The Sun Also Rises is a novel that shows the lost generation of people that live in the years that came after World War 2. These people have lost their belief in God and in life after death. Because of their loss of knowledge of what's actually real, they stumble through their lives, living for each day not knowing what could happen. The book centers around the Jake, who is the main character, and Brett and their friends. These characters certainly live only for the day that is now. Through their actions and the situations that happen to them, Hemmingway uses them to express the feelings that he personally felt during the era. The first thing that the characters represent is the impotency of life. Through the character of Jake, who is impotent, Hemmingway shows the hopelessness and pointlessness of life. In the story, Jake is not able to have Brett, his love, due to the fact that he is impotent. Therefore he tries to support her and help her in her activities. However, he always maintains his love for her, which shows that his actions have a superficial quality to them.
             Through Jake and his feelings, Hemmingway is able to represent the helplessness of the people of the time to deal with their problems and go through them. Instead, they ran from them but never put them out of sight. Because of the general feeling that life was meaningless and did not affect the future, the people of the period lived for today and never planned for tomorrow. They felt that once death came, life was over and there was nothing else. The Great War had implanted the thought in them that there was no God. Therefore, they lived for only what they saw or wanted today. This is evident in the story through the fact that all the characters simply drink to pass time. It is also shown through the way that Brett has no problem sleeping with several different men during the story. These examples show that the people of the time were definitely living for the ...