Three - Clubbin'

Jake hits the bars and picks up a hooker named Georgette. I was almost appalled at our lovely protagonists apparent loose morals, until later when it becomes apparent that he does not plan to have relations with this lovely lady, as he got his hoohoo-dilly blown off in the war (blatant paraphrasing). Naturally, this fact is not expressed immediately outright, but throughout the course of the novel it is hinted at. Therefore, Jake is unable to partake in sexual relations with the aforementioned harlot or any other future prominent female characters (hint hint). This apparent impotence of Jake's brings forth yet another prominent theme in the novel: masculinity, or rather a sense of a lack thereof as a result of the war. Hemingway is essentially saying that many of the members of the Lost Generation came out of the war with extremely confused senses of what is "manly." The previous notions of charging into battle with banner waving in a tremendous bout of righteous macho fury were completely swept aside as trench warfare made such daring escapades impractical. The people who stood up bravely to charge ahead ended up getting ripped apart by machine guns. Acts of courage, honor, and bravery generally ended in a swift demise. Those that managed to get through alive just kept their heads down and tried not to get shot or blown apart by a mortar. This of course leaves the Lost Generation with a feeling that the only truly masculine soldiers got blown away while the sissies took cover and made it out in one piece. Mostly. This entire sense is embodied in Jake's own insecurity concerning his wound. This recurring theme of emasculation resurfaces throughout the course of the novel as strong women show off independence or exhibit control over other leading male characters, as was shown in the exchange between Cohn and Frances over the trip to Strasbourg.

This is an authentic WWI machine gun. It is the bane of masculinity.