Ernest Hemingway, one of the most celebrated and most controversial of modern American writers in the twentieth century, is considered a literary and stylistic genius of the century. No other American writers have ever equaled the popular success and worldwide reputation during his lifetime. He gets the status of an international celebrity and has been generally regarded as one of the most representative spokesman of the “Lost Generation”. In 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for “his mastery of the art of modern narration”. Hemingway centers successfully his novels on special experiences and affections. He introduces a new type of character called the “code hero”. Hemingway is famous for expressing “code hero” who struggles with the mixture of their tragic faults and environment. He loves to select bullfighters, hunters, soldiers, and fishermen as his protagonists in the works; these male characters fight against the doomed failure with their great willpower in this world that is filled with hostility. The image of Jake Barnes as a Code Hero in The Sun Also Rises is most famous.
I. Hemingway, a Spokesman of “Lost Generation”
1.1 Hemingway's Life
Hemingway was born in a comfortable middle-class family in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. His father was a physician with a passion for hunting and fishing. His mother, on the contrary, was interested in culture and arts. His parents, completely different in characters and interests, were both stubborn and self-opinionated. Therefore, Hemingway formed a character mixed by bravery and an artistic temperament. Behind the seeming blessing was a curse for Hemingway. The contradictory educational styles actually had a negative effect on immature Hemingway’s mind. When Hemingway was a high school student, his attitudes towards life were mainly positive. He believed that one could succeed as long as one made great efforts. Ideal, energy, plus the political propaganda, made the young generation, including Hemingway himself, see thing with righteousness. He and a lot of ardent youngsters enlisted and went to the battlefield in Europe, harboring an ideal of the salvation of democracy. But World War I changed them greatly. Hemingway was seriously injured during the war. His wound and the cruelty of the war tortured him for the rest of his life. In addition, the failure of his first real romance saddened him for a long time, making him develop a feeling of distrust or, more exactly, hatred about woman. It is one of the reasons why most Hemingway’s works belong to man’s world. The years after the war witnessed the doubt about conventional morality and the emergence of new trends of thoughts in America. The American society of the 1920s was an aureate symphony with the taste of money and desire. In 1926 he came out with his first true novel, The Sun Also Rises. After it published, he became as the spokesman of “the lost Generation”. And in this novel, the image of the protagonist, Jake Barnes, was conceded as the first Code Hero’s image in Hemingway’s works. And in 1942 he volunteered himself and his fishing boot for various projects to the Navy and cruised off the coast of Cuba. On October 28, Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for literature, and died on July 2, 1961.
1.2The Story of The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises is much more narrator Jake Barnes's memory of war than has been recognized, in terms of landscape, imagery allusions, and a recurring story of wounding. It opens with the narrator, Jake Barnes, delivering a brief biographical sketch of his friend, Robert Cohn. Jake is a veteran of World War I who now works as a journalist in Paris. Cohn is also an American expatriate, although not a war veteran. He is a rich Jewish writer who lives in Paris with his forceful and controlling girlfriend, Frances Clyne. Robert Cohn is an immature, emotionally weak member of the group. He is strongly dependent on everyone and is full of self-pity. He has become restless of late, and he comes to Jake’s office one afternoon to try to convince Jake to go with him to South America. Jake refuses, and he takes pains to get rid of Cohn. That night at a dance club, Jake runs into Brett，Lady Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. She is a divorced socialite and the love of Jake’s life. Brett treats men as sexual objects and drifts from one man to the other in the story, always returning to her indifferent fiancé, Michael. She is a free-spirited and independent woman, but she can be very selfish at times. She and Jake met in England during World War I, when Brett treated Jake for a war wound. During Jake and Brett’s conversation, it is subtly implied that Jake’s injury rendered him impotent. Cohn wins the attention of Brett and feels superior but she dumps him. Compared with Cohn, Jake sits back and watches Brett’s relationships with men in a calm, controlled way but always painfully aware of his own physical inadequacies. The four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some form of relationship with Brett, she plans to marry her fiancée for superficial reasons, completely ruins one man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate Hemingway's standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Although Brett loves Jake, she hints that she is unwilling to give up sex and that for this reason she will not commit to a relationship with him. But every time she breaks up with someone or is feeling depressed she turns to Jake. Jake is always there to comfort her. Jake makes a decision to introduce the woman he loves to a young bullfighter. He loves Brett, but cannot be with her since she has an active love life. It is painful and destructive for them to be together, for Jake’s love and respect for Brett have been tarnished, what sustained him is gone. When they meet in England again, they discover that they are still in love. However, their love ends in misery.
