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.
Posted in
conflict,
Count M,
Jake Barnes,
Lady Brett Ashley,
lovers,
Mike,
Robert Cohn,
Romero
"I know. Please don't remember it. I was crazy."
"That's all right."
He was crying. His voice was funny. He lay there in his white shirt on the bed in the dark. His polo shirt. [page 198].
I like the sense of parallelism that these sentences are written in-- He/His/He/His. Cohn has a major break down at this point in the story after he beats up Romero. He finally realizes that Brett will never love him no matter what he does. He breaks down to Jake and says he is going away. I believe his pain would be too much to bear if he stayed around Brett any longer. It can't be easy to hear that the love of his love does not love him, and yet he does not even know that Jake is in the same boat. Jake, though, is good at hiding it and not even thinking about his loving emotions toward Brett. Come to think of it, he only thinks toward Brett in an angry matter and not in a very loving manner even though he will do anything for her.
These characters are all fickle and it's kind of annoying after a while. I want to yell at them, "Get a back bone!"
Posted in
break down,
Jake Barnes,
parallelism,
Robert Cohn
"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!
Posted in
Lady Brett Ashley,
motivation,
Robert Cohn
"I must have been sleeping," he said."Oh, not at all," Brett said."You were only dead," Bill said. [page 163].Everyone is mean to Cohn. Granted, he generally deserves it, but everyone is still mean to him. This little understatement shows how Bill is so sarcastic, espcially toward Cohn whenever possible. He is their scapegoat and the one they make fun of the most. In this chapter, he was passed out while the others are drinking wine from the new wine skins the Americans are buying. Brett never passes out even though I'm pretty positive that she could drink the rest of the men under the table. Cohn on the other hand seems to be quite the lightweight for the tough guy he is. For a boxer, you'd think he could handle more alcohol in his system, but it seems to be just the opposite. Either that or he just endulges way too much every single time.
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alcohol,
lightweight,
Robert Cohn,
understatement
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.
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brothel,
Frances,
juxtaposition,
Lady Brett Ashley,
Mike,
Robert Cohn
"Spider Kelly taught all his young gentlemen to box like featherweights, no matter they weighed one hundred and five or two hundreded and five pounds," [page 1].I have found many literary devices in this novel, but they do not all have enough to write about to make them separate entries, so I will most likely be combining them. The above quote is a very interesting simile to me because this boxing coach is only mentioned in the first few paragraphs of the first chapter, yet he seems to have gained many people's respect. He comes off as a man kind of like the fighting coach in the movie Never Back Down who is very well respected and successful. It is even more interesting that Spider Kelly taught Robert Cohn how to box because he is known for raising respectable men and Cohn has not been portrayed as respectable whatsoever."...and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like old maids trying to quiet them down," [page 138]This is figurative language that speaks of how the bullfighting system works with the picadors, bulls, and steer. I was shocked at how nonchalant the main characters acted when they watched numerous men killed by bulls. It reminds me of gladiator fights in coliseums, except those were man vs. man while these fights are man vs. bull. I honestly don't have an interest in the bullfighting sequences that were explained in this book. I'm all for non-brutality here.
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bullfighting,
figurative language,
Never Back Down,
Robert Cohn,
simile
With the due date for these blogs only a week away...I suppose I should actually start to type them up. "I can't stand it to think my life is going so fast and I'm not really living it," [page 18]Ahh yes. Never have there been truer words than Robert Cohn's. Honestly, that's kind of how I have been feeling lately with the summer ending, school beginning, and college applications becoming available. It's always nice to know that you are not the only one who is afraid that life is going to catch up with them.Robert Cohn. Not one of my favorite people. I like him more at the very very beginning of the novel in which he is a boxer at Princeton and is still somewhat likeable. Then of course he changes and becomes more arrogant because of the abuse he receives since he is Jewish. It's truly amazing to me how the world can decide to pick on a certain race or religion with nothing to back it. Why do they/we put so much energy into hating other people? It just seems so pointless and silly when you think about it--and yet it still continues and always will. I'm just sick of discrimination and people not accepting others. Can't the world just get a grip and grow up? Show a little maturity and professionalism toward the rest of the world.Okay, off my soap box now. On to the next one! :]
Posted in
discrimination,
life going too fast,
Robert Cohn
