Final blog post - Sula

This is the final blog post for Sula. The questions from the last post (as well as the guiding questions) are posted as comments below.

Your responses are due by Wednesday evening at 10 p.m.

Enjoy the end of the book!

Sula Blog post #2

Please respond for the second blog post here. The questions will be posted as comments, including questions from students from last time. 


Please contribute to the blog with your thoughts, questions, and ideas. For each assignment, you must do AT LEAST TWO of the following:

A.     Respond to one of the guiding questions (I will post them on the blog for you).

B.      Send me an email with a thoughtful question, so I can post it on the blog.

C.      Build on someone else’s idea or politely disagree, with a thoughtful alternative opinion.

Sula - Blog post #1

Dear Students,

I hope you are enjoying Sula so far. Your blog post is due at 10 p.m. by Sunday evening. I sincerely apologize but I don't have the guiding questions at home with me. If you are responding to a guiding question, please write it at the beginning of your post so that others can see it as well.

Thanks and happy reading and writing!

Ms. Delman

The Sun Also Rises

By Nathan Tran

Characters:

Jake Barnes: Barnes is a veteran from the First World War who now finds himself drinking and socializing with those he meets at parties.  Jake works as a journalist in France but is often distracted by his lust for Brett Ashley.  Using his skills of observation to spectate the world around him, Jake Barnes acts as the narrator of The Sun Also Rises.

Robert Cohn: The outsider of the group, Cohn is often used as a punching bag by others to take out their own insecurities.  Being Jewish and having not served his country in the war juxtaposes Cohn against Jake and the others.  Robert is the person included in group activities to the rest can call their clique “diverse” when in reality he simply is there for others when it is convenient

Lady Brett Ashley: The leading lady, Brett Ashley uses her beautiful looks and seductive attitude to use men for what she needs and nothing more.  Fiercely independent, Ashley cannot commit to any one man due to a need to be self-sufficient.  She is an example of how beautiful and lustful women of her time lived ultimately unfulfilled lives.

Summary:

            The Sun Also Rises is the story of Jake Barnes and his pursuit of Lady Brett Ashley.  It begins with Jake trying to console his friend, Robert Cohn, from his anxious and nervous state.  Cohn is so desperate to break the stagnant cycle of his life, he begs Barnes to accompany him to South America.  However, Jake refuses, and eventually gets Cohn to leave.  Later that day, Jake is reunited with Lady Brett Ashley.  The two met during World War I and Jake fell madly in love with her.  However, Jake is impotent and Brett, although in love with him, cannot commit to their relationship.  The next day, Jake tells Cohn about Brett over lunch.  Cohn instantly becomes infatuated with Brett.  Later that night, Brett arrives at Jakes apartment to tell Jake that she is leaving for San Sebastian, in Spain, saying it will be easier on both of them to be apart.  Jake and Bill Gorton make plans to leave for Spain to attend the fiesta at Pamplona.  However, Jake mistakenly encounters Brett with her fiancé Mike, her fiancé.  After agreeing to travel Spain together, Brett tells Jake of her affair with Cohn.  After meeting with Cohn, the three arrive to Pamplona.  While waiting for Brett, Jake and Bill go fishing while Cohn stays behind.  When they return, Jake and Bill stay in a hotel.  They meet Montoya, a Spanish bullfighter who enjoys Jake’s company.  Later, Jake, Bill, Brett, Mike, and Cohn attend the fiesta.  There, they meet Pedro Romero, a bullfighter.  Brett is instantly infatuated with him and asks Jake to arrange a meeting.  Later that night, Brett and Romero sleep together.  Cohn soon arrives, asking about Brett.  After knocking Jake and Mike out, he beats up Romero for sleeping with Brett.  The next day, Romero reigns supreme in the bullfighting competitions and depart for Madrid with Brett, leaving Jake in the dust.  However, Jake is contacted by Brett to come to Madrid.  It is revealed that she left Romero in fear of ruining his bullfighting career.  She also states that she wants to be with Mike.  But the heartbroken Jake fails to show sympathy for the woman, and sees her for what she really is.

Review: 4/5 stars

I enjoyed this novel because of its adventurous and spontaneous attitude and the characters that act like high school sterotypes.  The time and place the novel takes place greatly contributes to its successes. However, Hemingway’s novel, when broken down, is simply a high school horror played out in exotic locations with slightly matured people. My only complaint is that Hemingway’s characters are slightly frustrating due to their actions. However, this did not greatly hinder my enjoyment of the story.  Having been educated about the Lost Generation has help me greatly in enjoying this novel.  I have compared The Sun Also Rises to one of my favorite works of American literature, The Great Gatsby. Both novels paint the picture of a disillusioned generation of degernates who fail to see the long term effects of their actions. Hemingway highlights the flaws of younger people, whether it is their intolerance of not getting what they want, their weakness to young love, or their struggle for identity. It is interesting to see that these quirks are still apparent in us today, and show that Hemingways work is timeless.

