Prevalent among many of Ernest Hemingway’s novels is the concept

popularly known as the “Hemingway hero”, an ideal character readily

accepted by American readers as a “man’s man”. In The Sun Also Rises,

four different men are compared and contrasted as they engage in some

form of relationship with Lady Brett Ashley, a near-nymphomaniac

Englishwoman who indulges in her passion for sex and control. Brett

plans to marry her fiancee for superficial reasons, completely ruins one

man emotionally and spiritually, separates from another to preserve the

idea of their short-lived affair and to avoid self-destruction, and

denies and disgraces the only man whom she loves most dearly. All her

relationships occur in a period of months, as Brett either accepts or

rejects certain values or traits of each man. Brett, as a dynamic and

self-controlled woman, and her four love interests help demonstrate

Hemingway’s standard definition of a man and/or masculinity. Each man

Brett has a relationship with in the novel possesses distinct qualities

that enable Hemingway to explore what it is to truly be a man. The

and recognizes the possibility of furnishing her carnal desires with the

Cohn so inadequately fulfills the roles of a true man, Hemingway implies

bullfighter, Mike rudely yells: “Tell him bulls have no balls! Tell him

drunkenness, Mike blasts Cohn: “‘What if Brett did sleep with you?

there was something between them. He must have felt it when Brett gave

understand the triviality of their trip to San Sebastian in Brett’s mind

Some topics in this essay:
Jake Brett, Pedro Brett, Campbell Brett’s, Brett Ashley, Despite Brett’s, Tell Robert, Jake Brett’s, Mike Brett’s, Pedro Romero, Hence Hemingway’s, hero novel, love brett, strength courage, jake brett, san sebastian, supposed hero novel, pedro romero, brett jake, ch 16, affair brett, brett’s beauty, trip san sebastian, strength courage confront, 143 ch 13, lady brett ashley,