The Influence of Journalism on The Sun Also Rises Sean Organ College

Ernest Hemingway is widely regarded as one of the finest modernist literary minds, and his first novel The Sun Also Rises (also known as Fiesta) is held in as high regard. It is based on real events in Hemingway's life, ones which he novelized even as he was experiencing them, and is centered around the running of the bulls ceremony in Pamplona, Spain. Hemingway, having worked as a journalist in the years preceding the publication of his novel, employed an emerging writing style (known by some as 'hard-boiled' writing) which featured a stripped-down and stark nature, eschewing the use of florid descriptive words. This essay will show, by using The Sun Also Rises as an example, that this style was influenced by journalism, and that the basic elements of the novel itself were highly dependent on Hemingway's journalistic background.

One of the most obvious ways in which The Sun Also Rises is related to journalism is that it was written practically extemporaneously, with Hemingway working on the novel as events unfolded in his own life. At first, it featured the characters' real-life names, with Hemingway the protagonist simply called “Hem” (Hays, 2011, p.2). He took extensive notes throughout this period and began working on the...