Reading log 1

Reading log 1.

The sun also rises.

In the beginning of the book an unknown narrator speaks of his first impressions of Robert Cohn and during the following three pages or so the reader is presented with the brief story of Robert Cohn’s life. This leads the reader to believe that the plot will revolve around Cohn, which in fact is not the case. The narrator is given a name shortly after the Cohn-phase is finished, and his name is Jake Barnes. The reader will observe the flow of events through Jake’s eyes, and he functions as the main character.

Jake Barnes is an American journalist living and working in Paris. He and his friends live a somewhat bohemian life, frequently engaging in sessions of heavy drinking and partying. Amongst his friends Jake seems rather stable, unlike many of his friends, but they all have very few permanent ties allowing them to travel on the slightest impulse. He appears to be one of the most intelligent amongst his friends as well as one of the subtlest. In this circle of friends Jake assumes the role of the observer, using his insight and intelligence to describe those around him. However, by describing others Jake reveals a lot about himself. Jake is very clearly in love with a woman called Lady Brett Ashley, and she loves him as well. Even though they are in love they cannot be together due to Jake’s injury. Now, Jake’s injury is interesting, he got it during the First World War in which he fought just like many of the male characters in the novel. His injury is spoken of in detail, however one can make the assumption that the injury has left Jake unable to engage in sexual intercourse. Due to his impotence and the fact that Brett is not willing to give up sex, the two of them have a very complicated relationship, which leaves the both of them emotionally hurt several times. Apart from Jake’s issues with impotence and love he seems confused about life. He almost wanders through the world without knowing in what direction to head, stuck in a sort of moral vacuum left behind after the war. Jake is a typical member of the lost generation, a generation of mostly young men whose experiences during WWI left them unable to believe in justice and morality leading to them living an aimless life with a lack of true emotion. Hemingway himself was a part of this generation and Jake Barnes might very well be based on Hemingway.

Lady Brett Ashley is a very independent woman and strikingly beautiful. She charms almost all of the men in her presence and wields great power over them. However, she is not able to commit to one man leading her to have many fleeting relationships and/or affairs. The one man she has shown any true feelings for is Jake, the one man who cannot satisfy her physical needs. So, she wanders between men much like Jake and his friends wanders between bars. She frequently complains to Jake about how miserable she is, she claims that her life is aimless and unsatisfying much like Jake. She is stuck in the same vacuum as Jake and many of their friends, constantly moving between social appointments, constantly drinking and seemingly never having a conversation with any real substance. In short, Jake, Brett and their friends live a life devoid of meaning, lacking direction and emotional connections.

“Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt being treated as a Jew at Princeton”

These are the first three lines of the novel. Reading these first lines I feel intrigued by Robert Cohn as a character. Becoming champion in a sport, which you dislike simply to counteract feelings of inferiority, that is the groundwork of an interesting character in my eyes. I assumed that the novel would be about Cohn and that it might be about his life and challenges as a Jew or some other difficulty.

Why did Hemingway choose the title The sun also rises? For me that is an easy question. It refers to the lifestyle of the characters, they live their life without meaning, without emotional bonds but no matter what they do or where they are the sun will always rise and it will always set. It is a certainty in their uncertain lives, a contrast to the characters in a sense.