II. Jake Barnes, as a Code Hero in The Sun Also Rises
2.1 Hemingway’s Code Hero
In Hemingway’s works, there exist certain common features among the protagonists, or the “heroes”, portrayed by Hemingway, due to the fact that these characters share identical personalities and life experiences and that they bear similar attitudes towards society. Their way of life can be defined by the way in which they respond to conflicts as well as the way in which they are depicted. Critics, in their description of Hemingway’s characters use the term “code hero”, quite inaccurately over generalizing their common features. As a matter of fact, such a concept seems to have created the illusion that Hemingway’s heroes all behave in accordance with certain principles, or that some code rules their behavior, and that certain principles dominate their inner conflicts and control their life orientation. Yet the opposite is the case: most of the characters in Hemingway are quite disillusioned with the traditional values and behavioral conventions of the war. They are inclined to turn away from the old, sacred and abstract morality for an extreme opposite tendency. They never speak of beliefs; they act rather than argue.
The most obvious trademarks of the “code hero” are: “the world crushes every person into pieces, yet a lot of people rise from the pieces to demonstrate their staying power. The world is likely to kill and break those most brave, benign and excellent, yet it is the hero that rises from failure.” (杨大亮, 2001:63) And we can see a lot of features of them: First of all, the “code hero”, has great physical potential and courage. The “code heroes” are endowed with certain specialized skills, such as fishing, bull fighting, and hunting, etc. But whether he is a soldier, a bullfighter, a hunter, or a fisherman, his physical power is always activated by critical situations and thus creates the most life-like beauty. Hemingway more than compensated that physical handicap by endowing his hero with mental strength that is both determined and focused: “The strong physical beauty can only be pleasing to senses, but the strong willpower can move one in the depth of his heart.” The willpower forms the essential strength of the protagonists and enhances the intensity of the conflicts between characters. Secondly, the “code heroes” have strong willpower. Above and beyond their physical strength, their determination proves even more significant. With such willpower the heroes of Hemingway are able to remain graceful even after being destroyed, and can still demonstrate their dignity as human beings. Thirdly, another important feature is their loyalty. They are not without strong passions and faith, and such quality makes their character life-like and reliable, conveying warmth and love to people around. Fourthly, the “code heroes” maintain great dignity in all situations. Finally, the “code heroes” are always put in some touch-and-go situations, what the heroes must always face up to is their own personal fear of death and the threat of destruction, and it is this obstacle, death, that they have to overcome. (杨大亮, 2001:64-65)
And from these features, the Code Hero measures himself by how well they handle the difficult situations that life throws at him. In the end the Code Hero will lose because we are all mortal, but the true measure is how a person faces death. The Code believes in “Nada”, a Spanish word meaning nothing. Along with this, there is no after life. The Code Hero is typically an individualist and free-willed. Although he believes in the ideals of courage and honor he has his own set of morals and principles based on his beliefs in honor, courage and endurance. A code hero never shows emotions; showing emotions and having a commitment to women shows weakness. Qualities such as bravery, adventuresome and travel also define the Code Hero. A final trait of the Code Hero is his dislike of the dark. It symbolizes death and is a source of fear for him. The rite of manhood for the Code Hero is facing death. However, once he faces death bravely and becomes a man he must continue the struggle and constantly prove himself to retain his manhood. |
