Mark Roth

Ms. Romano

Lost Horizon--Blog Post #1

May 4th, 2015

Lost Horizon -- Found Identity

Although Lost Horizon by James Hilton may not be considered a classic piece of literature, Hilton creates a unique environment with complex characters that are still relevant today.  The people of Shangri-La, a community that has assumed the role of a modern paradise, all live in harmonious utopia.  This fictional society is often mentioned in modern culture, but rarely does an explanation follow.  Shangri-La has come to represent something greater than both Lost Horizon and James Hilton, and so I was curious to uncover its source of origin. 

            The four passengers who are ‘kidnapped’ to Shangri-La each have distinct characteristics.  Miss Roberta Brinklow of the Eastern Mission follows preaches Christianity, yet has a touch of independence evidenced by the fact that she left her old job because she, “disagreed with them about infant baptism” (44).  Henry D. Barnard is an American who is courteous and questioning but remains to be developed more.  Charles Mallinson is a young Englishman who is very opinionated but naïve.  Hugh Conway is a larger-than-life character that is heroic even though he admits to having insecurities.  Each character seems to be based off of a stereotype, yet has a unique, individualizing feature.  I am both curious and excited to see how each character reacts when placed in this utopia. 

Possible Research Topics:

            One instance that caught my attention occurs when the pilot is beginning his descent to land.  The plane “lurched” forward and “Conway’s head struck the window, dazing him for the moment” (45).  Although it does not pertain directly to an important instance in the text, I immediately thought that it described a concussion.  This lead to a thought-trail where I thought about the changing regulations on concussions and how the sports world has seen such a drastic change in perspective on player safety.  Although I’m not that invested in researching this topic, it is certainly an option. 

            My second topic thus far arose during Conway’s fascination of the Karakal Mountain.  He claims it is the “loveliest mountain on earth” and appreciates its quiet stature (47).  However, he also recognizes that it is the “most terrifying mountainscape in the world” (62).  The recognition that the mountain has both captivating and destructive aspects is a very complex thought, and one that I hope Hilton expands on.  That is an idea that is almost exclusive to nature.  Many animals share the characteristic where an attractive feature leads to a dangerous one.  Whether it is an octopus’ faux food, or a moth that is lethally attracted to a fire, attraction and destruction goes hand in hand in nature.  Although it may be a natural instinct, I am curious to how it unfolds in Lost Horizon.

Post #4: Paradoxical Nature of War

           The destructiveness of war is usually measured statistically by the amount of casualties or the total property damage.  What these statistics fail to measure however, is the destructive effect of the war on those who survived it.  During the entirety of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, opinions of war are sprinkled throughout, but the effects of war drive every major character’s actions.

            The central conflict presented in this story is the inability for Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley to live happily together.  Although they love each other, as Jake admits, “ ‘Oh, Brett, I love you so much,’ ” they are not able to achieve happiness (61).  Love is not the only recipe for happiness as Brett says, “ ‘I’d just tromper you with everybody.  You couldn’t stand it’ ” (tromper means to cheat on) (62).  Brett admits to being unsatisfied with Jake because of his injury that left him impotent.  This injury, which occurred during warfare, is the root of all other conflict in the story.

            Brett is the center of attention for the majority of the book, as all action seems to revolve around her.  She attracts the attention of every male character she comes in contact with.  Brett has multiple affairs that lead to her male lovers fighting.  Brett is portrayed as a free spirit, but it is her desire for love that spurs her to these actions.  The war is the villain in this conflict as well, as Barnes reveals that, “ ‘[d]uring the war…Her own true love had just kicked off with dysentery’ ” (46).  The war not only destroys Brett’s first choice of love, but also renders her second love incapable of loving her back.

            Although Brett and Jake have had such negative experiences with war, they respect and admire those who have had similar experiences.  Count Mippipopolous who has been in “seven wars and four revolutions” immediately earns their respect as Brett whispers to Jake, “ ‘I told you he was one of us.  Didn’t I?’ ” (66, 67).  Barnes also values the ability to be content in the moment which “certain dinners…from the war” taught him (150).  Jake and Brett were scarred by their experiences with war, yet they are able to maintain a near neutral feeling towards the war.

            These contrasting ideas of war come to play a factor in many of the influential decisions that Brett and Jake make later in the novel.  As Brett elopes with her “young bull-fighter” Pedro Romero, she comes to a realization that ruins their relationship (220).  She narrates, “ ‘I’d have lived with him if I hadn’t seen it was bad for him’ ” (247).  Brett’s fear of corrupting the youth, as the war had done to her and many of her friends, causes her to deny herself happiness for the sake of Romero. 

