Symbols of Honor and Warfare in The Sun Also Rises

Much of our in-class discussion of The Sun Also Rises has focused on themes like gender and the disillusionment of the Lost Generation, and while those are certainly the topics that have the most depth to explore, the novel also carries a strong, simple anti-war sentiment that should not be ignored. One way in which Hemingway delivers this message is through the motif of statues and medals, which the author uses to symbolize the hollow nature of honor and the glorification of violence.

The most significant of a statue by Jake is relatively early in the novel, a couple pages into chapter IV.

I passed Ney's statue standing among the new-leaved chestnut-trees in the arc-light. There was a faded purple wreath leaning against the base. I stopped and read the inscription: from the Bonapartist Groups, some date; I forget He looked very fine, Marshal Ney in his top-boots, gesturing with his sword among the green new horse-chestnut leaves.

While that passage is part of a paragraph describing what Jake sees as he is walking home from his long night out with Brett, Hemingway's choice to describe this particular part of the Paris scenery in detail marks the sculpture as particularly noteworthy.

The purple wreath that seemingly honors the statue is described as faded, suggesting that it has been left long ago. In addition, the inscription the wreath bears is attributed to Bonapartists. That term, besides originating from France's most famous warmonger, was used by Karl Marx to describe someone who manipulates a revolution in order to gain power for themselves. If we look at the wreath from this perspective, it appears to be a symbol not only of the fading glory that once came to men who went to war, but also of Hemingway's conception of the nature of warfare: persons in power sending men to fight and die for reasons that have little to do with their best interest. In this way the author turns a symbol intended to honor men who fought for their country into one that is mocking and ultimately of no use to them at all.

Hemingway uses another symbol to suggest similar sentiments in the story that Mike and Brett tell in chapter XIII. Mike cares little about his service, and it seems that he would rather forget the whole experience than be honored for it. His apathy towards the medals he earned for his service is representative of the general attitude towards the war held by his generation.

In addition to Mike's lack of regard for his own medals, he also gives away or otherwise disposes of a set of medals lent to him by his tailor. It is suggested that the medals belong to another man who served in a war before Mike's time and that the man valued the medals highly. In addition to highlighting the difference in attitudes towards honors earned by soldiers, the incident also shows the cynicism Hemingway, and by association his generation, has towards the values held by the generation that came before him.