Lovely Literature

Ahh the final lines of the novel make the book slightly worth it. While I did not like this book much at all, I loved the ending.

"Oh Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
"Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"

That's just a wonderful line to end on. I feel encouraged after Jake's last line because he seems to have seen somewhat of a new light. I think he is saying to her, well it's your fault we aren't together so don't complain to me. At the same time, he sounds somewhat like Bogart in an old time movie. "Isn't it pretty to think so?" It can mean so much, but it's up to the reader to interpret what would come next. Yes, it's a beautiful vision to pretend like they are in love, but if they were still in love they would not be having that conversation. Brett must have not been loved enough as a child because I don't think she is fully capable of true love.

All in all, I am extremely happy that I am finished with this book because it was kind of torturous to read this. I loved O'Brien's book, but Hemingway...not my style. My favorite part of the entire book was the ending--not just because it's over, but because of that final line.

Thank you, Jake, for making my reading experience a bit more worthwhile.

:] Seeya on Monday Costello!

As I see it, the major conflict in this entire story is love, namely so-and-so in love with Brett.

Let's count up Brett's mentioned lovers!

Jake Barnes: Our bleeding heart protagonist. He's a struggling writer/journalist who was changed permanently from the war. He met Brett during the war while she was a nurse and he was wounded.

Michael: A lovely man who is constantly drunk, but who isn't in this story! He is engaged to Brett, but he definitely knows what he is in for. He knows that Brett fools around with other men and that she is not going to change any time soon. He even comments on how she is cheating on him with other men right in front of him.

Count M: A random Count who buys Brett some alcohol and takes her out every once in a while in Paris. Apparently she has told him that she still loves Jake and yet he is perfectly fine with fooling around with her.

Robert Cohn: Hopelessly in love with Brett--unrequited love that is. He went away with Brett for a weekend or so in San Sebastian, and he has been hooked ever since. He even beat up Romero because of his jealousy!

Romero: The young, suave bull fighter. This may be the only guy besides Jake and her previous husband that she has actually been in love with. Believe it or not, Brett suddenly was unselfish and let him go so she would not interfere with his career.

Those are the important lovers among possibly hundreds not mentioned.

"Why didn't you keep him?"
"I don't know. It isn't the sort of thing one does. I don't think I hurt him any." [page 245].

Brett never thinks she hurts her men any, but I'm pretty sure she leaves a much larger impact than what she thinks. I'm kind of over her at this point. Stop abusing love, Brett.

"He nearly killed the poor, bloody bull-fighter. Then Cohn wanted to take Brett away. Wanted to make an honest woman of her I imagine. Damned touching scene." [page 205].

Oh jealousy, what a vice it is. Cohn is cursed with that vice most of all. He wants what he wants and refuses to take anything less than just that. All he wants is Brett, but Brett does not want him. I'd feel bad for the guy if I actually liked him.

Cohn's motivation for beating up Romero was his jealousy that he had spent time with Brett. Though Cohn shouldn't be protective of Brett, he definitely is. I think he is trying to just get her to love him even though it will never happen. She put him under her spell when they traveled together, and he has been a goner ever since. There's a point in time where Cohn should get the hint that Brett doesn't want to be with him. Oh, maybe the time where she decided she was in love with Romero!

Brett is a very interesting character with multiple levels to her personality. She is a static character in this story because she starts out as an independent, slightly crazy woman who refuses to be with who she actually loves, and she manages to not change throughout the entire story.

When she is described, it is very ironic to me because I believe she is the opposite of how every man sees her. I feel as if Jake is the only one who truly sees her for who she is and that is why he can love her for so long without her love in return.

"There's a certain quality about her, a certain fineness. She seems to be absolutely fine and straight." [page 46]

I cannot see Brett as fine and straight as Cohn describes her, because she acts just the opposite.

The Count then says, "Mr. Barnes, she is the only lady I have ever known who was as charming when she was drunk as when she was sober." [page 66].

I'm not a fan of her alcohol problem and the fact that she kind of gets rewarded because of it. Well, Brett is a difficult character to handle I suppose. I think she irritates me the most because everyone puts up with her because of her looks and her charm so it is difficult for her to change because no one is forcing her to.

Lady Brett and Jake Barnes share a difficult love. He definitely loves her and wants to spend his life with her, but she pushes him away. She is extremely contradictory though because she often expresses her love for him.

"Told him I was in love with you. True too. Don't look like that. He was damn nice about it. Wants to drive us out to dinner to-morrow night. Like to go?" [page 41].

She just baffles me. I mean, I'm a girl and she truly confuses me. She acts like it's not her fault that she is promiscuous and that she cannot control her cheating...but she definitely can. And there is no good reason why she shouldn't get married to Jake. Ever since her "true" lover died, she seems to have been a mess. I think it's a call for attention. Not that I'm a psychologist or anything. Brett is obviously a beautiful woman who has a lot going for her, but she is also quite the alcoholic. It's crazy how people who look like they have it all together on the outside are usually the ones the most screwed up on the inside. Everyone has a past, and that past is not always an enjoyable one.

I have learned to love juxtapositions as well as alliterations ever since last year in Mrs. Sander's class when it took me forever to understand what a juxtaposition actually was. Now that I understand them, I find them quite often.

"And if he marries me, like he's always promised he would, that would be the end of all the romance."

On page 58, Frances is speaking to Jake about Cohn's behavior toward her lately. They have been an item for many years and she is expecting marriage. Unfortunately, she knows that he will not marry her and is planning on leaving her. You would think that marriage would be the beginning of romance, but not in Frances and Cohn's case. Cohn changed in college because he was outcasted, so he had to become very tough. I feel like this gives him relationship problems with nearly everyone. Oh well, Frances is a money seeker anyway.

"We have got the loveliest hotel," Mike said. "I think it's a brothel!" [page 89].

This quote is just weird. Mike is weird character though because he is enagaged to Lady Brett, who is known for her promiscuity, and yet he has every intention of still marrying her no matter her affairs. He calls her out on the affair she has with Romero and other men that she encounters, but he does not say he wants to break off the marriage. Plus, he tends to be drunk all the time [but who isn't in this novel?], and he is constantly bankrupt.

"It's funny," I said. "it's very funny. And it's a lot of fun, too, to be in love."
"Do you think so?" her eyes looked flat again.
"I don't mean fun that way. In a way it's an enjoyable feeling."
"No," she said. "I think it's hell on earth." [page 35]

That's quite a contradictory view on love, especially coming from a woman who usually holds the optimistic view on love while the man is pessimistic. Lady Brett Ashley is obviously a very independent woman who does not appreciate weakness in herself. I think her weakness is that she is in love with this man [Jake Barnes] who she is telling herself that she cannot have.

After I finished the book, I wanted to reread the chapter summaries for certain things I did not immediately understand. One of the things I paid close attention to was Brett's love for Jake. She is such a sex-crazed, independent woman, but she is also very selfish. She refuses to allow herself to be in relationship with Jake because his injury from the war prevents him from having sex. If that's what is holding her back from marrying him...well I think that's a lame excuse. She is struggling with this internal conflict constantly, and the audience becomes aware of this at the end of chapter 2.

While this is her internal conflict, I also believe there is an external conflict between Lady Brett, Jake, and Lady Brett's lovers. There is an obvious uncertainty at whom Lady Brett actually "loves" because she has been married and divorced and now engaged to Michael, but she has all these lovers and "men on the side," and then of course Jake is a complicated situation. The relationship problems along with alcoholism definitely comes up as the big elephant in the room.