Similarities between The Sun Also Rises and The Secret of Joy Ernest Hemingway and Alice Walker, although separated by seventy years, show striking similarities in their definitions of love in their novels The Sun Also Rises and The Secret of Joy. It is a unique similarity of circumstances that connects these two novels. Jake Barnes, the protagonist of The Sun Also Rises, is literally and symbolically castrated during his service in the First World War. Tashi, the protagonist of Possessing the Secret of Joy, undergoes an ancient tribal female circumcision ritual that leaves her unable to have sex. Through these two characters, Hemingway and Walker proclaim their belief that love can exist outside the parameters of a conventional relationship. Both Jake and Tashi are injured serving their countries: Jake in war, Tashi in an ancient tribal ritual. In both cases, their sacrifice is expected of them. Jake, returning from the battlefield, is praised by his officer. It certainly was a "lousy way to be hurt," and Jake's officer says, "You gave more than your life." To his officer, however, if Jake had given more than his life, it had been given in honor of his country, so any consequences of his wound were a fate he would have to live with. He should have been proud to have given so much to the war effort, but his injury doesn't make Jake a hero. Instead he is reduced to something less than a man. His wound becomes a joke instead of a martyr's mark. Jake thinks, "At one time or another I had probably considered [his wound] in many of its various aspects, including that certain wounds or blemishes are objects of mirth while remaining quite serious to the person who possesses them" (20) . As the war recedes, Jake must assimilate to life as a lover, not a soldier. In an age where people try to forget the war, Jake becomes not a hero but the butt of a cruel joke. “You gave more than your life.” - The Sun Also Rises Tashi is also hurt for her country. His African tribe, the Olinkan, asks that everyone wear scared faces with traditional tribal markings. For women this "initiation" also includes circumcision. Tashi wants to complete the ritual, just as Jake decides to join the army, so he can sacrifice himself for the traditions and culture he believes in..