A Study Of Existentialism In The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is Hemingway's first long novel, and one of his most important masterpieces. It is also regarded as one of"Lost Generation"novels after the First World War. Hemingway, through this novel, shows his view of life and his influence of the existentialism. This thesis is based on the Sartrean existentialist philosophy of"existence precedes essence","the for-itself'',"angst","self-deception","bad faith""freedom of choice", etc. to make an existentialist examination of the novel.Sartre observed that existence precedes essence(l'existence précède l'essence), which explains that people have no predetermined nature or predetermined choices, but are always free to make their fresh choices, and therefore constitute herself or himself as a completely different person. It is the central philosophical view of existentialism. But this"existence"is suffused with"anguish"(angoisse, anxiety) over the responsibility we must assume for our freedom. Anxiety, in turn, along with the freedom and responsibility it heralds, may be embraced with"honesty"or, more commonly, it may be denied and"fled from"with"dishonesty". In essence, it is the conflict between the in-itself and the for-itself. As a result, people usually can't locate their own location in the society then humanity was distorted in their perspectives towards the world. In their efforts to save themselves, they are suffered, confused and lost because they can't escape from what they don't want to face. Only by self-deception, can they find temporarily a peace mind world but it would fail in the end undoubtedly, which embodies"Nihilism". Nihilism is suggesting the negation of meaningful aspects of life. It argues that life is without purpose, objective meaning, or intrinsic value. It is a perfect explanation of the characters'ideology in The Sun Also Rises. Based on the experience of the war, from which Hemingway wrote this novel, he created a atmosphere of war. It make people face great panic from both the realistic world and the spiritual world because Hemingway himself suffered much from the First World War and got hurt. In his mind, the war is the source of devils. It destroyed his life and usual belief and makes him feel lost. He left America after the war for Paris to seek a new life. For him, the new value and new life pattern is urgently needed, where Existentialism meets this requirement. For"value"and"freedom", existentialists aim to highlight the groundlessness or conventionality of values and to highlight the ideality—the fact that they form by the project of self against the indifferent and meaningless world. This project of self is right the human's freedom of choice(the for-itself). Existentialism provides people a path for the future, through which they can find out and grasp the hope in life, though it is one kind of illusion. It is a strong spirit support for the people who are in sorrow and despair and helps them make efforts for survival.In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway expresses his existentialist idea mainly through love stories of the characters. But there are not direct descriptions in the novel to tell out the author's idea, which is concealed in the dialogues of the character, waiting for the readers themselves to discover it. The personalities of characters are not revealed in a traditional way but revealed through the process of"free consciousness– free choice– negation– new free choice". So, the personalities (essence) are synthesized by the people's constantly new choices and negations(existence).The thesis consists of four parts. Part one introduces the writing background of the novel and the key concepts in Sartre's existentialist philosophy and the current the criticism upon the novel. Part two aims at analyzing, in existentialist's eyes, the theme of absurdity of the world after the war as well as people's distorted humanity due to the absurdity. Another important component is the existentialist illustration of the uncertainty for people's self-location or self-actualization, in which it points out that the human being can create his own values and natures through the self-choices and he can determine a new meaning to his life, since the human being in the beginning does not have any value or identity. People make their existence more significant by their free choices and new values. Part three focuses on the discussion of the existential interpretation on the Characters'Ideology: the contradiction between the absolutely free consciousness of choice upon the for-itself and the negation of the choice upon the in-itself makes people embraced in anxiety, confusion, hopelessness and despair, in which the characters are sunk in hedonism and lost in mind. And he last part of this thesis, based on the characters'free choices and free actions, as well as Sartre's existentialist Philosophy on value and freedom, is discussing the attempts and efforts made by the characters for a new value and new life.