Jake's Feelings Toward His Friend Robert Cohn example essay topic

Sex, Alcohol and Fights Throughout The Sun Also Rises we learn about many different relationships between Jake and his friends. Due to Jake's inability to have sex he seems to be the most pure of all the characters. He is able to accept the fact that he and Brett will never be together. While he seems to be the most pure of all the characters, his relationships with his closest two friends are the most fake. What are the reasons for Jake's awkward relationships with Brett and Cohn?

Could Jake be jealous of the relationship between Cohn and Brett? It is clear that Lady Brett Ashley is anything but a lady. She is a nice person but she can't resist a nice man that she finds attractive; and she has many of these men in her life. Brett is not happy with her life or her surroundings and seeks comfort in the arms of these men. But her actions seem always to end up hurting her, and she runs back to Jake. Jake knows that he will never be able to have her for his own, and he accepts this as fact.

This is clear when the Count asks them "why don't you get married, you two?" (68). To this question they give the pathetic halfhearted answers, "We want to lead our own lives" and "We have our careers". (68) Which implies that it will never happen. He is tolerant of her behavior because he loves her very much and is willing to overlook everything she does.

Jake's willingness to look past and forgive Brett's sexual lifestyle hurts him inside and it all builds up to greater hurt for him in the end. He always treats her with the same "anything goes, as long as you eventually come back to me", attitude. Jake is forced to accept living in this seemingly terrible way for more than one reason. He is a weak person socially, but he is also physically disabled because of the injury that he suffered during the war.

The first time we see the impact it has on his life is when he says to Georgette "I was hurt in the war" (24) in reference to why they cannot have physical relations. His injury is one that makes him insecure, but worse than that, it allows Brett to have almost complete control over him. Jake and Brett need each other emotionally, but Brett feels that she needs more than an intellectual relationship. That's why she has sex with men such as Cohn.

Jake's feelings toward his friend Robert Cohn are a combination of jealousy, compassion, understanding, and hate. These are a very unusual group of feelings for a person to have toward one person, but this is what makes their friendship so interesting. Jake knew of Cohn's relationship with Brett and he hated it, but at the same time he knew that Cohn would never end up with her. He had been close friends with Cohn, and had been through a similar situation with Brett, so he had both compassion and understanding for Cohn's position.

The only problem was the way he held his feelings inside. Cohn also could not stand to see Brett with another man, but he displayed this much differently than Jake. Robert's presence bothered Jake even though they had been close friends. Robert backs out of a fishing trip to find Brett, and Bill makes a comment about that being a good thing.

Jake's only reply is "You " re damn right" (108). Cohn makes a fool out of himself because of his obsession with Brett. He even beats up Jake at one point. Behavior like this was impossible for Jake to respect and he hated this part of Robert.

None of this would have even been a problem if Cohn could just have excepted that he would not be with Brett. Brett should not have gotten away with acting the way she did, while maintaining her social status, which clearly meant a great deal to her. She should have had to choose between sex or friends. The relationship that Jake and Brett share is one that would seem completely unrealistic in today's time, but to them, it was acceptable. Jake no doubt would have preferred to have it differently, but he is accepting of the way it is.

Jake and Brett's love is the best relationship between any of the characters in the book but because they can't have the sex it turns into a very ugly relationship. Jake's best friend, Cohn, brings out the worst in him. In his relationship with him you see the envy and hatred the he has inside.