Nature Theme Analysis

The social scene in The Sun Also Rises takes place mostly in bars, cafes and restaurants. Between the meals and drinks are journeys along Parisian streets and across the square in Pamplona. For most of the novel, there is a noticeable lack of natural landscape. The action is urban and repetitive. There are descriptions of drinking and dialogue instead of the sky or the weather. There is also a sense that since the war, civilization has been moving away from nature and from natural experiences. The characters are dissatisfied with city life and suggest trip after trip to try to find satisfaction, but these urban rituals keep repeating themselves, until Jake's brief excursions into nature, which give momentary peace and escape. There are several of these excursions, including the bullfight, with its display of the violence of nature, and Jake's trip to the sea, where he steps out into the water and finds simple pleasure in being able to see only the sky around him. Then there is also the fishing trip that Jake takes with Bill, which Hemingway describes in language that lacks the undercurrents of emptiness and dissatisfaction present in the city scenes. "This is country," says Bill as they arrive in the beautiful area they have chosen for their fishing – both men feel that the natural landscape has something real and essential in it that the town does not have.