Ernest Hemingway, author of The Sun Also Rises, brands his main character Jake Barnes, a Hemingway code hero. The Hemingway code hero is defined as one who faces several problems yet faces them with undeniable dignity; when under pressure he deals with it with so much poise, it is hard to detect he is faced with a challenge. Also according to Hemingway, this man must accept that the world can bring misery upon anyone and while realizing this must learn to enjoy life (Melvin C. Miles). This man will also fear the dark because it represents the “nothingness” of life after death. Hemingway provides his main character Jake, with the problem of impotence which causes a hindrance between Jake and Brett – the love of his life. Brett is the one
We seldom get to see Jake in a state where he is not prepared to go drinking or already drunk. For example, when he goes fishing with Bill in Spain he drinks and it is said that “They had not lost any money on the wine.” Romero another hero in this novel can be seen following this rule when Jake describes him “with a big glass of cognac in his hand, sitting laughing between me and a woman with bare shoulders, at a table full of drinks”
Another idea derived from “nada” is insomnia which comes from the hero’s inability to fully grasp the concept of nada. While some people might think that Hemingway is fully against Barnes feeling sorry for himself, this is incorrect. The world thinks of a hero as not revealing emotions or crying at all but Jake lets his emotions, his pain, and his anger at night. Jake suffers from insomnia because he feels bad about his accident and all other complications that come with it but he fails to show this weakness to his friends. For example, in the text when Jake is alone in his room, that is when he decides to “get angry” at Brett, this is when everything bottled inside of him comes out; this is when he confronts the “concept of nada.” What makes Jake a classic Hemingway hero is that he does not use his injury as a means of feeling sorry for himself in front of everyone. Instead he does it when he is alone and never shows it outside which shows him accepting his problem with dignity. There is also