If there is one thing which the characters of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises are good at, it is being miserable, especially considering that they spend most of the novel on vacation in Spain, partying. Yet, no one is really happy. They play fast and loose with alcohol, attraction, and money throughout the entire novel – they drink to much, they spend their time circling attractive potential suitors, and they spend a lot of money. All of these activities create danger for them. Mike, for instance, who is bankrupt and being sought after by people for money, continues to spend and borrow. All the characters of core group are doing one thing: they are striving to hold a purity of line. “I told her how since the death of Joselito all the bull-fighters had been developing a technique that simulated this appearance of danger in order to give a fake emotional feeling, while the bull-fighter was really safe. Romero had the old thing, the holding of his purity of line through the maximum of exposure” (Hemingway 172). Though Jake is speaking the line to explain the bull-fighting style of Romero, it also applies to the members of their group as they all strive to hold a purity of line around the things which present the most danger to them. The only character who becomes an exception to this is Cohn. We can see the importance of the purity of line and how much it dictates the actions of the characters through their hatred of Cohn. They hate him because he is publicly failing to hold the purity of line. It’s important to note that his failure alone is not enough reason to hate him, because really they all fail at this, but it is the fact that he doesn’t hide it. Yet in many ways Cohn is a foil to Jake, and whereas they both fail to hold the purity of line for similar reasons, Jake fails privately, which seems to be, according to these characters, the more respectable thing to do.
Though Jake says throughout the novel that he hates Cohn, and everyone else in the group criticizes him both behind his back and to his face, there are a lot of similarities between Jake and Cohn, all of which come down to their holding a purity of line. For starters, they’re both in love with Brett and are incapable of leaving her side. This is the danger which they inflict on themselves, and which they ought to show no injury over or flinch from, at least in Jake’s perspective. He says of Cohn: “That damn Cohn… He was so sure that Brett loved him. He was going to stay, and true love would conquer all” (Hemingway 202). He says this to disparage Cohn’s foolishness, and yet, isn’t Jake doing something similar? He knows that he cannot be with Brett, she’s made this clear to him before, like when she turns down his request of living together (Hemingway 62). However, he still is always by her side. To be fair, Brett wants to have Jake around whereas she is trying to get rid of Cohn, but the point still stands that both men are sticking around something they can’t have, and therefore brings them emotional pain. Jake is unsatisfied in his relationship with Brett due to his injury and subsequent inability to have sex with her in the same way that Cohn faces a dissatisfaction with her progressive and open view of relationships. This is dangerous for both Jake and Cohn, as their hearts are greatly invested into this matter and therefore are left vulnerable to emotional wounds. Inevitably, both men fail. Though the group strives towards a purity of line, this seems impossible for any of them to achieve. However, the important distinction is that Jake fails in a private way, whereas Cohn fails out in the open for everyone to see. This fuels their hatred of him.
Jake’s failures come quietly, and for the most part when he is alone. The first time we see Jake’s calm and strong exterior break is when he cries in his room in Paris. “I lay awake thinking and my mind jumping around. Then I couldn’t keep away from it, and I started to think about Brett and all the rest of it went away. I was thinking about Brett and my mind stopped jumping around and started to go in sort of smooth waves. Then all of a sudden I began to cry” (Hemingway 39). This moment comes after Brett goes off with the count, and Jake returns to his room alone and begins to think about his injury and his impotence and Brett. He’s thinking about how much he loves her, and yet how he will never be able to be with her. Furthermore, to have her always around him keeps this pain always just below the surface. However, he never shows this feeling publicly. Instead, he sticks by Brett’s side always as her friend and closest companion, even going so far as to set her up with another man when they are in Spain. He does this despite hating to see her with other men. After all, even though he never really seems to like Cohn a lot, he doesn’t begin to actively root against him and hate him until he finds out about Cohn and Brett’s trip to San Sebastian together. Jake is the bull-fighter aficionado in the group, it is he that calls out and praises Romero’s purity of line in the first place, and it is clearly a kind of courage and elegance which he thinks it is necessary to strive for in life. Rather than admit defeat, he continues to repeat the same “nightmare” as he calls it (Hemingway 71). During the day, he keeps up a façade of collectedness, but when he is on his own, we see how fragile that façade really is.
On the contrary, Cohn allows everyone around him to see when he is upset. He fails to hold the purity of line entirely. In fact, it’s probably fair to say that he was never really striving for it like the others and like Jake, however he still finds himself stuck in the same pattern of staying close to danger. Cohn, unfortunately, really loves Brett, and he believes that their time together must have meant something. He is wrong, but all the same his hope and his love for Brett keep him around as with Jake. However, whereas Jake has his breakdowns quietly in his own room, Cohn has them out in the open for everyone to see. The big moment with Cohn happens between him and Jake after Jake has hooked Brett up with Romero. In a way, this scene reveals to us exactly the difference between Cohn and Jake’s approach to the problem. Jake is attempting to hold his purity of line – he is acting unbothered about the whole affair, and even plays dumb to Cohn about it because he doesn’t want Cohn to know what’s going on (and for good reason, as Cohn clearly can’t handle the information). Cohn’s response is to yell, “I’ll make you tell me, you damned pimp,” and then punch Jake in the face (Hemingway 193). After this, he goes to Brett and Romero and punches Romero repeatedly while pouring his heart out to Brett. When Jake finds him later, he’s crying in his room and trying to apologize to Jake, who is having none of it. And while Cohn’s actions are not admirable, they are honest in a way that the others are not. Cohn cries in front of them, makes his desires clear, and literally attempts to fight for what he wants. He makes no attempt to appear unaffected or uninjured by danger and injury.
It’s tempting to read this novel with a focus on the damage that had been done to each person by outside forces, like with Jake’s war injury. However, the passage on the purity of line opens up a new way to see the novel. After all, though most of them faced incredible trauma in the past, their actions in the present do nothing to promote their own wellbeing. Furthermore, there is an obsession with veiling your true feelings and wounds, and instead keeping up an image of calmness. No one wants to look like they’re flinching around a threat, either because they don’t want to admit weaknesses to others or to themselves or both. It is interesting that Cohn, who was not in the war, seemingly has no desire to hold the purity of line which the others strive for. In fact, he really doesn’t seem to have a concept of it, or perhaps he would realize all the social taboos he breaks. It is Brett who says, “I hate his damned suffering” (Hemingway 186), but what she hates more is that he shows his suffering. The difference may be subtle, but it’s an important one because they are all really suffering in this novel but simply don’t want to show it. Furthermore, they keep themselves in circles of drunkenness and unhappiness, surrounded by the very things which bring them pain. If they are a “lost generation”, it is perhaps that they are “lost” and unable to find any way to live anymore that does not depend on danger and a purity of line. They live their lives in extreme conditions. Because really, why else turn your vacation from a vacation into such a nightmare? It’s because wherever you go, you keep playing by the same rules you subscribe to, the same view on life. That you mustn’t pull back from danger, nor let it hurt you. You remain untouched and unmoved by the danger which surrounds you – an impossible goal.
Works Cited:
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Scribner, 2006.
Olivia Michael Tarman 