Ernest Hemingway often dealt with themes of love and sex in his novels and short stories. In his work, he explored the various aspects of love and sex, including sexual initiation, sexual guilt, falling in love, falling out of love, and accepting the responsibilities of love. In his changing concept of love, Hemingway was especially attracted to the relationship which exists between sexual love and death. Thus, many of his fictional works provide an "exploration of the relationship between passion and destruction, love and death" (McDowell 52). In this regard, loss of love and inability to love are also important themes in Hemingway's work.
Hemingway's first important novel, The Sun Also Rises, is directly concerned with the inability to love. The story centers around Jake Barnes, an American journalist who is living in Paris during the 1920's. Jake is in love with an Englishwoman named Brett Ashley. However, Jake feels that he is not able to express his love for Brett because he has a war wound which has left him sexually impotent. In this way, it can be seen that Jake has confused the concept of sexual love with that of emotional love. Although he is impotent, Jake could probably develop a meaningful relationship with Brett. The two of them could perhaps find a higher form of love which transcends his physical limitations. However, this type of love is impossible for both Jake and Brett. It is impossible for Jake because he thinks that he cannot really love someone unless there's sex involved. Brett also seems to think that sexual love is more important than emotional love. This can be seen in the fact that she is sexually attracted to a variety of men, such as the bullfighter Pedro Romero.
By establishing his main characters in this way, Hemingway makes it clear that Jake Barnes is suffering not only from an inability to have sex but from an inability to love. In Spilka's words, "his condition represents a p...