The Sun Also Rises
Wounded veterans and restless expatriates drink their way from Paris to the bullfights of Pamplona, and a doomed love story plays out under the Spanish sun.
Jake Barnes is an American newspaperman in Paris, and a war wound has left him unable to be with the woman he loves, Lady Brett Ashley. Brett loves him too, but she drifts from man to man. When Jake, his friends, and Brett’s latest admirers travel to Pamplona for the fiesta, jealousy, alcohol, and a nineteen-year-old bullfighter push the group to breaking point. Hemingway’s first novel captured the aimlessness of the young people the war left behind, in prose so plain it changed how American fiction sounded.
What happens in The Sun Also Rises
Jake Barnes, the narrator, is an American journalist living in Paris after the First World War. A war wound has left him impotent. He is in love with Lady Brett Ashley, a charming, much-married Englishwoman who loves him but will not live without a physical relationship. Jake’s friend Robert Cohn, a former Princeton boxing champion and minor novelist, becomes infatuated with Brett after meeting her and later goes away with her to San Sebastian for a brief affair. Brett is engaged to Mike Campbell, a charming, bankrupt Scot. Jake and his friend Bill Gorton travel to Spain to fish in the mountains near Burguete, then meet Brett, Mike, and Cohn in Pamplona for the fiesta of San Fermin. Jake is a respected aficionado of bullfighting, trusted by the hotel owner Montoya. During the week of drinking and bullfights, Mike repeatedly insults Cohn, who follows Brett around. Brett falls for Pedro Romero, a brilliant nineteen-year-old matador, and Jake introduces them, betraying Montoya’s belief that Romero should be protected from such influences. Cohn, enraged, knocks down Mike and Jake and beats Romero badly in Brett’s room, but Romero refuses to give in, and Cohn leaves in shame. Romero fights magnificently in the final bullfight, and Brett goes away with him. When the fiesta ends, the group scatters. Jake goes alone to San Sebastian to recover, then receives a telegram from Brett asking him to come to Madrid. She has left Romero, saying she will not be the kind of woman who ruins a young man. She plans to go back to Mike. In a taxi, Brett says they could have had a wonderful time together, and Jake answers that it is pretty to think so.
Where and when The Sun Also Rises happens
Paris
The cafés and dance halls of the expatriate community, full of drinking and restlessness.
Burguete and the Irati River
Quiet mountains in northern Spain where Jake and Bill fish, a place of peace.
Pamplona
The Spanish town where the week-long fiesta of San Fermin brings bullfights and chaos.
The mid-1920s
The years after the First World War, when many young people felt adrift.
Chapter by chapter summary + why it matters
- 1
Book One: Cohn and the Paris Crowd
Jake introduces Robert Cohn, a former Princeton boxing champion who feels out of place among the expatriates, and describes Cohn’s controlling girlfriend Frances. Cohn longs to travel to South America. Jake spends an evening with a woman named Georgette and then meets Brett at a dance.
Why it mattersJake’s dry, ironic narration sets the tone of the novel and quietly reveals his own resentment of Cohn.
- 2
Brett and Jake
In a taxi, Jake and Brett acknowledge their love and the impossibility of it because of Jake’s wound. Brett arrives at Jake’s flat with the wealthy Count Mippipopolous, who shows them his arrow wounds and speaks of values. Brett leaves Paris for San Sebastian.
Why it mattersThe Count, who has found values that let him enjoy life, offers a contrast to the aimless young people around him.
- 3
Book Two: Plans for Spain
Jake’s friend Bill Gorton arrives in Paris. Brett returns with her fiancé, Mike Campbell, and the group plans to meet in Pamplona. Jake learns that Brett was with Cohn in San Sebastian, and Cohn insists on coming along.
Why it mattersThe hidden affair sets up the jealousy that will explode in Pamplona.
- 4
Fishing at Burguete
Jake and Bill travel through France and Spain and spend peaceful days fishing for trout on the Irati River near Burguete, joking, drinking wine, and making friends with an Englishman named Harris.
Why it mattersThe fishing trip is the novel’s calm center, a brief escape into nature and friendship before the chaos of the fiesta.
- 5
Pamplona
The group gathers at Montoya’s hotel. Montoya respects Jake as a true aficionado. The fiesta explodes into days of dancing and drinking, and Mike, drunk, mocks Cohn for following Brett. The group sees the bulls released and meets Pedro Romero.
