References to the War and its effects occur all throughout the first part of The Sun Also Rises; however, the brief scene in which Jake Barnes is attempting to fall asleep particularly struck me. After his night on the town and a disappointing talk with Brett, Jake goes back to his flat and prepares for bed, knowing that he probably won’t be able to sleep. “Perhaps I would be able to sleep,” (38) he says, indicating that sleeplessness is probably a fairly common for him. Of course, he cannot immediately fall asleep, due to the annoying habit of the mind deciding to work in overdrive precisely when you want it to calm down. “My head started to work. The old grievance,” (38) is his reflection on the situation. Again, this indicates that his sleeplessness is a recurring problem.

All of this reminded me of several references to the inability to sleep in The Waste Land. In the very first stanza, the narrator states, “I read, much of the night,” (18). A bit later, the poem switches to a conversation between a returned soldier and his wife. The man cannot sleep, and says, “My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me,” (111).

All of these issues with sleep, both in The Sun Also Rises and The Waste Land speak to the trauma of serving in the War. Though Jake Barnes probably does not suffer from severe PTSD like many men of his era, his insomnia is nevertheless a symptom of stress. The minute he attempts to settle down for the night, he begins thinking of his time serving in Italy. Though he calls it a “joke front” he was wounded. His inability to rest peacefully is an internal manifestation of his physical scars from the War.