A Test of Masculinity

Right from the start of The Sun also Rises, we are introduced to Jake's "alpha male" attitude. He makes fun of Cohn for being a loser and is extremely upset at the sight of Brett hanging out with a group of gay guys. However, we also come to learn about his vulnerability, losing probably one of the most defining members of his masculinity. We see him cry at night, while also informing us that it's not a rare sight to see. We see him downing drink after drink trying to refrain from thinking about being with Brett. So what can we make out of all of this?

For me, Jake is going through a very common human instinct of attacking others because of one's own insecurities. After losing such a large factor in what identifies him as a man, he feels the need to compensate by being an asshole. The only reason why Jake doesn't look that terrible is because a good portion of the other characters in this novel could be considered assholes too based on personal opinion. I feel like the scene with the gay men is very revealing of Jake's sentiments around losing that body part. Jake could very definitely be mad at the gay men because they have a perfectly fine reproduction system but don't use it on women while Jake has none and his relationship is greatly affected by it.

I find it interesting how we can still feel very sympathetic for Jake while he acts like such an asshole at times. He even acknowledges it in conversation with Brett, saying he wouldn't have acted much more different than Cohn. Thinking about this, how different would our reactions be if Jake's story was told from an outer point of view?

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2018 at 8:04 PM

    In another comment on a different blog, I talked about Jake having a crappy set of friends, and how he would be happier if he had different ones. But, perhaps Jake has crappy friends because he himself is a crappy person. If Jake didn't have the injury, but still acted like he does, would we feel the same way about him? Does he use his injury as an excuse to be an asshole?

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  2. spolonus282October 10, 2018 at 6:57 PM

    I agree. He does seem to be making up for his unmasculinity(?) by acting more masculine to everyone else he meets, and also acting more harshly to other people like Cohn who he views as not being manly enough, possibly because he perceives himself as capable of judging other's manliness since he is able to feign it.

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  3. Nic RamkumarOctober 12, 2018 at 9:22 PM

    I really like the point you make about Jake overcompensating by being an asshole. We talked a lot in class about how Jake compensates for his busted up junk by acting confident and doing stereotypically masculine things like fishing or getting really into boxing or bullfighting but we never talked about the relationship between Jake's injury and Jake just being kind of a jerk.

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  4. 1000gamesOctober 13, 2018 at 5:08 PM

    I feel like the reason why we feel sympathetic for Jake is because it was written in his view. If it was written to mainly focus on Jake's personality you would probably see that he is simply an ass right away. If you see something only from one person's view, it would be very bias. Which is what happened in this book. With Hemingway's style, you have to dig deeper into his psyche from his dialogue in order to see what his personality is like.

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