preview

Essay On Stereotypes Of Women In The Sun Also Rises

Decent Essays

What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? It is a stereotype that Women are caretakers and clean the house and men provide for the family. This code directs centuries of writing and plays. however not all pieces literature accept this idea. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway,
Jake and Brett rejecting the normalized feminine and masculine code allows the book to take an ironic turn.

Women have to have long hair and be dependent. They have to keep the house clean and have the minimum amount of sexual partners. Lady Brett Ashley does none of those.
She one of the boys in this book and references herself as one, "I say, give a chap a brandy and soda" (29). Brett calls herself a chap and …show more content…

She does not look like the typical lady either Jake Barnes describes her as "her hair was brushed back like a boys" (30). Brett has short boy-like hair to disprove the stereotype. She is also a promiscuous woman, her fiancé, Mike, knows it. He talks about it, "What if Brett did sleep with you? She's slept with lots of better people than you" (146). Mike knows she is woman who gets around which is frowned upon. Lady Brett Ashley tends to break the typical code of femininity. Men are the head of the household; they help provide for their family. A key element of being a man is having a penis. Jake Barnes, the narrator of the novel, was in a war where in a series of events led to his penis amputated . This is a touchy subject for Jake as he feels he is not a man. "Undressing,
I looked at myself in the mirror...Of all the ways to be wounded. I suppose it was funny," (38), Jake comments to himself that the wound should funny but to him it is not. It is a part of him will always make him feel inferior.
Jake cannot sleep with women or have fun with himself so it can be said an element of pleasure was forced away from him. This absence on his penis counters the masculine code.

The Sun Also Rises portrays

Get Access