Ernest Hemingway believes the generation that came of age after World War I is a lost generation. This is apparent in The Sun Also Rises, where his characters lack any direction, wasting their lives in a foreign land drinking, partying, and traveling as a way to escape reality. Jake Barnes, the protagonist, sees this as “a swell life.” (120). Hemingway is critical of this lifestyle, with his characters wandering aimlessly in a meaningless world. Hemingway opens …showed first 75 words of 904 total…

…showed last 75 words of 904 total…this generation escapes their problems with meaningless things. This is especially true of Jake. Jake displays some type of wisdom on the topic, giving some good advice to Cohn in the beginning of the novel. But Hemingway portrays Jake as weak, not even able to follow his own advice. Jake knows the problems of his lost generation, but he is trapped within it by not taking any action to help himself out of these problems.