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(14) "'For God's sake,' he said, 'why did you say that about that girl in Strasbourg for? Didn't you see Frances?'
(17) "'The Purple Land' is a very sinister book if read too late in life. It recounts splendid imaginary amorous adventures of a perfect English gentleman in an intensely romantic land, the scenery of which is very well described. For a man to take it at thirty-four as a guide-book to what life holds is about as safe as it would be for a man of the same age to enter Wall Street direct from a French convent, equipped with a complete set of the more practical Alger books."
(19) "'Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that.'" >>> I find it interesting that Jake thinks this: he doesn't want to travel in order to find meaning in his life, even though his life is pretty meaningless as it is -- he and his friends wander from party to party, one place to another, and it seems like he's trying to "get away from himself" by drinking so excessively every night.
(24) "'It's a shame you're sick. We get on well. What's the matter with you, anyway?'
(33-34) "'I can't stand it.'
(39) "'You, a foreigner, an Englishman' (any foreigner was an Englishman) 'have given more than your life.'" >>> It's sad that because Jake is unable to have sex that someone would believe that he might as well be dead.
(46-47) "'Sit down,' I said. 'Don't be a fool.'
(50-51) "'Hello, Robert,' Harvey said. 'I was just telling Jake here that you're a moron.'
(64) "'And when you're divorced, Lady Ashley, then you won't have a title.'
(65) "'Nice of you,' said Brett. 'Mummy would be pleased. Couldn't you write it out, and I'll send it in a letter to her.'
(67) "'You see, Mr. Barnes, it is because I have lived very much that now I can enjoy everything so well. Don't you find it like that?'" >>> Like Harvey Stone, the Count is also a foil to Jake and his friends. Unlike them, the count seems to have an actual, deep appreciation of life -- he is also able to appreciate Brett and understand that he can't just keep her for himself and instead just likes her for what she is. Although he drinks, he does so to enjoy it, not to try and escape from reality. (99) "After a while we came out of the mountains, and there were trees along both sides of the road, and a stream and ripe fields of grain, and the road went on, very white and straight ahead, and then lifted to a little rise, and off the left was a hill with an old castle, with buildings close around it and a field of grain going right up to the walls and shifting in the wind." >>> The changing scenery parallels the mens' transition from their city lives in Paris to the time that Jake and Bill will eventually have while fishing. In the downtown city of Paris, the men seem pretty unhappy, merely wandering pointlessly, but as they transition to their lives in the country, they seem to grow gradually happier.
(103) "I was such a rotten Catholic, but realized there was nothing I could do about it, at least for a while, and maybe never, but that anyway it was a grand religion, and I only wished I felt religious and maybe I would the next time." >>> Jake's desire to truly believe in a religion and feel it attests to his desire to find some purpose in his life -- he seems to want to be a Catholic just so that it appears that he feels something deeper, even though this is untrue.
(120) "'You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed by sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes.'
(127) "'Let no man be ashamed to kneel here in the great out-of-doors. Remember the woods were God's first temples. Let us kneel and say: 'Don't eat that, Lady -- that's Mencken.'
(128-129) "'Listen, Jake.' He said, 'are you really a Catholic?'
(137) "Somehow it was taken for granted that an American could not have aficion. He might simulate it or confuse it with excitement, but he could not really have it... At once he forgave me all my friends. Without his ever saying they were simply a little something shameful between us, like the spilling open of the horses in bull fighting." >>> Says something about the American attitude -- applies even today, I believe. Also it is interesting that Jake recognizes that he needs to be "forgiven" for his friends; although he maybe lost the sense of knowing what he or his friends are doing, at least he recognizes it.
(138) "'They let the bulls out of the cages one at a time, and they have steers in the corral to receive them and keep them from fighting, and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like old maids trying to quiet them down.'
(148) "'[Cohn] calls her Circe,' Mike said. 'He claims she turns men into swine. Damn good. I wish I were one of these literary chaps.'" >>> Again with how Cohn has extremely romantic, out-dated ways of handling situations that turns people off. I partially think that he doesn't understand how to act because he was never a part of the war like the other men.
(150) "It was like certain dinners I remember from the war. There was much wine, an ignored tension, and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening. Under the win I lost the disgusted feeling and was happy. It seemed they were all such nice people." >>> The core of why he and his friends drink so much -- to lose the disgusted feeling they suffer through and achieve this sort of false happiness.
