Cab rides

       Brett and Jake have a very strange relationship that is very hard to understand. The last lines of the book are very revealing. They are very similar to the first passage, they are in a cab together lamenting how they can't be together but the tones of the scenes share some similarities but also differences. In both scenes Jake's sadness is very apparent in the first scene they skrt around the topic of Jake's injury. Jake is begging to be together with Brett trying desperately pleading and barganing but she says no. His injury is too limiting for the relationship to work.

     Brett continues to rely on Jake emotionally. He sacrifcies time and puts in a lot of effort despite being told it won't work. Despite trying to be hard boiled he continues to try to help her. He seems to be slowly realizing that he is more and more like Cohn and the other guys he sees as unmasculine. To me it seems like Jake is losing his grasp on his facade. Near the end of the book this is compounded. He seems to be ok when Brett isn't around but he always trys to see her and she is slowly dominating his life and all of those aspects. He has let her into bull fighting and he is losing all of his "street cred" just to help her. Then when it goes south he has to bail her out. 

     The ending portion of the book is Jake coming to terms with this. Again it's a scene in the cab with Brett and Jake. But this time Jake is done begging. He doesn't beg and insted makes a snide remark. Brett says that they could have had such a nice time. I think that the usage of time instead of life or relationship makes me think that this would be founded on sex instead of emotions. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2018 at 7:54 PM

    Let's be real, Jake is in the opposite of the friend zone: no benefits with ALL of the emotional baggage. Do you think he is coming to terms with this, much like some people accept they will always be in the friend zone? In a way, he's being used, but I also feel like the end of the book suggests he kind of enjoys his role? (at least more than he did at the beginning)

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  2. Anya Kaplan-HartnettSeptember 30, 2018 at 9:18 AM

    Throughout the novel, Brett tries to find Jake again and again. In the first chapters, Brett says she's leaving, but then shows up at Jake's apartment at like four in the morning. While in Pamplona, she seeks him out and confides in him about her love for Romero. Then, near the end, she sends a telegram begging for his help. Through each of these incidents, we can see that Brett really needs Jake for his friendship, emotional support, and money. While Jake might not need Brett in the same ways, his profound love for her means that he'll always help her out whenever she needs him. This may seem like a one-way friendship, but I think Jake knows that and is willing to help anyways.

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  3. Robert NagelOctober 5, 2018 at 6:35 PM

    I think an important moment in Jake's development in The Sun Also Rises is when Montoya and the other Aficionados give Jake the cold shoulder. The narration makes very little mention of it, but I think it has a big impact on Jake. The loss of his passion, as well as the rest of the fiasco at the fiesta challenges him, and after he recuperates in San Sebastian, his perspective has changed, allowing him to be snide about the idea of a relationship with Brett.

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  4. Nic RamkumarOctober 13, 2018 at 9:41 PM

    I think that Brett's character isn't so much a referendum on putting sex before emotional stability in the foundation of a relationship as it is showing the cynical attitude that Hemingway had about love following World War I. Brett has a lot of emotional baggage following seeing her partner die and then marrying an abusive man. I feel like Hemingway is suggesting that typical romanticized ideals of love aren't possible in a post war world.

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