Title
Wounded Soldiers Seeking Home: William Faulkner's Soldiers' Pay and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises
Document Type
Article
Annotation
Comparison study. Reads Donald Mahon's and Jake Barnes's scarred bodies as a metaphor for modern civilization, made up of combatants and non-combatants alike devasted by war. Honeini contends that for those suffering war's aftereffects, feeling a true sense of home is impossible. Examines the physical and psychic wounds of the protagonists and the women around them tasked with the responsibility of rehabilitating these soldiers through love, marriage, and homebuilding. Argues that Cecily Saunders and Brett Ashley, in need of rehabilitation themselves, assert their autonomy by rejecting their socially prescribed roles as "saviors," thus signaling a postwar shift away from traditional patriarchal values such as honor and duty. Honeini concludes: "Through these novels, Faulkner and Hemingway each exhibit disgust and revulsion over the pain and torment that Donald, Jake, and the generation and home they fought for have undergone."
Published in
Mississippi Quarterly
Volume
72
Issue
4
Date
2019
Pages
485-501
Citation
Honeini, Ahmed. "Wounded Soldiers Seeking Home: William Faulkner's Soldiers' Pay and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises." Mississippi Quarterly 72, no. 4 (2019): 485-501.