Why it mattersThe fiesta’s excitement intensifies every tension in the group, and Mike’s cruelty toward Cohn turns ugly.
- 6
Romero
Brett is captivated by Romero’s skill and grace in the ring. Jake introduces her to him in a café, knowing how Montoya feels about protecting young bullfighters. Brett and Romero go off together.
Why it mattersJake’s betrayal of Montoya shows how far he will go for Brett, and costs him the respect he valued.
- 7
The Fight
Cohn, furious, knocks down Mike and Jake and then beats Romero in Brett’s room. Romero keeps getting up and refuses to be defeated. Cohn weeps, apologizes, and leaves Pamplona.
Why it mattersRomero’s courage contrasts with Cohn’s self-pity, and Cohn’s departure marks his final exclusion from the group.
- 8
The Last Bullfight
Despite his injuries, Romero fights brilliantly, and Brett watches with admiration. After the fiesta Brett leaves with Romero. Jake, Bill, and Mike part ways.
Why it mattersThe bullfight is presented as an art of grace under pressure, the code of courage the other characters lack.
- 9
Book Three: San Sebastian and Madrid
Jake rests alone in San Sebastian until Brett telegraphs for help from Madrid. She has sent Romero away so as not to ruin him and will return to Mike. Riding in a taxi, Brett says they could have been happy together, and Jake doubts it.
Why it mattersThe ending returns the lovers to where they began, in a taxi, with nothing resolved.
Characters and how they connect
Jake Barnes
Narrator
An American journalist whose war wound makes his love for Brett impossible. He tries to live by a code of restraint and dignity.
Lady Brett Ashley
Jake’s love
A charming, independent Englishwoman who moves from man to man, unable to find happiness.
Robert Cohn
Jake’s friend and rival
A former boxer and writer who idealizes Brett after a brief affair and becomes the group’s outsider.
Mike Campbell
Brett’s fiancé
A bankrupt, often drunk Scot whose humor turns cruel when he is jealous.
Bill Gorton
Jake’s friend
A witty American writer who shares the peaceful fishing trip with Jake.
Pedro Romero
Bullfighter
A young matador whose skill and courage embody the values the others have lost.
Montoya
Hotel owner
A lover of bullfighting who admires Jake’s aficion until Jake introduces Brett to Romero.
Count Mippipopolous
Wealthy aristocrat
A veteran of many wars who has learned to enjoy life, offering a model of values Jake admires.
Character Relationships who connects to whom, and the themes that bind them
Love / marriage
Friendship / ally
Connection
Themes in The Sun Also Rises what the novel is really about
The Lost Generation
The characters, marked by the war, drift from party to party with no clear purpose, and the novel captures their emptiness.
Masculinity and wounds
Jake’s injury makes him question what it means to be a man, and the other men prove their manhood through fighting, drinking, and bullfighting.
Love and frustration
Jake and Brett love each other but cannot be together, and no other relationship satisfies them.
Codes of conduct
Characters like Romero and the Count live by clear values, while others behave badly, showing the importance of a personal code.
Escape and its limits
Travel and alcohol offer temporary relief, but, as Jake tells Cohn, you cannot escape yourself by moving.
Symbols & motifs
Bullfighting
Represents courage, grace, and integrity, values the expatriates lack.
Jake’s wound
Stands for the damage the war did to a whole generation, and for Jake’s frustrated love.
Fishing
The trip to Burguete symbolizes peace, friendship, and closeness to nature.
Alcohol
Constant drinking represents the characters’ attempts to numb their pain and fill empty time.
The taxi
Brett and Jake’s taxi rides, at the start and end, show how they are trapped in the same impossible situation.
Recurring motifs
Money. Characters pay debts, count bills, and value experiences by what they cost.
Aficion. True passion for bullfighting marks who belongs among the insiders.
Repetition. Bars, meals, and drinking follow one another in a cycle that mirrors the characters’ aimless lives.
Important quotes
“You are all a lost generation.”
“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.”
“It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing.”
“Gradually and then suddenly.”
“we could have had such a damned good time together.”
“Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
The ending of The Sun Also Rises, explained
The Sun Also Rises ends where it began, with Jake and Brett in a taxi, unable to change their situation. After the fiesta, the group scatters, and Jake retreats alone to San Sebastian, where he swims and rests. Then a telegram arrives: Brett is in Madrid and needs him. Jake goes at once, which shows that he is still at her service despite everything. In Madrid, Brett explains that she sent Pedro Romero away. She says she is thirty-four and does not want to be the kind of woman who ruins a young man, and she will go back to Mike Campbell, who is her sort. She seems proud of this decision, and Jake treats it with respect, but he also drinks heavily at lunch. As they ride through the city in a taxi, Brett leans against him and says that they could have had such a wonderful time together. Jake answers, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” The line is gentle but deeply skeptical. Jake suggests that their romance exists only as a comforting fantasy: even without his wound, their relationship might not have worked, and in any case nothing can change what the war did to them. The policeman raising his baton to slow the taxi adds a small image of restraint. The novel’s title, from Ecclesiastes, suggests that the sun rises and the earth goes on regardless of human troubles, and the ending leaves Jake and Brett exactly where they were, circling a love that cannot be fulfilled.
Common misreadings
MythJake’s wound is described explicitly.
ActuallyHemingway never names it directly; the novel implies through hints that Jake cannot have a sexual relationship.
MythBrett and Jake end up together.
ActuallyBrett plans to return to Mike, and Jake doubts they could ever have been happy together.
MythRobert Cohn is the hero.
ActuallyCohn is an outsider whose romantic ideals and self-pity set him apart from the group, and Jake narrates him with resentment.
Test yourself
1. Why can’t Jake and Brett be together?
Jake’s wound makes the physical relationship Brett needs impossible.
2. Where do Jake and Bill go fishing?
Their peaceful trip takes place in the mountains of northern Spain.
3. Who is Pedro Romero?
The nineteen-year-old bullfighter captivates Brett.
4. What does Cohn do after learning about Brett and Romero?
Cohn’s violence ends his place in the group.
5. What is Jake’s reply to Brett’s final remark?
Jake quietly doubts that things could have been different.
Flashcards flip, self-grade, and the deck remembers what you know
Nice work.
Jake is an American living in Paris after World War I. He was hurt in the war in a way that means he cannot be with Brett, the woman he loves. Brett loves him too but keeps dating other men. Jake and his friends travel to Spain for fishing and a big festival with bullfights. Everyone drinks a lot, gets jealous, and fights, especially after Brett falls for a young bullfighter. In the end Brett tells Jake they could have been happy together, and Jake says it is nice to think so. The book shows how the war left a generation feeling lost.
Compare & connect the story universe
The Great Gatsby
Another portrait of 1920s excess and longing for a love that cannot be recovered.
A Farewell to Arms
Hemingway’s war novel shows the kind of experience that shaped Jake and his friends.
Soldier’s Home
A short story about a veteran who cannot fit back into ordinary life.
Babylon Revisited
Looks back on the expatriate high life of the 1920s from after the crash.
Adaptations. The Sun Also Rises (1957, Film directed by Henry King).
Discussion & essay prompts for class, or your next paper
💬 Discussion questions
- What does the ending of The Sun Also Rises mean
- What is Jake Barnes’s war wound in The Sun Also Rises
- What does bullfighting symbolize in The Sun Also Rises
- How does The Sun Also Rises explore the theme of the Lost Generation?
- How does The Sun Also Rises explore the theme of masculinity and wounds?
- What is the central conflict in The Sun Also Rises, and how does it shape the ending?
✎ Essay prompts
- Analyze how Ernest Hemingway develops the theme of the Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
- Examine the significance of bullfighting in The Sun Also Rises. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
- How does Ernest Hemingway use iceberg theory to shape the reader’s experience of The Sun Also Rises?
- Some readers assume that jake’s wound is described explicitly. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.
Key questions students ask
- What does the ending of The Sun Also Rises mean
- What is Jake Barnes’s war wound in The Sun Also Rises
- What does bullfighting symbolize in The Sun Also Rises
- Why is The Sun Also Rises about the Lost Generation
- Why does Brett leave Pedro Romero
- What is the significance of the title The Sun Also Rises
Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. Quotations are from Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926; Project Gutenberg eBook #67138), which is in the public domain in the United States. The novel remains under copyright in many countries that protect works for 70 years after the author’s death, so we quote short passages and do not host the full text.