Debased: Hemingway’s Not-So-Destructive Portrayal of Alcoholism in The Sun Also Rises

Abstract

I first examine the xenophobic motivations of the 1920’s prohibitionist movement through their backing of legislative policies like the “Johnson-Reed Act of 1924,” and their alliance with organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. I also explore some of the social correlations (such as widespread disregard for prohibition in urban areas with large immigrant populations) that led many prohibitionists to adopt nationalist beliefs. I then investigate Hemingway’s portrayal of alcohol in The Sun Also Rises as a form of subversion against not only the racist ideologies of the prohibitionists, but their belief that consuming alcohol was an immoral affair.