"He could not stop looking at Brett. It seemed to make him happy. It must have been pleasant for him to see her looking so lovely, and know he had been away with her and that everyone knew it." (p.150) >>> Robert Cohn is never really a 'part of the group,' but he feels an inner satisfaction by being with Bret. No one can take that away from him, even though he is made fun of and criticized.
"There is no reason why because it is dark you should look at things differently from when it is light." (p. 151) >>> The nighttime gives people a chance to realize things and think about their lives. The day is usually filled up with activities so you don't have time to think about the problems in your life. But at night, Jake feels the pain of his disability because he is alone and has time to think about his lonliness.
"'Where are the foreigners?' Robert Cohn asked." (p158) >>> This is another instance where Robert Cohn tries to "be with the in crowd," acting as though he is one of the insiders who couldn't possibly be considered a foreigner. He takes on an aura of superiority and
knowingness, adding to his distaste from others.
"Everything became quite unreal finally and it seemed as though nothing could have any consequences. It seemed out of place to think of consequences during the fiesta." (p. 158) >>> The fiesta is one big illusion. People are partying and drinking and they don't have any concept of reality. No one is thinking about work or their "real" lives, but instead they are living in an alternate reality in the cities of Spain.
"The cafe did not make this same noise at any other time, no matter how crowded it was. This hum went on, and we were in it and a part of it." (p165) >>> The characters in the story are always searching for something greater: a larger importance in life. In this scene they are feeling part of something greater. They are fulfilling the idea that life takes on meaning when it encompasses a movement that includes being part of something greater.
"I stood up. I had heard them talking from a long way away. It all
seemed like some bad play." (p. 196) >>> Life is like that at times. Incidents induce drama that makes life feel like a scene from a bad play; everything is blown out of proportion and things are made more tragic than they actually are.
"He talked of his work as something altogether apart from himself. There was nothing conceited or braggartly about him." >>> Romero has admirable qualities as a bull fighter. He is not self-centered or boastful, but instead tranquil and humble. This adds to his success because he does not let himself become too filled with pride.
"Pedro Romero had the greatness. He loved bull-fighting, and I think he loved the bulls, and I think he loved Brett. Everything of which he could control the locality he did in front of her all that afternoon. Never once did he look up. He made it stronger that way, and did it for himself, too, as well as for her. Because he did not look up to ask if it pleased he did it all for himself inside, and it strengthened him." (p.220) >>> Romero was in a strong mental state for bull fighting. This is greatly why people were afraid Brett would break his focus.
"If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little
money...I was back in France." (p. 237) >>> Returning to France, Jake is faced with fake values. After his time in Spain where life is more real or enjoyable, Jake must transition back into the materialistic society of France where things are, for the most part, based on money.
"The waiter seemed a little offended about the flowers of the Pyrenees, so I overtipped him. That made him happy." (p. 237) When he returns to France, Jake is reminded how superficial people are; he is pleased with the idea of being able to buy someone off, unlike in Spain where the locals are less consumed with the aspect of money.
In bull fighting the crowd is looking for how "on the edge" the fighter can be. Men and women admire the fighters, while the men have a greater appreciation for the fight. There are three stages to fighting (called teceros):
1. De la corrida del toros: study the bull by gauging its strength. The torreador lets the bull pass by using the big cape.
2. Picadors come in with horses and spears to tire the animal out
3. The bull fighter kills the bull with one thrust.
All this is done because people are fascinated to watch someone face death and in turn survive: the torreador looks vulnerable.
"Oh Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together."
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Copyright May 28, 2008 Marie M. Furnary All rights reserved.
contributions from: Kirsten, Jamie
Chapter I
'No, why should I? If I know an American girl that lives in Strasbourg what the hell is it to Frances?'
'It doesn't make any difference. Any girl. I couldn't go, that would be all.'" >>> A reoccurring theme in The Sun Also Rises is the way that the women overpower the men -- Frances here controls Robert Cohn, while Brett freely toys with the men in her life -- even her appearance is described as masculine. Most of the men in the novel seem to have switched their stereotypical roles with the women.
Chapter II
Chapter III
'I got hurt in the war.' >>> This is the first time Jake alludes to his injury that has left him unable to have sex -- I believe that this injury further relates to the theme of the insecurity men feel in their masculinity after the war.
'He's a fool,' Georgette said.
'Oh, it was a joke, then,' Mrs. Braddocks said.
'Yes,' said Georgette. 'To laugh at.'
