The light of day, a river, fresh breezes, green and rolling countryside, oxen, cattle, pigeons, valleys, hills that extend towards the sea, children playing in the warm sun - when Jake and his companions first perceive "Nature" in The Sun Also Rises (in chapter ten) it is astonishing in its unbridled and relentless beauty, but fails to amaze those men who they actually perceive it; men who, instead, adopt a casual and casual attitude towards the extraordinary environments into which they venture. In Jake's words: "While we were waiting for [Robert Cohn] I saw a cockroach on the parquet floor that must have been at least three inches long. I pointed it out to Bill and then put my shoe on him. We agreed that he must be just returned from the garden. It really was a terribly clean hotel." This is the relationship between nature and the misguided youth of the "Lost Generation": nature must be seen, appreciated, enjoyed, but also altered, destroyed or even belittled for the enjoyment of a generation that finds its own identity in being was 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “Let's go trout fishing,” Bill says. "We'll go fishing for trout in the Irati River, and now and at lunch we'll stuff ourselves with country wine, and then we'll take a nice bus ride." Nature, in the novel, is depicted as something possessing astonishing beauty, but it is not described as extraordinarily beautiful; that is, its beauty is evident to the reader, yet the characters in the novel, especially the narrator, do not respond to that beauty or offer an opinion about it; and sometimes the opposite is true. Consider Bill's adamant statement, above, in which he speaks as if he is somehow entitled to take fish from the river for whatever purpose he pleases, and in which the river and its abundant contents - "the wine of the country" - they only excite him as much as the prospect of a simple bus ride. Later, in chapter twelve, similar sentiments emerge: “We must follow this road along the ridge, across these hills, through the woods on the distant hills, and down into the Irati Valley,” I pointed out to Bill. It's a nice walk to fish." Here, nature is held in stark contrast to the world-weary, pleasure-seeking youth of the narrative. "Convenience" is essentially all these characters care about; it's the only value they have. Even when they are in a wild, harsh and unknown country, they stay at home and get drunk in hotels instead of going out to see the local attractions, they kill the local wildlife, whether it is a cockroach or a fish, and they do it for the purpose of personal fulfillment, for fun or, again, simply for 'comfort'. Not even the river is considered sacred, not even after the effort made by the group to reach it. Instead of savoring its subtle beauty and isolation, which appear evident to us, Jake appreciates it only its freezing temperature, which he uses to cool two bottles of wine. The characters' attitude towards the nature around them, here, is one of ambivalence. However, it worsens; idea that the destruction that these characters inflict on nature is actually an improvement over the original scenario. Consider the scene in which Jake catches a number of trout on the fishing trip: "I felt I had [a trout on the line] and I took it, struggling and bending the rod almost double, out of the boiling water to the foot of the waterfalls,and he swung it over the dam." First, he simply catches the fish; then, he destroys it completely: "It was a good trout, and I banged its head against the wood so that it shook straight up, and then I stuck it in my bag." Later, Jake finds himself with six trout under his belt: "I laid them all out, side by side, with all their heads facing the same direction, and looked at them." This is the first time in entire expedition that any of the characters step back from their own little self-contained group and look at something outside themselves; and, as is true in their nature, Jake chooses to look at something completely lifeless that "they were wonderfully colored" and this is also the first time he uses the word "beautiful", although the beauty of their surroundings is always evident to the reader, while the beauty of the subject he focuses on, the fish , was tainted by death. Jake continues: “I cut [the fish] up and shelled the guts and gills and everything, and threw them across the river. I brought the trout to shore, washed them in the cold, heavy water above the dam, and then picked up some ferns and put them all in the bag." Now, not only does he tear the six fish to pieces and then pollute them with the their entrails and offal the river from which they come, but he also tears up the foliage around the river to preserve his prey and, finally, marvels at the beauty of his handiwork: "[The trout] looked beautiful among the ferns," he says , almost as if they were of no use when in the river. This is a complete reversal of traditional aesthetic priorities, supported by a typical man of his generation who has no regard for the preservation of a balanced environment in which he is alone. a visitor. His status as a visitor - and the status of his companions as visitors - is exemplified especially in an example of their collective behavior during the fishing trip, which