The Sun Also Rises

The Exposition 

”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. ”

This is the first sentences of the book ”The Sun Also Rises”, written by Ernest Hemingway. Just by these three lines one understand that this Robert Cohn has a very good friend who knows his history and possibly also possessing extraordinary observation abilities. The protagonist is Jake Barnes, an American journalist living in Paris in the 1920’s. His friendship with Robert Cohn was formed in college. The first chapter is dedicated Cohn as Jake explains how Cohn is unhappy in his marriage, wants to travel to South America with Jake, and struggle with people’s opinions about his religion. It is obvious that Jake cares a lot about Cohn, but doesn’t really respect him. Furthermore, he describes him as a stubborn man whom as a young chap had low confidence and anxiety problems. Cohn’s wife, Frances, doesn’t exactly make the feelings any less obvious. On the contrary, she is mean and bitter.

As for the narrator, Jake, he is an impotent man (probably from an injury he got in the war), madly in love with the sassy Lady Brett, a British aristocratic woman. Jake has developed substantial insecurity about his manhood because of the impotence, which he never speaks of. There is a scene in the beginning of chapter three where Jake, in company with a prostitute named Georgette, sits in a cab and Georgette makes a pass at him. Jakes says that she shouldn’t bother and he feels mortified.

Well, the beginning of this book is not particularly exciting. However, I am familiar with the plot of the book since earlier, (even though it is roughly reduced) and may therefor have some kind of overview of what might happen next. As I understand, this is a love story, perhaps a quite destructive and sad one, but nevertheless a love story. Why the book is titled “Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises”, is not very clear yet, but the first specific word “Fiesta” in the beginning of the title indicates that the plot will move from its location in Paris to a hotter country in the south. In addition, one or two bullfighting moments further in the book, should not be precluded.