In The Sun Also Rises, what is the significance of the title?

The title of
comes from the epigraph, which is from Ecclesiastes. Part of the epigraph
reads,

One generation passeth away, and another generation
cometh; but the earth abideth forever. . . The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and
hasteth to the place where he arose.

This epigraph
expresses the idea that one generation fades into another, and the sun will continue to rise,
while each generation passes on.

The generation that Hemingway describes in
the novel is doomed by the horrors they faced while fighting in World War I and/ or while
witnessing the effects of the war. For example, Jake is impotent because of his war injuries and
can't be with the woman he loves, Brett. The generation of the 1920s that witnessed the
devastation of World War I and that, alienated from the United States, lived a rootless
existence traveling around Europe, was known as "the lost generation." The writer
Gertrude Stein is credited with the other epigraph of the novel: "You are all a lost
generation. --Gertrude Stein in conversation." The term "lost generation" was
used to refer to Hemingway's contemporaries and describes the characters in the novel. To some
degree, they have already seen the sun rise and set on them, and true regeneration will only
come after the sun has risen on a new generation that comes after the "lost
generation."