Invisible Man

By Aaron Alferez

Being underground, the narrator sees himself as an “invisible man”. Then explaining his life leading up to that point. As a young man, he was a good public speaker, which helped him get into a college. At the college, he meets a white trustee, Mr. Norton, who talks about his daughter a lot. The narrator shows him around the campus and brings him to a bar, the Golden Day. At the bar, a fight breaks out and Mr. Norton passes out during the fight, and a doctor who attends to Mr. Norton insults the two for not seeing the racial relations. The college president, Dr. Bledsoe, finds out about what happened at the bar and expels the narrator. He’s then sent to New York City for new college recommendations and to find a job.

    Going to one of the recommendations, Mr. Emerson, he meets Emerson’s son, and the boy helps the narrator get a job at the Liberty Paints Plant. At the plant, he serves as an assistant to Lucius Brockway, who makes white paint. However, he suspects the narrator to be in union activities and turns on him. While the two fight, unattended tanks explode and the narrator is left knocked out. He wakes up in the plant’s hospital with memory loss and no ability to speak. Leaving the hospital with his memory back, he’s taken to Mary, a woman who takes care of him and teaches him about the black heritage. One day he speaks out against the removal of a black couple of their home, and Brother Jack recognizes his talent as a speaker and recruits him into his Brotherhood, an organization to help the oppressed.

    After being trained by Brother Hambro, he goes to his assigned place in Harlem and meets a smart black leader, Tod Clifton, he also meets Ras the Exhorter, who doesn’t like the Brotherhood and believes that blacks should rise over whites. Enjoying his work with the Brotherhood, he becomes a big figure in the Brotherhood, but on a note he’s reminded of his place as a black man. Brother Wrestrum then says that the narrator is using the Brotherhood for his selfishness, and the Brotherhood sends the narrator to a different post to work on women’s rights. Returning to Harlem, the narrator finds Clifton selling “Sambo” dolls on the street, but he doesn’t have the permit to do so, getting Clifton shot dead by policemen. The narrator throws a funeral for him, giving a speech in his praise. However, Jack and the Brotherhood didn’t like that, so they sent the narrator to Bother Hambro to learn the new rules.

    The narrator is angry and wants to get revenge on Jack and the Brotherhood. Arriving in Harlem, he finds Ras, who sends his men to beat up the narrator, forcing him to be in disguise. He then goes to Brother Hambro’s home for answers, and he says that the Brotherhood’s goals are bigger than the people involved in it, and the narrator intends to find out more by making a relationship with one of the members’ woman. Choosing Sybil to be his woman, he gets no help from her because she knows nothing about the Brotherhood. Then he gets a call saying that he needs to go to Harlem immediately. Arriving in Harlem, he finds the place to be in a riot that was started by Ras. He sees Ras and Ras demanded the narrator to be lynched, causing him to run away. While running away he meets two policemen who suspect him to be a looter from the riot, and he runs away from them only to fall into a manhole, in which the policemen mock him and cover up the manhole. He’s been there ever since, but now it’s also the beginning. He must realize his identity and his duty to the community. He’s ready to go back to the surface.

   

I think it’s amazing how Ellison showed how hard it was for blacks in the 20th century. Throughout the story, the narrator was just getting rejected in places where he could have succeeded. At the college, he could have started out good, but he was expelled because he did what he thought was doing the right thing bringing Norton to that bar. At the paint factory he could have started a new life, but even his own kind didn’t trust him there. And shortly after that, being abused by white doctors for experiments. In the Brotherhood, he liked his job there, but a Brother only saw him as a spotlight taker. Not only that, he was then told in a mysterious letter to remember his place as a black man. And in the end, instead of getting help from the two policemen, he was rejected and covered from the world. However, in the end, the message is powerful in which he accepts his identity and is ready to show himself again.

    I like the irony Ellison put in the story. I find it ironic how in the beginning he sees himself as an “invisible man”, but in his story, it’s his skill in speaking that gets him noticed. For example, in the beginning, he was invited to give a speech in front of a bunch of important white men, a chance that not many people get to do. Also, when he gave a speech about the eviction of a black couple, a Brotherhood member recognized his talent and wanted to recruit him. These examples show how the narrator was able to get people to notice his skill and not his color. I also find it ironic when the narrator had to disguise himself from Ras. This is because identifying himself as an “invisible man”, he shouldn’t have to hide, but when he does try to be invisible, it gets him visible to the whole neighborhood, which is what he’s trying not to do. But now, he doesn’t want to be invisible anymore, he wants to become visible to the world as himself.