'Did you hear that, Henry?' Mrs. Braddocks called down the table to Braddocks. 'Mr. Barnes introduced his fiancee as Mademoiselle Leblanc, ad her name is actually Hobin.'" >>> This is a perfect example of the sort of "nothing", drunken conversations Jake and his friends have frequently -- they essentially make strings of "witty ' cliches and basically talk about nothing. Their conversations like these attest to the pointlessness of their lives.
Chapter IV
'Oh, Brett.'
'You mustn't. You must know. I can't stand it, that's all. Oh, darling, please understand!'
'Don't you love me?'
'Love you? I simply turn all to jelly when you touch me.'
'Isn't there anything we can do about it?...Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it.'" >>> The second illusion to Jake's impotence. Also shows the way that although Brett truly loves Jake, she is unwilling to give up sex.
Chapter V
'You've got to take that back.'
'Oh, cut out the prep-school stuff.'
'Take it back.'
'Sure. Anything. I never heard of Brett Ashley. How's that?'
'No. Not that. About me going to hell.'
'Oh, don't go to hell,' I said. 'Stick around. We're just starting lunch.'
Cohn smiled again and sat down. He seemed glad to sit down. What the hell would he have done if he hadn't sat down? 'You say such damned insulting things, Jake.'
'I'm sorry. I've got a nasty tongue. I never mean it when I say nasty things.'
'I know it,' Cohn said. 'You're really about the best friend I have, Jake.'
God help you, I thought.'" >>> Cohn's ideas about the way things should be conducted and taken cared of are fairly romantic and outdated -- like demanding that Jake apologize for telling him to go to hell before he'll sit down, even though he barged in on Jake at work; it is part of the reason that others dislike him so much. This also shows the way that Jake acts in one way that is opposite to the way he truly thinks or feels.
Chapter VI
'What do you mean?...You're awfully funny, Harvey,' Cohn said.
'Some day somebody will push your face in.'
Harvey Stone laughed. 'You think so. They won't, though. Because it wouldn't make any difference to me. I'm not a fighter.'
'It would make a difference to you if anybody did it.'
'No, it wouldn't. That's where you make your big mistake. Because you're not intelligent.'" >>> Harvey Stone is the opposite of Jake and his friends in the sense that he actually says what he thinks instead of running away from what he feels and saying things he doesn't believe.
Chapter VII
'No,' said the count. 'You don't need a title. You got class all over you.'"
'I'd tell her too,' said the count. 'I'm not joking you.'"
contributions from: Kirsten, Katie
Chapter X
Chapter XII
'It sounds like a swell life,' I said. 'When do I work?'
'You don't work. One group claims women support you. Another group claims you're impotent.'
'No,' I said. 'I just had an accident'...
'Listen. You're a hell of a good guy, and I'm fonder of you than anybody on earth. I couldn't tell you that in New York. It'd mean I was a faggot. That was what the Civil War was about.'" >>> The way that Bill jokingly describes Jake is dead on. Also, it's interesting that out in the countryside the men are able to experience real brotherhood: Jake is able to talk about his accident and Bill is able to tell Jake that he's fond of him -- while in New York he would be called a faggot. His statement about the Civil War suggests that these ideas about men being less masculine originated after the war.
'Here,' I said. 'Utilize a little of this.' We uncorked the other bottle." >>> Out in the country, the men are able to find a certain peace in "God's first temples" -- for example, while they still drink, it's not the same as when they're in Paris -- their drinking seems to be more for pleasure rather than escape.
'Technically.'
'What does that mean?'
'I don't know.'" >>> Again, back to the way that Jake wants to be able to feel something with some religion, some purpose, but is unable to understand what it really means.
Chapter XIII
'Do they every gore the steers?'
'Sure. Sometimes they go right after them and kill them.'
'Can't the steers do anything?'
'No. They're trying to make friends.'
'What do they have them in for?'
'To quiet down the bulls and keep them from breaking their horns against the stone walls, or goring each other.'" >>> Jake reminds me of the steers: he is often the one smoothing over situations between his friends -- he doesn't really seem to have another purpose other than this; I wonder if this reference of goring the steers will relate to Jake's future...maybe not.
contributions from: Kelsey
"'Yes,' I said. 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'" (p. 251) >>> By ending with this phrase, Hemingway connotes the idea that life is a romance, maybe all of life is a fantasy, an illusion. Love the real killer. >>> Because of Jake's disability, he knows that he could never satisfy Brett and even though they seemingly love each other, it wouldn't have worked out. Their relationship is simply a dream or a fantasy, but not something that could survive in reality.
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