Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises finds his male characters grappling with what it means to be a man in the post-war world. With this struggle, one of the main themes of the novel emerges, male identity. Many of these men of the "Lost Generation" returned from that war dissatisfied with their lives, among them are the main characters of Hemingway's novel. Its main characters find themselves adrift, wandering through France and Spain, without finding anything meaningful in their lives. The characters relate to each other in entirely superficial ways, often ambiguously saying one thing while meaning another. The first-person narrative of The Sun Also Rises offers few clues to the true meaning of the interactions between its characters. The reader must instead gather evidence from the indirect hints Hemingway provides through his narrator, Jake Barnes. The theme of masculinity, although prevalent in the novel, is masked in this way. Jake's war wound, the relationship between Jake and Robert Cohn, and the bullfight scene show the theme of masculinity. The main exploration of this theme comes from the revelation of Jake's war wound. It has never been stated openly, but it is rather implied that a certain war wound took away his "masculinity" in order to have sexual performances. Jake's self-awareness about his problem is seen when he undresses and looks in the mirror. “Undressing I looked at myself in the mirror of the large wardrobe next to the bed…. of all the ways to be hurt. I suppose it was fun” (Hemingway 38). Jake is ashamed of having this wound and the wound creates a serious wound in his masculinity. His injury is never revealed to the reader, so only Jake's thoughts, words, and actions lead to the conclusion... halfway through the paper... that he cannot satisfy Brett's unquenchable needs, and Brett recognizes. Also. Jake's lack of masculinity leads to an empty life, filling him with alcohol and other insufficient objects that can never truly satisfy him. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. The sun also rises. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.Leland, Jacob Michael. “Yes, I Have a Roll of Banknotes in My Pocket: The Economics of Masculinity in The Sun Also Rises.” The Hemingway Review 23.2 (2004): 37+. Literary Resource Center. Network. December 7, 2013.Strychacz, Thomas. “Dramatizations of Manhood in In Our Time and The Sun Also Rises.” Hemingway's Theaters of Masculinity. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. 53-86. Rpt. in twentieth-century literary criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. vol. 162. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Network. 7 December. 2013.