What Makes Jake So Special?
By Ruby Mitchell
Brett’s relationship with Jake, in contrast to all of her other relationships with men, is by far the most driven by love and respect. Brett shows an immense amount of love towards Jake, and clearly respects him more than she does any other man she knows. Brett can’t even seem to stand her own fiancée, and she is constantly coming to Jake to complain about her various love interests, lamenting how annoying and “badly behaved” they are. Jake is the man Brett always comes back to at the end of the day, the only man who doesn’t seem to annoy her, the only man she ever truly confesses she loves (while she says that she loves Romero, this love is very short lived once they go to Madrid together, and we never really see her tell Mike that she loves him, only that he is “her sort of thing”), but coincidentally, Jake is also the only man that she can never be with. Brett’s go-to seems to be sleeping with a man and discarding him, usually leaving him obsessed with her, which she finds unbearable. Considering this trajectory and Bretts inability to stay loyal to a man, especially after she’s slept with him, the natural assumption would be that she would want nothing to do with Jake. Jake has nothing to offer Brett––he is literally unable to sleep with her, and they both admit that because of that they would never be able to be together. So why does Brett always come back to Jake? He has nothing to offer her that the other men in her life don’t also have, so what makes him so special to her? I argue that the only thing that sets Jake aside from the other men in Brett’s life, and the only thing that makes her so enamored with him, is the fact that she can’t sleep with him. Coincidentally, this is the one thing keeping them from ever truly being together, but the fact that they can never truly be together is what keeps Brett coming back to Jake.
Jake has a superiority complex about himself compared to the men that Brett sleeps with. He views himself as more secure than the rest of her partners, who have all been ruined by her dismissive attitudes towards them. Though Jake prefers to view himself as above all of Brett’s other partners, he willingly admits that he would be “as big of an ass as Cohn,” responding to Brett’s assertion that he “wouldn’t behave badly” (Hemingway 185). Though Brett might assume that Jake would be much more “well behaved” than the rest of her partners, Jake understands that if he were in the position of her other partners, he would embarrass himself just as much. Whether Jake would openly admit it or not, his injury has served as a blessing in disguise for his relationship with Brett. If it weren’t for Jake’s injury, he and Brett would likely have slept together, Brett would have treated him the same as she treats every other man she sleeps with, and Jake would have become obsessed with her, and she would have left him. Jake’s inability to ever have a real relationship with Brett serves as a safety net for the heartbreak of her being with other people. Jake can’t possibly be hurt by her promiscuity because it can’t affect him; he doesn’t have a reason to care, because there was never a possibility of them being together in the first place. Because of this, Jake will never have the opportunity to make an ass of himself over Brett’s love life, and Brett will go on assuming that he is perfect, “well behaved,” and will never embarrass himself over losing his chance to be with her, because that chance never existed for him in the first place.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest, The Sun Also Rises, New York: Scribner, 2006.
I agree that Jake seems to have this emotional intelligence to him. Because he will never be with Brett due to his condition, he develops more emotionally connecting relationships rather than physical. As you hinted at, Brett just sleeps with men while they obsess over her. Jake doesn't do that, he see her as a person rather than an object. Overall, great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jake seems to have an easier time accepting the unique arrangement of his relationship with Brett than, say, Mike does--Mike claims to understand that Brett is gonna be Brett, but he gets visibly upset and jealous about both Cohn and Romero. He says he knows she will sleep with other men, even though she's "engaged" to him, but he happens to object, in this case, to them being "Jews and bullfighters." (Interestingly, he never expresses any envy or jealousy of Jake's emotionally intimate relationship with Brett--he seems to accept this with no qualms whatsoever.)
ReplyDeleteBut is it the case that Jake "can't possibly be hurt by her promiscuity"? At one point he flatly admits that he is "blindingly jealous" of "what happened to Cohn" (i.e.: BRETT "happened to" Cohn!). When he admits that, all things being equal, he too would be fully capable of acting the "ass," it's an implicit acknowledgment that he IS hurt by her affairs. He just knows better than to make a big scene about everything. Mike and Cohn "behave badly" by airing all their feelings in the street, even *fighting* for "their lady love." Jake, the stoic, sees no point in "talking about it" or whining about his sadness, so we see him get blind drunk and miserable, but he never SAYS anything about how bad he feels. I see a lot of evidence that he IS hurt, badly, but he chooses not to make Brett feel (too) guilty about hurting him--it's not her fault, it's the fault of fate. And there's no point whining about fate, according to Jake.
This is super interesting! I agree that it seems to be a "grass is always greener" situation where Brett only wants what she can't have. I don't necessarily agree, though, that his injury and the resulting situation with Brett is "a blessing in disguise" as you describe it. It's arguable whether or not Jake would be better off if he had been able to sleep with Brett and be abandoned by her. Sure, this sounds bad, but maybe that would be the only way for him to get over her. Although he doesn't show a lot of emotion throughout the novel, the times Jake is upset typically relate to Brett and the times he is happy are typically without her. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your analysis!! His injury providing a safety net as you mentioned gives him such a unique role in Brett's life. Jake and Brett's relationship felt a lot more real in comparison to the more lackluster & objectified relationships Brett had with other men. But even though Jake's role in her life is one that's likely permanent, I think it's more of a curse than a blessing. He's affected by his injury, and it takes away his sense of self, and I'd argue it's the primary cause of his superiority complex.
ReplyDeleteI really like your ideas on this. I think you are right that Jake is not given the chance to be with her and thus is not as anxious or obsessive as he paints her other suitors. Just to nit-pick though, and since I was curious, I wonder why you believe Brett finds her suitors obsessing over her as unbearable. I interpreted that she thrived from the attention and needed it to continue her ways. Both in a literal sense, as she receives money and loans from men in various countries to continue her lifestyle, but also in flattery, since she clearly enjoys the attention in several parts of the novel. The flattery and obsession is both her way of surviving and what she continues to work for. Brett might say that the attention is unbearable to her, but nothing she does and how she reacts does not reflect that statement. I would assume it is more an effort to maintain a humble and not snotty demeanor when talking to other men. And she tries to have a good demeanor so they like her more! It's all full circle... Really great post though, you brought up such thought provoking things very eloquently written. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! I was often reflecting on what would have occurred had Jake not been injured, and my conclusion was usually that it was his injury itself that made him different from all of Brett's other suitors, and established the beginnings of an emotional rather than sexual relationship between the two characters. Had he been a viable choice for Brett's relationships, he likely would have been much more dramatic and possessive of Brett as the other characters, and Brett would have treated him with the same disdain she treated many of her relationships in the novel. Great thoughts and very well-written post!
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