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Pessimism In The Sun Also Rises Essay

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Mannerisms of Tragedy Satire, one word that is the essence of “the sun also rises” by Ernest Hemmingway, or at least that’s what most people think. Even though not one person dies at the end of the story, a tragedy is not defined by the death of a person. Associating a tragedy with the events of sadness and pessimism is typical, but true tragedy is the failure of valiance. What does this mean? This means that a tragedy is any story that shows an identification of a characters’ worldview, while also showing that characters intent to do good, yet failing at a goal despite this; in other words, “valiantly failing at life”. Many of the events in the sun also rises depict this definition of what a tragedy is. Through the story, characters display …show more content…

The simple rule of doing something to earn something must have never occurred in their golden palace of a world. Besides, work? Bah, what a preposterous suggestion, people could be drinking in the time they are working! One way that can be easily seen to show Jake’s desires is in his depiction of Cohn. “Weak, Controlled by Frances, would never hit a man outside the ring.” These accusations seam genuine, after all Cohn is all these things and more, but what is Jake? An impotent “man” who can’t get a woman unless he picks her off the street, or even be with the type of people who respect him. In reality, Jake is envious of Cohn’s “manly” traits, and thus describes him as a coward. Another example of self-deserved “toys” appears yet again in the morally stable Brett (last name cannot be named, as nobody knows who she is marrying at this moment). “My God, isn’t he beautiful?” (144) Brett says to Jake. Even though Brett is engaged with Mike, she still gives herself the liberty to pursue and seduce other men. This act of self-deserving is quite frankly a disgusting representation of women, but what’s a little adultery here and there matter anyways, it makes Brett happy. After all, any actions that make a person happy should be exploited of course. This exploit further develops the theme of a tragedy, as no matter the man’s pure intent to be with Brett, she simply doesn’t

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