The Sun Also Rises

By Connor Turmon

To begin, The Sun Also Rises is a novel that takes place after World War I. It follow the main character Jake Barnes- the protagonist and narrator of the novel- an American World War I veteran who moves to Paris and become a journalist. Jake and his friends both engage in endless rounds of drinking and parties, however Jake is the most stable of all of his friends. Throughout the novel, Jake struggles with his love for Brett Ashley. Although it is established that they both have a love for each other, Brett will not engage in a relationship with Jake because of a war related injury that caused him to be impotent (i.e., erectile dysfunction), and she states that she cannot have a relationship with someone she can never have sex with.

    Brett Ashley, an incredibly important character in which the novel’s conflict circles around, is a beautiful British socialite who is heavily into drinking. She has affairs with a vast amount of men, but can never become committed to them. Her life is one that is not much different than that of a member of the lost generation- one filled with aimlessness, and constantly leaving her wanting more.

    Robert Cohn is also an incredibly important main character in The Sun Also Rises. He, like Jake, is an American although he was never directly involved in the war, which causes him to stand apart along with the fact that he is Jewish. Untarnished by the war, he still tries to hold on to the prewar ideals of love and fair play, despite the fact that these ideas now seem absurd. Cohn is often found the easy target to antagonize by Jake and his friends due to his status.

    Bill Gorton, Jake’s alcoholic war veteran friend, is another important character in the novel. He spends a great deal of time with Jake throughout the novel, especially on their trip fishing and relaxing in Burguete, which only strengthens their already existing emotional connection. They have a genuine friendship that is arguably the only one shown in the entire novel, and because of this, Bill is quite an outstanding character.

Mike Campbell, Brett’s soon to be fiancé, is a man of short-temper and alcoholism. He is constantly found drunk, and in these drunken states is when he acts the most violent and temperamental. He has a lot of trouble coping with the fact that Brett cannot seem to be satisfied by just one man, and he often find insecurity in her infidelity, along with his lack of money.

    Pedro Romero, the key piece to the novel, is the associate conflict. Brett essentially ditches Mike because she “falls in love” with Romero when she first sees him. Romero is a nineteen year old Spanish bullfighting prodigy who they meet at in Pamplona. He also appears to be untarnished by the lost generation ideals and tendencies, thanks to the help of Montoya keeping him in check. When it is discovered that Brett has spent the night with him and that they are having an affair, Cohn beats up Romero brutally, only to be discovered by Jake and Bill after they were also beat up by Cohn after an exchange of insults.

    The novel concludes with Brett leaving Romero because she does not want to corrupt him like she has corrupted all of the other men she has been with. Brett calls Jake and requests him to come “save her” because she is unsure if Romero will actually leave and does not have any money. It turns out that Romero does leave, and at the very end of the novel when Jake takes Brett in a taxi to drive around town and puts his arm over her, she says, “Oh, Jake… we could have had such a damned good time together,” to which Jake responds, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?”

    This last line is honestly my favorite throughout the entire novel, and I believe that it is a fantastic wrap up to everything that happens. It is clear that Brett still has a love for Jake, and that she still continues to fantasize about how fantastic their relationship could have been if only he was able to have sex, however Jake, by using the syntax “pretty to think” displays that he no longer fantasizes about how their relationship could have been. He begins to accept that even if he was able to have sex that their relationship would have most likely turned out the same way. This is a shining example of Jake’s growth throughout the novel and his ability to accept his relationship between Brett.

    Jake’s inability to have sex with Brett, and thus never being able to go into a full relationship with her, appears to actually be more of a positive thing than a negative. This lack of advancement between Jake and Brett appears to actually keep their relationship quite stable, unlike all of the other men that Brett has been with. This stability and continual love that Jake has hints that maybe the love is actually genuine, and more than just the common lust that Mike, Cohn, and all the other members of the lost generation had.

    All in all, the novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway was, in my opinion, a pretty fantastic read. It was interesting, engaging, and managed to capture my attention through most parts of the novel. I say most because there were times throughout the novel that progressed quite slowly, and although many of them maintained a subtle theme/moral- such as the fishing trip Jake and Bill go on- they left me feeling (for lack of a better word) uninterested. These parts of lesser engagement were quite sparse and not hindering to my overall enjoyment to the novel, and therefore I would give this novel four stars. I thoroughly enjoyed it, its theme of the destruction of sex and aimlessness, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good, realistic book to read.

The Bell Jar

By Kunsang Sharzur

See her review here.