The Sun Also Rises has endured a variety of readings but few have investigated its potential as a product and reflection of the prevailing socio-economic landscape. This book examines the novel as a political and cultural artifact. Ernest Hemingway's self-avowed "suggestive" method allowed him to imply what could be explicitly stated only at the risk of diminishing his art.

Furthermore, this language of silences and absences often represses contradictions between the narrator's expressed "code" and his actions.