            As for Jake, he never ends up with his love Brett, but also recognizes the impossibility of them living together.  As the novel comes to an end, Brett says, “ ‘we could have had such a damned good time together,’ ” to which Barnes replies, “ ‘[y]es…Isn’t it pretty to think so?’ ” (251).  Jake reveals that he understands the impossibility of them living happily due to his injury from the war. 

            Hemingway purposefully plants these contrasting ideas of war to illuminate the paradoxical nature of war.  The outside perspective of war consists of turning boys into men and men into brave soldiers fighting for the pride of their country.  However, unbeknownst to many, war can just as easily destroy a man’s masculinity.  For the ‘blessed’ who survive the war, their fight isn’t over; it’s only on a different battlefield.  Returning home from World War One, many soldiers felt lost, or questioned life’s purpose.  This generation became known as the “Lost Generation”.  Hemingway portrays this generation most explicitly through the character’s reactions to the bullfights. 

            Veterans returned home with so much passion as a result from combat that they often found civilian life quite dull and uninteresting.  Jake Barnes fills this emptiness by becoming an avid supporter, or aficionado, of the bullfights.  This passion and energy also filled a hole of masculine insecurity presented by Jake’s wartime injury.  He is able to completely devote the entirety of his emotion to these fights and in return, the bullfights give him a feeling of pure ecstasy and freedom he has not experienced since the war.  Each character struggles with masculinity in their own way and it is paralleled by how they react to the bullfights.  Robert Cohn’s masculinity is challenged further when he claims the fights are a bore and soon after he breaks down not coincidentally, swinging punches at both Brett’s fiancé Mike and Jake. 

            Each character that has a connection to the war is captivated by the bullfights and it confirms the suspicion that war veterans have an emptiness inside relating to masculinity.  By revealing this fact, it seems Hemingway is attempting to point to war’s propensity to strip men of their manliness.  This conclusion, coupled with the opinions of war mentioned above directly clash, leading to the realization that Hemingway believes that war is paradoxical at heart by both granting men of a certain manhood, yet stripping away their masculinity.

Close Reading:

            I was certainly aided by each authors’ close reading suggestions.  Many words were unique to either the French culture or the bullfighting community and so Nabokov’s dictionary suggestion was very useful.  Perrine’s concept that there are interpretations that are more correct pushed me to analyze all of the available details while relying on the least number of assumptions.  Since it was written in first person, Foster’s recommendation that narrators are often unreliable enabled me to view Jake’s actions in a more critical light.

Note: Sequentially reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway after completing Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried certainly help lead me to my conclusion that Hemingway’s theme dealt with war. 

Recommend:

            The Sun Also Rises was the first novel I read by Ernest Hemingway and it took some time to adjust to his writing method.  Although it wasn’t quite unlike anything I had read before, it was interesting to attempt to understand the techniques Hemingway employed to convey his message. With this being said, I would certainly recommend this book for a plethora of reasons.  First off, it dealt with and enlightened me to the struggles of soldiers in the post World War One era.  Hemingway conveyed that returning home from war was such a drastic change because of how the war changed soldiers and how the war changed society by subtly illuminating the faults and inconsistencies of his characters.  The literary elements also played a vital role to my overall enjoyment of this text.  Although the plot centered on the most recognizable elements, there were many techniques crucial to the ultimate understanding of the text that could easily go unnoticed.  Overall, this book challenged my reading abilities at all times and was a pleasure to read.

Post #3: Macho Matador

           Mentioned only briefly in the early chapters, bulls and bull fighting come to play a heavily symbolic role in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.  The main character, Jake Barnes, seems to idolize bullfighters, claiming, “ ‘nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters’ ” (18).  Jake’s captivation stems from his own injury which left him infertile and prone to having “a rotten habit of picturing the bedroom scenes of [his] friends” (21).  This injury spurred him to worship the animal that represents physicality, energy and freedom and the person who is able to tame it.  Barnes even admits to praying for “all the bull-fighters” confirming his dedication to the art (120).  Jake holds an adoring relationship with the bulls due to his impotence, but each character reacts to the bulls and bullfights in separate and distinct ways as well. 

Robert Cohn is often characterized by his inability to add meaningful conversation.  Barnes claims that he is a man who “never met any one of his class who remembered him” (11). Cohn’s contentedness to cling to Brett brings about conflict as Mike takes offense.  Jake spectates, “ ‘It’s no life being a steer,’ Robert Cohn said. ‘Don’t you think so?’ Mike said. ‘I would have thought you’d loved being a steer, Robert.’ ‘What do you mean, Mike?’ ‘They lead such a quiet life.  They never say anything and they’re always hanging about so’ ” (145-146).  With this in mind, it comes to no surprise that Cohn, a man described as having a “wonderful quality of bringing out the worst in anybody”, initially announces that he is “bored” with the bullfights and finds them too gruesome to enjoy (104, 165). 

