Jake's Character: A front or genuine?

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Over the past few days in class, we’ve been discussing the different sides of Jake’s behavior. As a result, I have found myself torn about how to feel about him. In the beginning, I was somewhat sympathetic of him, he seemed to be suffering from his injury but also, I felt bad that he didn’t feel like he and Brett could make it work. The romantic in me was rooting for them just a little bit and I wanted to see them work it out. Now I’m not so sure. With the realization of Jake’s sense of superiority and xenophobia, it makes me more hesitant to support him.
In class, we talked about how Jake judges the men that Brett interacts with based on how he stereotypes them, whether it be racially, socially, or religiously. I find it a bit presumptuous of Jake to judge whether or not men are “worthy” of Brett simply upon whether or not they are rich white men who fit into his idea of masculinity. Perhaps this is my modern day view, but to me, it makes Jake look less worthy of Brett than any of the others. What I am wondering now is how does Brett feel about Jake’s opinions and judgements of the men she spends time with? Is she even aware that this is how he feels?
 From the beginning we could somewhat see this in Jake with his criticisms of Richard but the motivation for this was still unclear for the reader. I was willing to give him a chance and hold any judgement until we had a better understanding of the character. Now that we have a bit more insight into who Jake actually is, I have a much harder time giving him the benefit of the doubt. It seems to me that the further we get into the book, the more the darker side of Jake seems to come out, particularly when he is spending time with Bill. As of right now, Jake seems to remind me of that person we know, who’s actually alright when you hang out with them alone, but when they are with their friends, they don’t act very nice. Bill seems to be that friend that brings out the mean in Jake. We all act differently around different people, so does Jake actually agree with everything he and Bill are saying, or is it just a front he puts up when Bill is around?

Comments

  1. