What is the extent of Jakes injury in Hemingways novel, The Sun Also Rises?
This question has caused considerable confusion among readers throughout the years mainly due to the fact that Hemingway never explicitly states the extent of Jake’s injury. We know that Jake is sexually impaired due to an injury he has sustained during the war. Jake can still desire sexually, but apparently has no means of consummating his powerful urges. The promiscuous Brett, on the other hand, is more than able to consummate her sexual desires, though not with the man she truly loves. The Sun Also Rises is the harrowing love story of a man who can’t get any and a woman who can’t get enough. Hemingway probably best explains Jake’s condition (or the inspiration for Jake’s condition) in a 1951 letter he wrote Thomas Bledsoe. The letter is reprinted in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961 edited by Carlos Baker, pages 743-746.
