Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises depicts the existential condition of the so-called “Lost Generation,” that generation of artists and intellectuals that felt cut adrift and alienated from society in the aftermath of the catastrophic bloodshed of World War One.
Now that so many of the old moral, cultural, and intellectual certainties had perished along with the millions killed in this epic, bloody conflict, artists like Hemingway found themselves forced to create, through their lives and through their works, new meanings and values.
But this was easier said than done, and an overwhelming sense of insignificance overcame many of the Lost Generation, a sense that they, like humankind in general, were nothing in the overall scheme of things. This attitude is reflected in the title of The Sun Also Rises, which emphasizes the fact that life goes on much as before, irrespective of what humans do. From a human standpoint, the war and its aftermath was a gigantic cataclysm, but from the standpoint of eternity, it was of little consequence.
The utter indifference of nature towards humanity displayed in the book's title is reflected in the fact that the action in the story takes place predominantly in urban environments, with correspondingly few descriptions of the natural world. It's as if there are two worlds in the story: the human world, full of passion, emotion, and conflict, and the natural world sitting in the background, where the sun always rises, come what may.
Further Reading
The title of The Sun Also Rises comes from the epigraph, which is from Ecclesiastes. Part of the epigraph reads,
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever. . . The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose.
This epigraph expresses the idea that one generation fades into another, and the sun will continue to rise, while each generation passes on.
The generation that Hemingway describes in the novel is doomed by the horrors they faced while fighting in World War I and/ or while witnessing the effects of the war. For example, Jake is impotent because of his war injuries and can't be with the woman he loves, Brett. The generation of the 1920s that witnessed the devastation of World War I and that, alienated from the United States, lived a rootless existence traveling around Europe, was known as "the lost generation." The writer Gertrude Stein is credited with the other epigraph of the novel: "You are all a lost generation. --Gertrude Stein in conversation." The term "lost generation" was used to refer to Hemingway's contemporaries and describes the characters in the novel. To some degree, they have already seen the sun rise and set on them, and true regeneration will only come after the sun has risen on a new generation that comes after the "lost generation."
The title of Ernest Hemingway's first book is The Sun Also Rises , which comes from a verse in the Bible. The title is an apt depiction both...
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of the despair of the Lost Generation of which Hemingway was a part as well as the potential for optimism in the perpetual rising of the sun.
Ecclesiastes chapter one begins this way:
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.
These seven verses paint a picture of despair in which whatever one does is as nothing. Working (laboring) yields nothing, the winds are capricious, and the seas are never full. despite the waters continually pouring into them. The one constant is the earth, as demonstrated by the sun rising, setting, and rising again no matter what else is happening.
Hemingway was part of what is called the "Lost Generation," a group of expatriate writers and artists who found real meaning in nothing as they spent their time reveling in their sinfulness while living in Europe. The picture of despair surrounding verse five (the sun also rises reference) is typical of what he and the others who were living this life felt, disillusioned by the materialism of post-war America.
While the context of the verse/title is despair, there is also hope. Though everything seems hopeless, the sun will rise again tomorrow, and then it will do so again the next day...and the next. There is not much hopefulness in this novel, as the final words indicate:
“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
Despite that hopelessness about what might have been (but never really could have been), there is a glimmer of hope for the future of the Lost Generation in the rising of the sun.
This novel began as a short story titled Cayetano Ordonez, "Nino de la Palma" and focused on a corrupt bullfighter. When Hemingway expanded the story into a novel, he first chose to title it Fiesta: A Novel. While the manuscript was in the publication process, it was decided to change the title once again, and Hemingway settled on The Sun Also Rises. He chose this title in order to "emphasize the optimistic idea of progress of life's cycle." Interestingly, British editions of the novel continued to use the title Fiesta.
See the article "Circularity in The Sun Also Rises" for more on the idea of circularity or cycles--as in the sun rising--in the novel. I've pasted the link below.
What is the significance of the title of The Sun Also Rises?
The title of this book, Hemmingway's first, actually comes from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, Chapter 1 verse 5, which reads as follows:
The sun also rises, and also goes down, then proceeds to the place where it rose.
Although this reference is not mentioned anywhere explicitly in the book itself, the title draws the reader's attention to the theme of cycles in the story. Symbolically, the title is also very optimistic, as it observes that no matter what happens today, and no matter what tragedy or mistakes are made by the characters, there is hope for a better tomorrow. This is very significant given the novel's focus on the so called "Lost Generation" who spent their days inanely wandering around Europe engaging in acts of hedonistic debauchery. Even though the novel itself seems to offer little hope for these characters, the title reminds the reader that there is hope even for the likes of Jake and Brett, in spite of how the novel ends:
“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.“Yes,”I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
These words, the last in the novel, suggest an extremely poignant sadness about Brett and Jake and how, even if they had been given a chance to start a relationship, it would have ended up shipwrecked on the rocks like Brett's many other relationships. Hemmingway presents his characters as living with moral voids that leave them unable to create meaningful relationships. Yet the title seems to offer some hope that even the "Lost Generation," in time, might be able to heal themselves gradually.
How does the title of The Sun Also Rises relate to its theme?
The title of the book is taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes, which begins, "Vanity, Vanity, all is vanity. " Ecclesiastes is traditionally thought to have been written by wise King Soloman who, although he had great wealth and accomplishements, found his life meaningless at the end. The actual verse from which the title is taken is Ecclesiastes 1:15: " The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." In other words, nothing really changes so therefore life can be meaningless. This is also one of the themes of the novel. The characters in the novel are part of Hemingway's "lost generation". They have lost their purpose in life. Robert Cohn missed his chance at "the big time", Jake and Brent lose a chance at love, and Romero, the bullfighter who is supposed to be a hero, finds his time is almost gone. But even if the characters don't find the meaning of the life they sought, "the sun will still rise" and things will go on without them.