I was reading a little bit about Ernest Hemingway after I finished reading Book I of The Sun Also Rises, and I came across the term "iceberg theory" in reference to Hemingway's style. His famously pared down and restrained writing style is deceptive, the theory says, and the short, declarative sentences that Hemingway uses are really signposts pointing to the rich symbolism and emotional meaning hidden under the surface. All throughout the first book I was distracted by the thought that nothing was really happening; the characters seem to be taking taxis in circles around Paris, seeing the same sights and having the same conversations night after night. I think all of these events that Hemingway flashes in front of our eyes one after the other are the tip of the iceberg, and that there is an immense amount of depth to the characters that he simply refuses to show us explicitly.

This doesn't mean that the depth isn't there; it simply means that it is more difficult for the reader to access. I think this is the major way that the War has affected the characters, apart from the physical damage it has done. It has left them with fewer words to say. The landscape of the world is more barren now (as illustrated by Jake's infertility), so as soon as reproduction becomes impossible for him, emotional connection is the only avenue by which he can connect with other people, and the War has put up barriers on this road in the form of trauma and physical and moral destruction. The Paris nightlife is the activity which takes place amidst this destruction. Hemingway's iceberg theory is his way of demonstrating the sterile, corrupted world which the War left behind. The humans who inhabit this world are no different from before, but they do have much more difficult emotional hurdles to overcome in order to make sense of their world and of terms like "love".