A Journey To Seeking Subjectivity: A Lacanian Analysis Of Jake Barnes In The Sun Also Rises

The Sun Also Rises is Ernest Hemingway’s first full-length novel, whichreflects the living condition and mental state of young generation after theyexperienced the First World War. Due to the wound in the war, Jake Barnes, arepresentative of the young generation, lost sexual function which prevented him frombeing with the heroine Brett. Jake suffered from great psychological pain and fell intolife predicament for the physical and mental trauma from the war. Since itspublication, critics from abroad and home have studied the novel from theperspectives of existentialism, feminism, cultural studies, mythological and archetypalcriticism as well as language style. Critics have mainly focused on Jake’s maleidentity, physical trauma and the representative of lost generation, but have rarelytouched Jake’s psychological state from Lacan’s theory of subject construction.Therefore, this thesis will adopt Lacan’s theory of subject construction includingmirror stage and three orders to analyze Jake’s journey to seeking subjectivity afterthe war.Jake is like an infant without subjectivity after the war, who feels lost andpuzzled about people and things around him and is captivated by Brett. However, hisphysical trauma from the wound is always his ineffable pain. In the imaginary order,Jake’s self-consciousness is formed by the identification with the specular imageRomero, which makes up Jake’s sense of loss. Because Jake identifies himself withRomero, the sense of wholeness Jake achieves is the result of imaginary identificationand alienation begins to happen. In the symbolic order, Jake has the Oedipus complexwith his mother who is the heroine Brett. In order to become the object of hismother’s desire, Jake acts as a pimp for Brett and Romero. Montoya, the owner of thehotel, plays the role of father. For father’s part, Jake’s pimp action means a son’sincestuous action for the mother. Therefore, Jake is punished by Montoya and isexpelled from the home of aficionados. Jake finally stops his fictive journey for thesubject and identifies with the Name-of-the-Father. Moreover, Jake accepts the castrated fact and gets rid of the fascination with Brett’s desire. Identifying with theName-of-the-Father, Jake constructs his subject although his subject is alienated.Jake’s anxiety, fantasy and aggressiveness are the manifestations of his psychologicalstruggle, which can be an explanation for the unspeakable real order.Based on the analysis above, this thesis draws a conclusion that the journey ofJake’s psychological struggle after the war is the process of the formation of thesubject. The significance of this thesis is to provide a new view for the psychologicalanalysis of Jake, revealing universal mental predicament of human beings, namely,human beings’ pursuit of the subjectivity.