The Sun Also Rises - The Exposition

In the beginning of the novel ‘’Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises’’ we get to know Robert Cohn. He meets Francis after a divorce and they move to Paris. In Paris Cohn works as a writer but he is not happy. He seems to be tired at his life and when he gets back from a trip to America to publish a book he wants to move to South America. His friend Jake is the narrator. Jake and Cohn both fall in love with Brett. It seems like every man wants her but she is going to marry some other man. Anyhow Cohn wants to live life in South America and asks Jake to go with him. Nether Jake or Francis wants to go. He feels like half of his has passed and he hasn’t really lived it. He feels sad and he leaves Francis.

The novel seems to be about Cohn and his search for happiness. He thinks he is going to find happiness in South America and maybe in Brett. Both Cohn and Jake are in love with the same woman and there are probably going to be complications in the novel. 

The main characters are Cohn and Jake. Cohn is described as a withdrawn person who nobody notices. He was a great boxer perhaps because he took out all his feelings in boxing. He married the first girl that was nice to him, maybe because he is uncertain in himself. When he moves to Paris with Francis he still doesn’t feel like he is living his life. Cohn seems to be an unhappy man that wants to live life. My opinion is that he is a bit too bitter and sees everything negatively. I think he should have more self-confidence and be happy here and now.

´´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 it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton.’’ When I read the first lines I felt sympathy for Cohn. It felt like he had been treated badly and therefor he was boxing. The lines actually caught my interest because I wanted to know more about Cohn.