“Injustice Everywhere”: Confronting Race and Racism in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Abstract

Abstract: The Sun Also Rises contains troubling depictions of African-American characters framed by a vile racial epithet. Although critics have addressed this topic using the familiar contexts of Hemingway’s life, his iceberg theory, or intertextuality, this article argues that a fluid, combinatory context is necessary in the twenty-first century classroom. Acknowledging Toni Morrison’s important intervention in Playing in the Dark , this essay seeks neither to dismiss or ignore the novel’s racist content nor to banish the novel from the canon, but rather to engage the novel in a complex ongoing dialogue about race and racism in American culture and literature.