Describe how the setting complements the primary themes of the novel.

In The Sun Also Rises, we can look to
Paris and Spain as the two most important settings in the
novel.

In Paris, the depiction of the life there
presents debauchery, vagueness of purpose, and a cacophony of social disorder and messy
relationships. No one is perfectly clear on who stands where, though everyone knows
everyone else. It is a quite messy little community of ex-patriots in
Paris.

Spain stands in contrast to this. The
depiction of life in Spain is directly opposite. It is idyllic (fishing and sunshine)
and it is orderly (the age-old traditions of bull fighting). There is great dignity to
the people in Spain, who constitute a large portion of the setting in Spain. This
dignity is lacking in Paris.

Regarding the
themes of the novel, we can say that dignity and social striving are both themes in
The Sun Also Rises and that the central conflict of the story is
expressed in the contrast between Spain and Paris. Jake wishes to attain dignity,
despite his physical injury, and to (possibly) lift himself out of the disorder of
debauchery around him by clinging to something of value
(Brett).

Tradition is not enough, however, and
even tradition can be broken, as it is in Brett’s relationship with the young bull
fighter. Though Jake would like to take a side, each symbolically represented by Paris
and Spain he finds himself jailed in between.