which our class decided caused him to be unable to have sex. Although this injury is not visible, it seems to cause him to lose confidence, especially since Brett does not want to pursue a relationship with him. Therefore, he tries to distract himself from thinking by focusing on the lives of others. Strangely, this is particularly evident when he is alone in his bedroom. He thinks that “it is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing” (42). It becomes obvious at this point that Jake tries to keep himself thinking about other things during the day. However, this is largely an act for him, and he finds it hard to fall asleep or not think about his injury. In this way, the war has taken over his life, causing him to try to bury his feelings to try to give off an air of masculinity even though he feels inherently inferior because of his injury. 

Jake’s way of handling the war was largely discussed in class; however, one person we did not discuss as much was the count. He also has an injury. However, his is visible and something he can show off proudly. Therefore, the count’s approach to dealing with the war is very different from Jake’s approach; he appreciates life and what it has to offer. While talking to Jake (Mr. Barnes), he says “You see, Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well. Don’t you find it like that?” (67). Instead of putting the count down and lowering his sense of masculinity, the war seems to have increased his confidence. Although he may possibly still struggle when he’s at home alone like Jake does (in a way that most people wouldn’t notice), he generally seems very upbeat, and even though he goes to a lot of parties, there is no indication that this may be to deal with trauma. He even freely shows off his wounds to prove how tough and masculine he is, showing that he has accepted what happened to him and may even view it as a good thing. 

In contrast to the two veterans described above, Robert Cohn was not in the war. He has lived most of his life in a sheltered environment with a rich family. According to Jake, Cohn’s hardest challenge in life was being treated as a Jew at Princeton. This shows how naïve and relatively inexperienced Cohn is when compared to war veterans. The only real “war” experience he had was boxing (at an Ivy League college) which is really nothing compared to World War I. He also seemingly didn’t lose anyone in the war and was generally very distanced from its effects. Therefore, his concerns seem to be presented as very childish by Jake; all Cohn wants is to go on vacation, and he seems to be constantly pulled around by women, particularly Frances. He serves as a foil to Jake, and he is also the only one not at all affected by the war in this book, causing him to be incredibly unmasculine. Brett was a nurse, and her fiancée was a veteran; Bill Gorton is not a veteran, but it may be inferred that he was somehow affected because of his habit of getting drunk. Cohn, however, lives out his life without worries. Overall, Cohn’s presence in this novel shows what a life without the war could have looked like. 

In general, this novel presents the reality of life after the war. All the characters deal with it in different ways, some negative and some positive. This Lost Generation learns to cope with the war in different ways.