Though he is the first character to appear in The Sun Also Rises, Robert Cohn is not the novel’s hero; rather, Cohn is the hero’s foil, the character who will serve to highlight the protagonist’s strengths and weaknesses by contrast. According to Jake, at least, Cohn is insecure and self-conscious. […]
Read more Character Analysis Robert CohnCharacter Analysis Brett, Lady Ashley
What’s most remarkable about Brett, Jake Barnes’s love interest in The Sun Also Rises, is her utter modernity. In her book Terrible Honesty, the writer Ann Douglas points out that the 1920s is the earliest decade that seems modern or contemporary to us. Hemingway’s Brett is proof of that. She […]
Read more Character Analysis Brett, Lady AshleyCharacter Analysis Jake Barnes
Jake Barnes is not merely the narrator (storyteller) of The Sun Also Rises. He is also its protagonist, or main character. That means that the novel is driven by his needs and desires more than those of the other characters. Jake’s main need, of course, is for Brett. He wants […]
Read more Character Analysis Jake BarnesSummary and Analysis Chapter XIX
Summary What’s left of the group splits up, with Bill returning to Paris and Mike to Saint Jean de Luz, on the French side of the border. Jake travels to San Sebastian, where he relaxes alone in cafes and on the beach. Soon, however, his relative tranquility is shattered by […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XIXSummary and Analysis Chapter XVIII
Summary It is the last day of the fiesta. Cohn has left Pamplona, presumably to return to his girlfriend, Frances, and Mike, drunk as always, is clearly embittered by Brett’s affair with Romero. Jake and Brett pray at the cathedral, where she feels uncomfortable, before she visits Romero. Then Jake, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XVIIISummary and Analysis Chapter XVII
Summary Jake finds Mike and Bill and Bill’s friend Edna, who says she’s kept them out of four bar fights. Robert Cohn shows up, looking for Brett, and Mike tells him that she has gone off with Romero. Cohn calls Jake a pimp. Jake takes a swing at him and, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XVIISummary and Analysis Chapter XVI
Summary The hotelier Montoya visits Jake to express his concern that mixing with rich tourists will corrupt Romero. At dinner, Jake speaks with Romero and a bullfighting critic, after which Brett, clearly infatuated, invites the bullfighter to her table. As usual, Bill and Mike are drunk. Montoya looks on with […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XVISummary and Analysis Chapter XV
Summary The fiesta of San Fermin, which will last for seven days, begins at noon on a Sunday. Musicians and dancers fill the streets — and even some of the shops, like the wine store, where Brett is placed on a cask so the Basque peasants can dance around her […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XVSummary and Analysis Chapter XIV
Summary Jake goes to bed drunk. Because he is afraid of the dark, he tries reading, then thinks about his friendship with Brett and whether each of his friends is a “good” or “bad” drunk. During the next two days, as the final preparations are made for the fiesta, the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XIVSummary and Analysis Chapter XIII
Summary After receiving telegrams from Mike and Cohn, Jake and Bill return via bus to Pamplona. There they meet up with Brett, Mike, and Cohn at a cafe, where a drunken Mike tells anecdotes before the group walks to the corrals outside of town to see the unloading of the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter XIII