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The Sun Also Rises Alcoholism Analysis

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Alcohol addiction is a major problem in the lives of many, it takes a toll on those with the addiction including their friends and family. In the non fiction novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Jake Barnes, an expatriate drinker from WWI, goes through a journey when Brett goes through love cycle within his friends. He can't have a relationship with Brett even though he loves her, this is due to his impotence and her unwillingness to give up sex. In the novel The Sun Also Rises there are many historically accurate cases of alcoholism throughout the book such as anger caused by alcohol, escaping from reality, and problems within relationships and friendships.

` In this book Ernest Hemingway uses alcoholism to portray the anger that …show more content…

Jake and all of his friends are eating a formal dinner together, he makes a point to himself that Brett is looking beautiful and that Robert Cohn was happily staring at her. “It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent from happening. Under the wine I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people” (Hemingway, 150). He is explaining how when he was in war he use to drink to get away and ignore the war that was happening as he ate. Jake also describes how even after the war is over when he is at a formal dinner he still uses alcohol to mask his undesirable reality and make him happy. Jake Barnes could quite possibly be addicted to alcohol. “Psychologically speaking, addiction is all about escapism. Avoidance. Denial. Addicts run from reality, and, in some cases, have been running all their lives. The addict cannot tolerate reality and its vicissitudes” (Diamond, 2010). These two pieces of evidence are in correlation with one another because Jake drinks to feel happy and to get away from real life which is a sign of alcohol addiction. The people Jake is with at dinner “seem” to be nice while he is drunk but in reality they may not be what he is perceiving. Even though Jake and his friends drink to escape their reality …show more content…

At the Cafe Suizo after some of the friends order food an argument breaks out between Mike and Cohn while they have been drinking. “‘Oh, go to hell, Cohn,’ Mike called from the table.’ Brett’s gone off with the bull-fighter chap. They’re on their honeymoon’” (Hemingway, 194). Drinking has caused Mike and Cohn to act out irrationally against each other because of anger over Brett. This is a conflict that may not have happened if they weren't drinking. Alcohol can affect your friendships and result in drunk arguments. “You may have more conflicts with those people to whom you are close. Problems with alcohol are linked to a confused and disorderly life” (PTSD and problems with alcohol use, 2013). These two pieces of evidence both include the ideas that alcohol can cause conflicts between your friends. A past with alcohol may result in disorderly life, which in true in The Sun also Rises because the alcoholic characters in the story are all over the place. Friendships may be at stake if you are consuming alcohol around people you care

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