Modern American Consumer Culture In The Sun Also Rises

I Since its publication in 1926, Ernest Hemingway's first novel The Sun Also Rises has received countless reviews from various angles and through various approaches. To interpret a literary work from the historical and cultural perspective has always been the main trend and focus of literary study. So this thesis intends to make a study of the novel from the perspective of modern American consumer culture, focusing the discusion in three chapters.In the part of introduction, such relating concepts as consumer culture, mass consumption, and the meaning of consumption are clearly presented because they are the key to understanding modern American consumer society. In addition, there is also a detailed discussion on the cultural influence on consumer's behavior, for consumption choices simply cannot be understood without considering the cultural context in which they made.Chapter One aims to show in what sense The Sun Also Rises can be a tale of consumer society. To achieve this aim, a brief review is made over the sociohistoric background of American 1920s concerning the expansion of consumer society, the lifestyles and attitudes of younger generation. Since leisure consumption is an important element of consumer society, a list of facts and events in the novel showing the writer's expert knowledge of travel and Paris are provided, too.As the central part of this thsis, Chapter Two focuses on exploring and analyzing the spending moralities of the major characters through their daily consumption practices. Since values can influence the consumers'attitudes and behaviors, the spending moralities of the young characters, the new heroes of the era, are just a true reflection of the typical social values of American consumer society in 1920s.Chapter Three intends to answer the question why the characters'life is dominated by an obsession with liquor. By reviewing briefly the social climate of the time, and by using the necessary events in the novel, this chapter arrives at a conclusion that the characters'drunkenness is not only the result of the war, but it can be seen as a rebellion against the Prohibition and the conservative social climate as well, and at the same time, it also reflects the moral dilemma of the transitional generation.Culture is crucial to understanding of consumer's behavior, and may be thought of as a society's personality. The study of new products, new designs and new styles of consumption at any given point in time provides a window into the dominant cultural ideals and values of that period. To explore the novel from the perspective of American modern consumer culture, The Sun Also Rises is then a typical story of the consumer society, in which the characters'spending moralities and values are clearly reflected in their daily consumption practices and associations with one another. This is the conclusion this thesis has reached in the part of conclusion.