Monday, January 30, 2012
Discussion Questions 1/30
1. After the fiesta, Brett leaves with Romero instead of Mike. Although Brett is usually free willed and Mike is very permissive, it is never clear what happens between Brett and Mike. Are they no longer getting married?
2. It is not directly clear why Hemingway decided to name this work “The Sun Also Rises.” It could function as a parallel to his objective, sequential writing style. What do you think?
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The title actually comes from a passage in Ecclesiastes, which Hemingway quotes (in our version) on the page before Book I. The passage talks about how certain things – the rising and setting of the sun, the courses of the wind, and the waterways – simply continue in the same cycle over and over again. In a way, I think the title reflects the lives of the characters. They find themselves repeatedly in the same positions: day after day the men go out and drink. Day after day, Brett goes after at least one of the male characters. We've also talked about meaninglessness as a theme in the work, and the disillusioned author of Ecclesiastes laments at least a few times, "Meaningless! Meaningless!...Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" (Ecc. 1:2). These daily routines of drinking or chasing after men don’t offer the characters any sort of meaning in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely see Bethany's point. However, if the sun sets, isn't it comforting to remember that it also rises?
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