Bright daylight, a river, cool breezes, green rolling countryside, oxen, cattle, pigeons, valleys , hills stretching out to sea, children playing in the warm sun - when Jake and company first perceive "Nature" in The Sun Also Rises (in chapter ten), it is astonishing in its unbridled beauty and implacable, but it fails to astonish the men who really perceive it; men who, on the contrary, adopt a blasé and nonchalant attitude towards the extraordinary settings in which they venture. In Jake's own words: "While we were waiting for [Robert Cohn], I saw a cockroach on the floor that must have been at least three inches long. I showed it to Bill and then put my shoe on him. We agreed that he I just had to come home from the garden. It really was a terribly clean hotel. Such is the relationship between nature and the misguided youth of the "lost generation": nature must be seen, appreciated, appreciated, but also modified, destroyed or even belittled for the pleasure of a generation which finds its very identity as having been involved in one of the greatest acts of destruction in history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay “We’re going trout fishing,” Bill said. “We are going to fish for trout in the Irati River, and we are going to feed ourselves now and at lunch with the local wine, then take a superb bus.” Nature, in the novel, is depicted as something possessing stunning beauty, but it is not described as being stunningly beautiful; that is, its beauty is apparent to the reader, but the characters in the novel, particularly the narrator, do not react to this beauty – nor do they express an opinion about it; and sometimes just the opposite is true. Consider Bill's categorical assertion, above, in which he speaks as if he somehow has the right to take fish from the river for all purposes, and in which the river and its abundant contents - "the local wine” – only excite him as much as the prospect of a simple bus ride. Later, in chapter twelve, similar feelings arise: "We must follow this road along the ridge, cross these hills, cross the woods on the more distant hills and descend into the valley of Irati," I said. points out to Bill. It's quite a hike. ""It's too far to go fishing and come back the same day, comfortably. "Here, nature contrasts sharply with the tired, pleasure-seeking youth of the story. "Comfort" is essentially the only thing these characters care about; it is the only value they hold. Even when they find themselves in a wild, rugged and unknown country, they stay inside hotels to get drunk instead of going out to see the local sights, they kill the local wildlife, whether it's a cockroach or a fish, and they do it for the purpose of personal fulfillment, for pleasure or, again, simply for "comfort". Even the river is not considered sacred, even after the efforts made by the fish. group to reach it Instead of savoring its subtle beauty and isolation, which are obvious to us, Jake only appreciates its freezing temperature, which he uses to chill two bottles of wine. which surrounds them here is an ambivalent attitude But it is getting worse; he moves from ambivalence to destruction, and eventually falls victim to the idea that the destruction these characters inflict on nature is actuallyan improvement over the original storyline. Consider the scene in which Jake catches a number of trout during the fishing expedition: "I felt I had [a trout on the line] and I pulled it out, fighting and bending the rod almost in half, boiling water at the base of the falls and I swung it up and over the dam. First, he simply catches the fish; then, he completely destroyed: “It was a good trout, and I hit its head against the wood so that it quivered straight up, then I slipped it into my bag. Later, Jake found himself with six trout to his name: "I laid them all out side by side, all their heads pointing in the same direction, and looked at them." This is the first time in the entire expedition that any of the characters step back from their own small, self-contained group and look at something outside of themselves; and, as is their nature, Jake chooses to look at something completely devoid of life. In doing so, he remarks that "they were beautifully colored" and this is also the first time he uses the word "beautiful", although the beauty of his surroundings is still apparent to the reader, while the beauty of the The environment is always visible to the reader. the subject it focuses on – the fish – has been tainted by death. Jake continues, “I cut [the fish] up and took the insides out, gills and everything, and threw them across the river. I brought the trout ashore, washed them in the cold, soft, heavy water above the dam, then picked up a few ferns and packed them all into the bag. Now, not only does he completely tear apart the six fish, then pollute the river they came from with their entrails and waste, but he also tears up the foliage around the river in order to preserve his catch, and finally, he marvels of the beauty of his own work: “[The trout] looked beautiful in the