I can figure out who a few of the characters in Hemingways “The Sun Also Rises” are modeled after , but some I can’t put my finger on. If some one could give me a list of which expatriate each character is I will mail them a shotgun*
*lie
Jake Barnes is clearly modeled on Gertrude Stein, and Robert Cohn on Pablo Picasso.
Is this a homework thing? Because if it is, that won’t go over too well…
If it isn’t, sorry. 
I read the book in college, but I never had to figure out who was modelled after who. I did do a weird essay on the two paragraphs about Girones (I think) funeral and how that related to Barnes (was that his name?)…Anyways, I hated the book. The only good thing to come out of it was that I was reading it when I had the chance to meet my now-SO…it wasn’t too tough a choice as to what to do, read, or go talk to him 
Since this is about literature, it is better suited for Cafe Society.
Off to Cafe Society.
DrMatrix - General Questions Moderator
Not a homework thing…just a general inquiry
I used to teach English, and I never heard of the characters being modeled after certain famous people, unless you count Jake, who is a thinly-disguised Hemingway…but then again, you can say that about most of his main characters, both in novels and short stories.
Actually I had trouble understanding the novel when I read it in high school. For some reason it didn’t “click” until I had to read it again in college, and since then it’s been one of my all-time favorites.
Yes, this is quite true. Gertrude Stein had her wing-wang shot off in the Great War, and Picasso was the Jewish middle-weight boxing champ of Princeton University.
It is actually an allegory of Populist presidential candidates, and Jake is based on H. L. Mencken.
I am sure that Robert Cohn is loosely based on two people. One is not famous, so I can’t remember his name. The other is F. Scott Fitzgerald of Great Gatsby fame. Only one famous book, expatriate w/o being in WWI, fiancee named Frances, etc.
At least that’s what my English teacher told me.
Wow, The Sun Also Rises had characters? Last time I read it, I didn’t see any… Just a bunch of cardboard cut-outs who had sex and talked about how pointless their lack of lives were.
One of my all time favorite books, and the best barometer of the disaffectation of the talented and well-to-do after the societal horrors of WW I.
However, it is not likely that many of the characters are “modelled” after anyone. As noted, Jake is a fictionally enhanced (and diminished) Hemingway, but that’s common for protagonists of many authors, particularly in their early works.
It’s unlikely that there was a great deal of Fitzgerald in Cohn, since Fitz and Hemingway were good friends and Cohn was a pathetic character. Hemingway may have put the Princeton past in as a slight rib to his friend, but I doubt there was a direct influence.