highlights their naivety and self-centeredness when they find themselves in an environment that it exists outside the boundaries of "comfort": it was a beech forest and the trees were very old. Their roots protruded from the ground and the branches were twisted. We walked on the road between the large trunks of the old beech trees and the sunlight filtered through the leaves in light patches on the grass. The trees were large and the foliage was thick but it wasn't dark. There was no undergrowth, just smooth grass, very green and fresh, and large gray trees well spaced as if it were a park. “This is country,” Bill said. But Bill is wrong: he can't be completely country, or as distant from civilization as he lets on; after all, Jake notes that it is not unlike a park, which in itself is nothing more than nature tamed by man; and, moreover, always following the smell of "comfort" even in the wilderness, the group of young people always follows the beaten path of the road, taking special care not to deviate from the visible trail. In fact, the first time they see the mountains that form the backdrop to the scenery in which their expedition takes place, they are sitting in the car on a road: "As the bus slowly approached the road we could see other mountains approaching in the south. " And when they get comfortable in the wilderness - that is, eating roast chicken for lunch and getting drunk on wine they've chilled in the river - Bill once again mocks nature: "Let no man be ashamed to kneel here, at the open. Remember that the woods were the first temples of God." Their attitude towards nature, therefore, lays bare the inner conflict of these lost young people: they are willing to mock, to provoke and belittle, but not to the extent that this would distance them from the luxuries that they might otherwise constitutetheir daily life. Nature, for Jake, Mike and Bill, is something to be underestimated, scolded, trivialized, provoked like a wild animal until violence breaks out - if the bull is a symbol of the unleashed fury of nature, then their fascination with bullfighting is that's proof enough. Furthermore, this attitude towards nature and towards things "beneath them" in general manifests itself in the general character of these men through Mike's intense dislike of Robert Cohn, the only member of the group who has enough strength and skill ( thanks to his training). like a boxer) to actually cause violence that could overcome, and also the one member of the group who chooses not to. The novel is preceded by a quote from Ecclesiastes: "The sun also rises and the sun sets, and hastens to the place where it rose... The wind goes southward and turns northward; it turns continually, and the wind returns according its circuits... All rivers flow into the sea; yet the sea is not full; up to the place from which the rivers come, they return there." that this misguided generation of lost souls will have passed, subsequent generations of equally lost and equally misguided people will come. However, the biblical passage also reminds us of the eternity of nature, the rising, setting and rising of the sun and the flowing of the waters. from the rivers to the sea and back.Therefore, it highlights how desperately the youth of the lost generation wander and wander through life. as they see it, the bull being the epitome of all that is wild and untamed in nature, therefore, the quote from Ecclesiastes is the proverbial carrot hanging by a thread before the donkey's eyes. No matter how confidently or conscientiously these men seek something to belittle or provoke, and no matter how often they attempt to ruin the natural environment in which they find themselves, whether this attempt arises from the belief that they are making an improvement in that environment. , or by an instinctive reaction to provoke a fight - that environment, nature, its cockroaches and its bulls and its beasts, its oxen, its hills and rivers and pigeons, will always be bigger, bigger and more elusive of men who tries to change him. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay This is how nature fits into Hemingway's story: not simply as a picturesque backdrop for the events of the narrative, but also as the gentle backdrop against which the alternately violent and self-centered nature of the characters is revealed, so as to show through how comparison and contrast are 'lost'. It also serves as a reminder that the world is an enormously mystifying and diverse place; and we realize that these characters have simplified that diversity to fit the confines of a pre-planned idealized sense of “comfort”; and so, whenever they try to alter or diminish nature in any way, whether passively or violently, then, being from a smaller world, they are inevitably fighting a losing battle. They are not simply the “lost generation” because they wander aimlessly, without purpose; but rather, they are the "lost generation" because, when they identify a goal to achieve - usually a negative or self-centered ambition, at that - not only is it an equally useless aspiration, but it is also too big to even consider. be grabbed by anyone: they often aim at the violent alteration of something that could easily destroy them; and, in those cases where they are too shy to..