The Sun Also Rises Lesson Plan

Discuss the significance of Hemingway's epigraph.

Hemingway begins the novel with two quotations: one by Gertrude Stein and the other by Ecclesiastes. Stein's quotation coins the term "Lost Generation," and has come to define the vast emptiness felt by those in the wake of World War I. The Sun Also Rises serves as an exploration of that very emptiness, as we watch our characters seek comfort in the superficial hedonism of the Roaring '20s.

The quotation from Ecclesiastes may be interpreted as a more optimistic contrast to Stein's: although Hemingway's generation may be lost, "the sun also riseth," indicating that perhaps mankind will be able to make itself whole once...