Hemingway's Anti-Semitic Design in The Sun Also Rises Ilona Kichko

Beneath Hemingwayâs graphic portrait of the lost and wounded post-World War I generation presented in The Sun Also Rises, a blatant anti-Semitic intent emerges. Whether Hemingway was merely a mouthpiece for the intolerant views of his contemporaries or allowed his personal prejudice to seep into the story line can not be ascertained, yet one of the main figures in The Sun Also Rises is consistently assaulted for his Judaic heritage.

Robert Cohnâs scornful introduction occurs in the first few pages of the novel. The narrator, Jake Barnes, constructs a stereotypical image of Cohn, including a disfigured nose, a bought editorial byline in a magazine he helped finance, and a lackluster relationship, in which Cohn unwittingly succumbs to girlfriend Francesâ dominion. This contemptuous description correlates with the standard Jewish stereotype as presented by Edgar Rosenberg:

The stereotype of the Jew is that of a fairly thoroughgoing materialist, a physical coward, an opportunist in money matters; secretive in his living habits, servile in his relations with Christians, whom he abominated,...an outlandish nose, an unpleasant odor, and a speech impediment also. He was a literalist...hardly qualified for tragedy. (56)

Hemingway, via Jake...