The Sun Also Rises

1. Do a gender analysis of Hemingway’s two main protagonists in the novel. What seems unique about these portrayals? Use quotes from the text to define your arguments.

In The Sun Also Rises, Jake and Brett are the two main protagonists. Their interaction frames the novel. Although Jake is the man and Brett is the woman, their gender roles appear to be inverted. Ernest Hemingway belonged to a promiscuous, frivolous literary and social movement termed the “Lost Generation”. Hemingway, accompanied by many other young writers and authors, left the country to live in Paris, where they drank and partied in excess. The world was changing; the Great War had tainted and mutated almost every facet of life as they had once known it. Women were evolving into a new kind of species; they wore their hair short like the modern style, as well as their hemlines. They were assertive, raunchy, and free spirited. These emerging qualities are embodied in Lady Brett Ashley.

Lady Brett Ashley is the pinnacle of a “roaring 20’s” gal. She chopped all of her hair off for a more risqué style. Even her name is scandalous- “Brett” a name commonly associated with men. Brett is open and demanding with her sexuality. She basically refuses to settle down with Jake, her supposed true love, because she will not deny her carnal desires. She controls the conflict in the story by hypnotizing the men in Jake’s circle, as well as those outside of it. They are entranced by her spontaneous nature and abundant sex drive. They fight over her constantly, both physically and verbally. Jake is not excluded from this. He persists in cleaning up her messes, rescuing her, and enabling her partying even though it is clearly an unhealthy relationship for him, as well as for Brett.

Jake fulfills his role as the subservient woman to Brett, the sexual, domineering male, so to speak. Jake sacrifices his life and his convenience to run around after Brett. Also, more literally, Jake has become impotent due to an injury he suffered during the war. This contrast between his lack of sexual capabilities and Brett’s obvious overflow of sexual energy further defines Jake as the female player to Brett’s male. Jake is the one in the relationship who confesses his love and tells Brett of his emotions, while Brett tries to avoid emotional situations. Following her desertion of Pedro Romero, Brett contacts Jake to retrieve her. When he arrives, she proclaims, “Oh, hell…let’s not talk about it. Let’s never talk about it.” (245). She repeats this four more times over the course of their conversation. As we can see, she tries with all of her might to fight confronting her emotions.

Unfortunately, this does not translate well between male and female. The woman in the role of the man results in a bitchy, whore-ish exterior. Jake, on the other hand, concludes the novel with a much less severe stigma. He is not the female role in the sense of an overly emotional, hyper-sensitive, flighty, or delicate character. Instead, he is the female in the way that a more prominent, outgoing, sexual person initiates the action that occurs between them, and he allows them to steer the direction of their relationship. He sacrifices for Brett, while she is more characteristically selfish and shallow. By the close of the story, Jake has resigned himself to Brett’s spell. He realizes that he will always be the one who comes running when she starts to cry, but by becoming self-aware of her enchantments, he has unbound the emotional chains around him and is free to commandeer his own life. He understands that he will always fall into this pattern with her, but his heart will not be in it anymore. In turn, he has regained his manly control, leaving Brett to decay into a more traditional, indecisive, irrational, weepy woman.

The Scarlet Letter

1. Choose one critical article in the back of the Norton Critical Edition and summarize the article, closing your blog with a paragraph or two on whether you agree or disagree with the author’s contentions and why or why not.

After completing Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, I perused the collection of critical articles in the back of my book. There, my curiosity was aroused by an article written by Evert A. Duyckinck in 1850 for Literary World. Duyckinck claims that there are two Hawthornes in existence- the romantic Hawthorne that emanates throughout the Mosses from an Old Manse, and the Hawthorne “of a sterner Puritan aspect” who composed The scarlet Letter (Duyckinck 237). Readers are familiar with happy, loving images conjured by Hawthorne’s writing, and therefore, may seem surprised when they begin to read The Scarlet Letter, a proclaimed romance novel. Duyckinck explains that The Scarlet Letter is a “psychological romance” (Duyckinck 237). The story teaches us a lesson about regret, judgment, and wrong doing. Hawthorne skillfully dissects the human heart and analyzes the emotions and fears that course through all of our veins alike. Duyckinck describes the power that Hawthorne injects into his poetic style of writing, and praises his acutely precise character developments and poignant imagery. The demonic progression of Chillingworth is crafted perfectly, and we, as readers, feel his grotesque metamorphosis within the novel. The creation of the impish child is clever and unique, and strays from the common notion of innate grace and innocence.

The climax of the story may be labeled as Dimmesdale’s confession of adultery and resulting death, but Duyckinck insists that the true action of the novel takes place within our own minds and the fictional minds of the characters. It is a story of destructive thoughts and torturous secrets. Thoughts themselves are likened to actions. Hawthorne does not include any element that does not play a vital role in the text. Every detail adds to the mounting psychological strain. Each scene in the book is “simply arranged, but with artistic power” (Duyckinck 238). Hawthorne knows how to make his writing quintessentially effective. He does not waste any creative energy on anything that does not contribute to his complex goal.

The entire story has a supernatural aura that soaks into our reading, combined with the rigid Puritan ethics that drive the plot forward. According to Duyckinck, the Hester Prynne’s punishment, and the resounding moral, are harsh, and yet wholesome. It represents the Puritan society more accurately than other attempts. Hawthorne’s Puritan ancestry is evident in his writing.

There are parts of Duyckinck’s reaction that I agree with, and others that I do not. I also think that Hawthorne’s insight into the complicated vortex of good and evil in our minds is keen. With razor sharp detail, he penetrates the very core of human nature. Further more, I agree that the novel is mainly psychological. Dimmesdale’s suffering is completely internalized, as well as Hester’s original defiance. Even Chillingworth swallows his vile, vengeful feelings until it rots his insides to the point of satanic influence. However, I do not agree with Duyckinck’s opinion of the moral. I do not even believe that there is a moral to this story. To me, it is more like a literary X-ray of the internal decay of the Puritan society and all of its members. No character is faultless, and therefore, I can not truly sympathize with any one of them. I can not agree with Hester’s punishment and her rapid decline into solitude and depression because I barely believe she is guilty of her accused crime.

Works Cited

Duyckinck, Evert A. "Review of The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter and Other Writings (2005): 237-39. Print.