ferns,” he says, almost as if they were of no use when they were in the river. This is a complete reversal of traditional aesthetic priorities, carried by a typical man of his generation who does not care about preserving a balanced environment in which he is only a visitor. His status as a visitor – and that of his companions as visitors – is nowhere more illustrated than in an example of their shared behavior on a fishing trip, which exposes their naivety and self-centeredness when they find themselves in an environment that exists outside the limits of “comfort”: it was a beech forest and the trees were very old. Their roots rose above the ground and their branches were twisted. We were walking on the road between the thick trunks of the old beech trees and the sunlight came through the leaves in light spots on the grass. The trees were tall and the foliage thick but it wasn't dark. There was no undergrowth, only smooth grass, very green and fresh, and tall gray trees well spaced as if it were a park. “It’s the countryside,” Bill said. But Bill is wrong: it can't be completely rural, or as far from civilization as he suggests; after all, Jake notes that it is reminiscent of a park, which in itself is nothing more than nature tamed by man; and moreover, always in search of the scent of “comfort”, even in the deserts, the group of young men always follows the beaten paths of the road, taking particular care not to deviate from the visible track. Indeed, the first time they see the mountains that form the backdrop to the landscape in which their expedition takes place, they are sitting in a car on a road: “As the bus moved slowly down the road, we could see more mountains rising. in the south." And when they feel as comfortable as possible in the wilderness – that is, eating roast chicken for lunch and getting drunk on the wine they have chilled in the river – Bill once again mocks nature: “Let no one be ashamed to kneel here in the open air Remember that the woods were the first temples of God” Their attitudes towards nature reveal. so the inner conflict of these lost young men: they are willing to mock, provoke and belittle, but not to the point of alienating them from the luxuries that might otherwise constitute their daily life. Nature, for Jake, Mike and Bill, is something that must be underestimated, berated, trivialized, provoked like a wild animal until violence erupts - if the bull is a symbol of the unleashed fury of nature, then their fascination with bullfighting is further proof, this attitude towards nature and towards things "underneath" in general is manifested in the general character of these men through Mike's intense dislike for Robert Cohn, the only member of the group who has. enough strength and skill (via his training as a boxer) to actually cause violence that he could overcome, and also the only member of the group who chooses not to. The novel is prefaced with a quote from Ecclesiastes: "The sun also rises and the sun sets, and rushes towards the place where it rose.... The wind goes south, and turns towards the north; it swirls continually, and the wind returns according to its circuits... All the rivers flow into the north. the sea ; yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return. » This quote serves several purposes. Chief among them is the assurance that even after this generation of lost souls has passed away, there will be subsequent generations of people just as lost and just as misguided. However, the biblical passage also reminds us of the eternity of nature, the rising, setting and rising of the sun and the flow of waters from rivers into the sea and vice versa. Therefore, this highlights how the young people of the lost generation wander and meander hopelessly through life. If it is their attitude to provoke what is "below" them, as stated above, and if nature is considered "below" them, as they see it, the bull being l the embodiment of all that is wild and untamed. in nature, then the quote from Ecclesiastes is the proverbial carrot hanging on a thread before the donkey's eyes. No matter how confidently or conscientiously these men seek something to demean or provoke, and no matter how many times they attempt to spoil the natural environment in which they find themselves - let this attempt arise from the conviction that they bring a improvement to this environment. , or an instinctive reaction to provoke a fight - this environment, nature, its cockroaches and its bulls and its cattle, its oxen, its hills, its rivers and its pigeons, will always be bigger, bigger and more elusive than men who are looking to change it.Keep in mind: this is just a sample.Get a personalized article now from our expert writers.Get a personalized essayThis is how nature fits into nature Hemingway's story: not only as a picturesque backdrop for the events of the story, but also as the gentle setting on which the alternately violent and egocentric character of the characters is revealed to us, to show by comparison and contrast to how “lost” they are. It is also to remind us that the..