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Major themes

The novel has heavy undercurrents of suppressed emotions and buried values. Its weary and aimless expatriates serve as metaphors for society's lost optimism and innocence after the war. The topic of war is rarely discussed explicitly by any of the characters, but its effects are alluded to through the sexual incapability of Jake and his war wound, and the behavior of the other characters, whom Carlos Baker described as "floundering in an emulsion of ennui and alcohol." ^[5] The war also affects the way characters are able to deal with themselves, and post-war society. The themes of the novel are cast against the background of the Biblical quotation the book opens with: "One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever" (Ecclesiastes 1:4).