To be quite honest, I didn't know what to expect with The Sun Also Rises. The most exposure I've ever gotten to any of Hemingway's work was answering middle school Scholastic Bowl questions (if they mentioned "Hemingway" in the question, the answer was always "Old Man and the Sea", and vice versa). Following the enjoyable yet plotless The Mezzanine and Mrs. Dalloway, which contained plot but wasn't a book I really enjoyed reading (with the exception of Septimus's story and his influence), I was hoping for something that would be enjoyable, and have a plot which I could actually follow.
Three chapters into The Sun Also Rises, it seems like my hopes may come true. Then again, I liked As I Lay Dying and that turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments ever (frickin' Anse...only 2016 kids will get this). The novel has a character cast which is interesting, though I don't necessarily like them. Jacob has kinda come off as a douche so far, between his anti-Semitism, his homophobia, and the way in which he put down Cohn's idea of a trip to South America (sure, you may not think it's practical or worth the money, but just because "you can see all the South Americans you want in Paris" [17] doesn't mean it's the same deal...nor is his other reason that he could just go to Spain. I saw his responses, along with his thoughts on Cohn at the time, as shallow and condescending. I'm sympathetic towards Cohn, who's seemed to have been pretty successful with a couple hiccups along the way, who seemingly gets belittled by Jake every chance he gets.
Chapter 3 is also interesting with the dinner scene with the prostitute (whatever her name may be...Georgette or Hobin? more confusion, and we're barely through two chapters!), which shows us a rather odd side to Jake. Typically, from what I've seen/read/heard on prostitutes, they're typically not just rent-a-dinner-dates. I don't really know what to make of it. Jake doesn't even seem to be very interested in Georgette/Hobin, stifling conversation by claiming to be sick and having been injured in the war.Throw in his hatred towards the gay patrons, who "always made him angry", and he just keeps on looking worse and worse in my eyes. He just seems to hate or dislike everything...has there been anything which Jake has liked? I can't really think of one off of the top of my head.
So while so far the main character has not really come off as well-liked by myself (or by many others from the early classroom discussion we had), I think The Sun Also Rises has the potential to be a really good read. It's kept me captivated with some sense of a plot that is longer than an escalator ride, which is a good start. I wonder what'll happen from here on out!
I don't necessarily think that Jake's style of narration should be taken so far as to say that he dislikes everything, however, I get where you are coming from. I think that him coming off as a rude jerk and "disliking everything" is a result of his feeling of superiority and tendency to be condescending towards others, rather that it being something as simple as Jake hating all aspects of the world. While these first few chapters show a lot about Jake, I don't think we should take him for granted just yet. His interactions with Georgette and Brett are intriguing, especially those with Brett in the chapters following the opening three, and I am interested to see what will become of Jake and his domineering personality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of the things you say about Jake. He doesn't exactly seem like a kind guy. But maybe things will change. I don't know enough about him now. Even though he's not really nice, I still like him. The way he treats Cohn like a child is both humorous and upsetting. It must really suck for Cohn to feel like Jake doesn't take him seriously, but at the same time, I understand why Jake doesn't take him seriously.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that all of his prejudices paint Jake as kind of an asshole persona. But for me that's what makes him such an interesting choice for a narrator. In most of the books I've read, the narrator/protagonist is usually someone we are rooting for. I think Hemingway purposefully makes Jake someone that is not very nice and not easily liked by everyone, distinguishing him from most other narrators. Like you, I'm enjoying The Sun Also Rises so far and I hope the novel lives up to its potential.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that Jake is never going to have an emotional and revealing monologue at any point in the novel, as we've already seen that Hemingway prefers to narrate the surface action. It may be that we'll learn enough about Jake to analyze but never enough to sympathize.
ReplyDeleteI do think we're intended to more or less "share" Jake's feelings of annoyance and impatience with others--he very much digs into Cohn, for example, as if he presumes we'll understand what he's saying and agree with him. This is part of the "authority" implied in his seemingly straight-talking, unembellished narrative style. As we keep reading the novel, we start to try to "read around" Jake's narration, to see through it to figure out what it conceals as well as reveals. There's some real emotional pain here, and even if he's not going to delve into that in any detail, we can learn how to perceive it. (Now, whether this makes him any less of an asshole is up to the individual reader to determine!)
ReplyDeleteJake's bigoted tendencies and flashes are super lame and indicative of the time period, but I'm also curious as to how his personal discrimination fits in with the rest of his communities. Bill for example seems to share and maybe even exceed the amount of offensive comments, while Brett seems to be very tolerant and accepting. It'll be important to analyze how his comments go along with his comfort in certain environments as well as their effects on his conversations. Maybe a comment will get him on the wrong side of someone.
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