The Sun Also Rises has ended and I'm still confused about Cohn's role in this story. Jake clearly hates him, as do all of the other characters, but the reason for this hatred isn't as obvious to me as it used to be. Cohn is obnoxious, that's for sure. He's overly chivalrous, especially in defending Brett's honor: "'I didn't ask you to insult her.' ...He stood up from the table his face white, and stood there white and angry behind the little plates of hors d'oeuvres" (p47). He comes off as arrogant to the others, and he doesn't have the best grip on his emotions, as seen when he beats up Romero after discovering him with Brett. He's a little too self-assured and not a particularly interesting guy. That being said, I don't think Cohn deserved all the verbal abuse, from Jake and Mike in particular. They aren't so subtle in letting him know they don't want him around, which must be kind of hard to hear considering Cohn's idea of his relationship with Jake: "You're really about the best friend I have, Jake" (47).
Over the course of the book I found myself starting to feel bad for Cohn because of all the insults he gets from people, and the fact that his emotional response to Brett dumping him isn't that outlandish to me. While obviously the outsider to Jake's friend group, I don't actually think he's that strange, he's maybe easier to relate to than the others. He's kind of the only sane one in this weird group of people. He isn't constantly wasted, he is understandably a little grossed out by the violence of the bullfights, and he actually wants real friendships and romantic relationships with people. Is it so crazy for Cohn to expect Brett to acknowledge him after they lived together and publicly had a romantic relationship? It's not like Brett ended it, she just expects all her lovers to understand she doesn't actually love them, whereas Cohn "can't believe it didn't mean anything"(185). The scene where Cohn is in his room crying may be a little pathetic, but I feel like Cohn's emotions are pretty much justified, even if his actions in punching Jake and Mike aren't. "Cohn was crying. There he was, face down on the bed, crying" (197). I personally wasn't super into the rest of the characters drowning their sorrows in alcohol and pretending their ironic humor made up for their lack of purpose, so Cohn actually having a humane reaction to his circumstances was almost a relief. I still don't like Cohn, but it's hard for me to agree with Jake about Cohn when Cohn's reactions are almost reasonable. The uncomfortable ethnic prejudices coming from Jake and Mike that seem to intensify over the course of the novel also make it difficult for me to go along with their hatred of him.
I think there are some similarities between Jake and Cohn too. They both fall for Brett, obviously, but they also don't seem to enjoy drinking and partying as much as the others do, and both do have emotional breakdowns at some point (Jake in his bed in Paris, thinking about Brett), granted Jake is considerably better at hiding his emotions than Cohn. Jake is also not nearly as cruel towards Cohn as Mike is, which I think is significant, Mike comparing Cohn to a steer in the bullfighting ring: "'Tell me, Robert. Why do you follow Brett around like a poor bloody steer? Don't you know you're not wanted?'" I think Cohn's inclusion in the story is maybe a bit of a critique of this society that doesn't really seem to care about anything. Or maybe it's just to show us something about Jake's character: that even though he plays this cool and collected guy who has accepted his circumstances and independence, he'd be "as big an ass as Cohn" if he really did have a chance with Brett (185). Maybe Cohn is there to show us what would have happened between Jake and Brett, while keeping the dignity of our protagonist relatively in tact.
I like the idea of Cohn being in the story to represent how Jake might have turned out in different circumstances. In that case, though, I guess I almost feel bad for him BECAUSE he never got to be his own character? That and Jake is an opinionated narrator, which isn't unexpected of course, but his willingness to insult Cohn got a little off-putting.
ReplyDeleteI get where you are coming from regarding Cohn’s importance. I didn’t really think that much of it at first, but after reading your post, all the observations were a lot more noticeable. I agree that Cohn is kind of just the punching bag of the group. He’s kind of like the kid that everyone would hang out with just because they have a car, and can drive them to places. What I found really interesting although was the fact that you think his and Brett’s relationship could be a representation of what Brett and Jake could’ve had. I never really saw it in that way. But it is an interesting conflict and I feel that Cohn’s reaction to Brett ending things would be similar to Jake’s when he discovered that Brett was probably cheating on him while they were together. And she’s probably going to cheat, she even says so.
ReplyDeleteI think of Cohn as a reference to a different way of living. Jake, Mike, Brett, and Bill all lives this non-stop party lifestyle in which nothing is literal and no one is truly dependable. Cohn, I think is a more solid person. He doesn't waver in his opinions and he takes everything at face value. This is probably why the others don't like him. They don't experience the world the same way. He sees things as they are and doesn't think twice. They are too drunk to even think once. He really doesn't fit in, and its unfortunate that he fell in love with Brett, because it destroyed him emotionally. I just don't think he's cut out for a wishy-washy world where relationships can be thrown away like nothing.
ReplyDeleteYou touch on a very important insight at the end here: perhaps Jake's strong feelings about Cohn, or his eagerness, from the first paragraph, to assert how *unlike* Cohn he is, have something to do with some deeper perception of similarity here. Jake badly doesn't want to be like Cohn, and he realizes that in some ways, he is. He just knows how to play it off better in public--keeping his feelings closely guarded, rather than wearing them on his sleeve (which is SO embarrassing!).
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