Robert Cohn

“You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.” (Hemmingway 19)

 No disrespect to Jake, but I have to say I disagree with him. The quickest way for a man to find his calling is for him to travel, until find a place that he truly feels at home. For me that place has got to be New York. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to talk Jake into going out to the city with me, I’m sure he’d love it!

Examples

Lady Brett Ashley

"It’s funny," I said. "It’s very funny. And it’s a lot of fun, too, to be in love." 

"Do you think so?" her eyes looked flat again. 

"I don’t mean fun that way. In a way it’s an enjoyable feeling." 

"No," she said. "I think it’s hell on earth." (4.4)

He's insane. It's as if he gains pleasure from this roller coaster that we're in. All I want is to be his. Jake thinks that this is a game. I'll show him how to play. Maybe he just wants my body and not my mind. After all that I've been through I'm sick and tired of men. I don't imagine there being a happily ever after or some Prince Charming. I'm my own hero. It shouldn't be so important for a woman to find a man and settle down and have a family. What's the point in being young if you can't have a little fun?

Jake Barnes

"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 cafés." (Hemingway 120)

Sigh. Yes Bill, I have lost touch with the soil. Yes, those fake standards have ruined me. I do drink myself to death, but, what do you expect? After everything that has happened- with the effects of what WWI has done to me, with Brett not staying by my side and not being able to give her what she wants- what else can I do but these things? To numb my thoughts and feelings, this is the only way. It helps me feel more of a man then I already do. Did you ever think about that Bill, have you? But please don't think you've hurt my feelings. Trust me, everything that you've said is true. I am one of the worst type of expatriates.

Jake Barnes

   "Why I felt that impulse to devil I do not know. Of course I do know. I was blind, unforgivingly jealous of what happened to him. The fact that I took it as a matter of course did not alter that any. I certainly did hate him. I do not think I ever really hated him until he had that little spell of superiority at lunch – that and when he went through all that barbering. So I put the telegram in my pocket. The telegram came to me, anyway."(Hemingway 105)

   That Jewish fool, trying to go after Brett. Brett doesn't want him. To hell with Cohn! If anything Brett wants me. I'll be damned if I see her run off with him than with me. Cohn doesn't know what he's getting himself into with Brett. He doesn't know her like I do. He's a damned fool trying to say he knows her better than I do. She'll destroy him, and he doesn't even know it. He'll see, He'll get what he deserves. To hell with Robert Cohn.  

Brett Ashley

" She [Brett] was looking into my eyes with that way she had of looking that made you wonder whether she really saw out of her own eyes. They would look on and on after every one else's eyes in the world would have stopped looking." (Hemingway 34)

I seem to charm men with my beauty and attitude. I can't help if they fall for me, but I know I'm not going to be committed. I love to have fun and party.When guys look into my eyes, it's like they have an instant attraction. They want to get know me and whats going on inside my head.Unfortunately I sometimes feel miserable. I do enjoy my time with these guys but at the end of the day I still feel unsatisfied. Jake is there for me, but hes not enough.