The Racial Prejudice In The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises, which is truly Hemingway’s first novel, has drawn greatattention from critics both at home and abroad since its publication. Based on thetheory of post-colonialism, this thesis explores the issue of racial prejudice in The SunAlso Rises by studying the image of Jews as “other” and the image of black people as“subaltern” and the social conditions.This thesis mainly consists of three parts in addition to the introduction and theconclusion.The first part is a brief introduction to Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises and itsliterature review both at home and abroad, the theoretical framework and the layout ofthe thesis.The body part consists of three chapters. Chapter one analyzes the image ofCohn, a representative of Jews, as “other” in the mainstream society with the help ofSaid’s theory of “other.” Chapter two examines the image of black people who losetheir discourse power and are reduced to silent “subaltern” in the white peopledominating world with the help of Spivak’s theory of “subaltern.” Chapter three firstexplores the image of ethnic people who, as “other” or “subaltern,” attempt to adopt“mimicry” as a strategy to be assimilated into the mainstream society with the help ofHomi Bhabha’s theory of “mimicry” but are doomed to failure, and then probes intothe reason for the failure of ethnic people’s to be assimilated into the mainstreamsociety.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis which summarizes the main pointsof the thesis and restates the main idea of the thesis: The image of ethnic people as“other” or “subaltern” and their living conditions in The Sun Also Rises show thatalthough America declared itself as a nation of democracy and equality, it nevereliminated discrimination for the benefits of the white Anglo-Saxons; born in themiddle-class family and influenced by the white elite culture, Hemingway could notrid himself of the consciousness of racial discrimination in his creation of the image of the ethnic minority Americans in his work.