Similarly to Barnes, Lady Brett Ashley is compelled by the pure power the bulls and bullfighters represent.  After watching the bullfighting prodigy Pedro Romero, she confesses to Jake, “ ‘I’m a goner.  I’m mad about the Romero boy.  I’m in love with him, I think’ ” (187).  Brett is obsessed with power and control (apparent by the amount of men she tromps with) yet she admires the dominance Romero is able to command.  Every action he takes is the epitome of a humble confidence rooted in power.  Jake notes on Pedro’s choice to smoke cigars, “[i]t was part of his system of authority… he was still very polite but he was surer of himself” (189). 

Each character’s reaction to bulls and bullfighting seems to reflect their morals and personalities, specifically relating to power and dominance.  Hemingway used the bulls as a symbol to communicate the apparent reversal of gender roles in the story thus far.  Barnes lives without the single most distinguishable item that identifies one as a man, so he compensates it by devoting time and passion to what he views as the most manly profession.  Cohn has always been described as shy and introverted so he could care less for the bulls, as long as he is with Brett.  Brett, on the other hand, is enthralled by the passion that the bullfighters possess and throws aside her old lovers for the new love that she believes will bring meaning into her unsatisfied love life.

In many ways, Brett occupies more masculine characteristics than any male in the story aside from Pedro Romero.  She acts independent of others, leading herself to where she wants to go and is not willing to settle down.  Lady Ashley challenges the masculinity of Barnes and Cohn by bending them to her will through the corruption of love.

(through page 203)

Post #2: Respectful Appearance

As Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, progresses, Jake Barnes’ relationship with service men and woman matures as well.  It is easy to overlook these men and women, whose jobs vary from waiters to porters to bartenders, but Hemingway ensures that the reader does not gloss over these human beings. 

When Barnes first begins to narrate about his own life, his train of thought ended when “[t]he waiter came up”, as he turned his attention to the server (22).  Jake’s next meaningful encounter with a waiter occurs as he sympathizes for two waiters who looked as if “[t]hey wanted to go home” (68).  Hemingway begins to establish his protagonist’s relationship with these people who are sometimes viewed as inanimate objects and continues to build on it throughout the text. 

            Many other characters have opportunities to even briefly acknowledge service people, but time after time it is Barnes who seems to take initiative.  In fact, the majority of times Jake is noticed to tip a service person, another character is alongside him.  On page 32, Jake narrates, “I gave the waiter a franc and we [Jake and Brett] went out” (32).  Later in the story, as Barnes and Bill have a drink, Jake states, “We each had an aguardiente and paid forty centimes for the two drinks.  I gave the woman fifty centimes to make a tip” (112).  However, Hemingway reveals that this relationship is not always a one-way street.  As Barnes goes to leave his office, he seems to be rewarded for his thoughtfulness.  Jake narrates this experience, “the porter stopped me to brush off my coat. ‘You must have been in a motor-car,’ he said” (102).  As Barnes is repaid for his attentiveness to those often overlooked, karma seems to be in his favor.

            Jake Barnes relationship with service people is not an odd one, but in the context of a novel, it may seem displaced at first.  Many of these moments happen daily in life and after, perhaps, a moment of pleasure the exchange is often forgotten before too long.  So why would Hemingway go to such great trouble to make these exchanges present?

            To answer this question, one must first understand the point of view and the narrator Hemingway creates.  Due to the fact that this book is self-narrated by the main character, his authenticity as he recounts events should immediately be questioned.  His kindness and care for service people ought to be crosschecked with how others react to him.  Barnes is a man with a dry humor, often making jokes through insults and so, although not impossible, these relationships are certainly marked as unordinary. 

            Another situation to be considered is his actions when he is alone.  Hemingway presents Barnes as a man who is caring and thoughtful in the presence of others, but when alone, another side of him might shine through.  When Jake and Bill arrive at the lodge before they go fishing, Barnes sets out to pay for the rooms.  A slightly different Barnes is illuminated as the hostess names the price and Jake replies, “ ‘[t]hat’s too much…We didn’t pay more than that at a big hotel’ ” (115).  Although not quite hostile, a different Jake is certainly presented when alone with a service woman.

            Hemingway might be trying to communicate the multiple personalities that shine through when in the company of others, but as of yet, there is not enough evidence.  If Jake’s relationships are taken for face value, Hemingway might be attempting to showcase how Barnes treats all with respect.  Having lost one of the most humane attributes, Jake knows what it is like to feel less than human.  Because of this, he may treat all with respect, fearing that he may hurt another human being the way in which he has been hurt.

(through page 130)