Jake Barnes as a Hemingway Hero Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Jake Barnes as a Hemingway Hero - Essay Example Brett and Barnes had a past relationship. However, World War I rendered Barnes sexually impotent through a battle wound. Barnes wants a relationship with Brett, but she cannot give up sex, even for love. Throughout this novel, Barnes is the shoulder for Brett to cry on. He is her friend, confident, and admirer. She is engaged to Mike, but cheats on him with Cohn and Romero. While carrying on with these men, she still confides in Barnes. The pathetic part of Barnes and Brett’s relationship was Barnes knew exactly what she was, but still did not care. Barnes thought: Barnes, aside from his feelings for Brett, wanted to find the meaning of life. He knew that loving Brett was not making him happy, but could not quite grasp what would make him happy. In order to pursue the meaning of life, Barnes decided to go back to the basics with a fishing trip in Spain. By imposing the basics on his life, Barnes wanted to find peace through order. Even though ideally he thought if Brett would love him, then the meaning of life and happiness would fall in line, Barnes found that peace came with order. When Brett suggest they could have been happy together, Barnes replies, â€Å"Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so?† (Hemingway 248) This shows that Barnes realizes that although his desire to be with Brett is nice to think about, peace is only found with order, not confusion. Jake Barnes loved an unworthy woman and searched in vain for happiness. Both of these things make him a Hemingway hero. His survival of unrequited love and journey through life makes him an everyday hero. Barnes faced reality. The ultimate conclusion that only the need of basic essentials to create order in his life allowed Barnes achieve a separate peace. Barnes found what every person needs to know to gain peace; happiness does not come from others, but only from within. Barnes found his separate peace from within. This is what makes him not only a Hemingway hero, but a memorable