Alcoholic Narratives

One observation that has been made in class about The Sun Also Rises is that EVERYONE is drinking/ drunk. It just seems to be the social norm. (It almost makes you wonder if you can even trust the narrator, Jake, if he and his friends are drunk all the time). Being in Hero’s Journey last year, this mass amount of alcohol consumption in a narrative reminds me of The Odyssey. In both The Odyssey and The Sun Also Rises the amount of drinking is seemingly out of control when being viewed by modern, 21st century eyes.

In both of these books, we can see how big drinking alcohol in their respective cultures. In the Odyssey, not only is drinking alcohol (wine) a social convention, it also plays key roles in the plot. In one scene, Telemachus (Odysseus’ son) wants to flee from his home to search for his long lost father, so the goddess Athena uses alcohol to help him escape. “Then bright-eyed Pallas thoughts of one last thing. Back she went to King Odysseus’ halls and there she showered sweet oblivion over the suitors, dazing them as they drank, knocking cups from hands. No more loitering now, their eyes weighed down with sleep, they rose and groped through town to find their beds” (Homer 105). Athena uses alcohol in this case to distract the many suitors inhabiting Odysseus’ house to allow Telemachus to have a secret escape so he can search for his father out at sea.

Another example of the use of alcohol in The Odyssey is seen with Calypso, the goddess-nymph. Calypso keeping Odysseus captive on her island until Hermes (son of Zeus) comes and delivers a threat from Zeus which says she is to release Odysseus so he can go home. Once Hermes arrives, Calypso immediately gives him a cup of wine. “And the goddess drew a table up beside him, heaped with ambrosia, mixed him deep-red nectar. Hermes the guide and giant-killer ate and drank” (Homer 155). Calypso offers a drink as a symbol of hospitality (and maybe also a way to soften up the god).

Through these examples, we can see how in ancient Greece, alcohol was not only seen as a gesture of hospitality, but also as a way to distract/ trick people. In The Sun Also Rises, alcohol is more conventionally used as a hospitable act, rather than deceitful. (But you never know, since we have yet to finish the book). But, unlike in The Odyssey, Hemingway also depicts the role of alcohol as more connection with our emotions. Yes, most of the characters drink when they are happy, but some of the characters get drunk in order to forget, to hide their true emotions (like Jake). This particular use of alcohol is a very modern application for there are multiple examples of people running off to the nearest bar in order to forget the troubles in their lives in the 21st century. Although, unfortunately, alcohol can end up making/ persuading people to do dangerous things that can harm innocent bystanders, (such as driving while under the influence), it usually does do the job of numbing the pain and allowing a short term escape from reality. (But once the hangover comes around, those putt off problems tend to resurface, which can cause a possible revisit to the bar and the start of an ugly feedback cycle).

As we can see, throughout the centuries, alcohol has played a huge key role in many narratives. The role itself hasn’t even changed very much: staying an excellent hospitable drink, while also having a deceitful nature. Although, believe it or not, I believe that alcohol played a more prominent role in The Odyssey, it still proves of be very prominent in The Sun Also Rises, and I wonder how it may or may not shape the plot as we near the end of the book.