The book The Sun Also Rises it is said to be about the lost generation after WWI. It is evident that this a generation in disbelief of what occured in the previous years during the war and what they should do now that the war is over. Each character is trying to deal with those questions in their own way. A lot of it dealing with alochol and social clubs. But two characters dealings with the war really struck me because it was different. When Cohn expresses how he wants to visit South America because he feels they (he and Jake) are not living life to the fullest. This example of childish behave is his way of dealing with what has changed in his world. The other example is at the end of chapter 6 when Frances goes on her rant about why Cohn will not marry her. This again is a childish act, which seems to a re-occuring way to deal with post war life. But she has repressed many of these feelings towards Cohn. It seems that her idea is to repress any negative feelings and they will go away and to just live happy, because Hemmingway constantly refers to Frances' smile as brightly despite her angry rant she is going on.

I think these two examples of childish behavior and the example of repression was a way much of this generation dealt with post war life. For many, the war interrupted their young lives and these people were forced to grow up way before they were normally meant to. So after the war, many felt their life has slipped past them and reverted to child-like behaviors because it took them back to a much happier pre-war life they knew. Post war life was filled with a lot of confusion, so to revert to pre war characteristics brought them back to a better time in their life.

The use of repression seemed to be another way this generation dealt with the post war life. With the war, many of this generation could not and did not express emotions so they would repress all they saw or felt and that is how they dealt with things. This trend seemed to continue after the war. It seems that because repression had been part of their life for so long it was just normal for them. But even in Testament of Youth, repression only lasted so long before someone blew up and let it all out. Much like how Frances blew up on Cohn for not marrying her. These actions are example how the war affected their lives even after it had ended.