Throughout The Sun also Rises, one of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpieces, Jake Barnes and his companions seem to be going to nowhere in life. Hemingway places a huge emphasis on travel which his characters’ embark on almost haphazardly. Jake wonders throughout Europe, in an almost constantly drunk state, which leads me to think that he is looking for something in life. The reader gets an insight into the head of Jake in a scene where he goes into a cathedral to pray. His prayers are shallow and materialistic, hoping for money and entertainment. Up until Jake sets off to Pamplona, he lives in an illusion of happiness, where his personal meaning to life is to live each day at a time, having fun, and doing what he feels. This gives meaning to Hemingway’s title of the novel, where he quotes Ecclesiastes. Hemingway is telling his audience that everything comes to pass, and to live each day to its fullest, leaving no regrets. He further exemplifies this with Robert Cohn, a character introduced in the very opening of the novel. Cohn starts his life miserably, getting divorced early, and then dating a woman who controls his every move. Yet Cohn shrugs off his earlier misery and instead begins to live his own dreams. While Jake may dislike Robert, the reader can clearly see that a man who lives how he wants is truly happier.
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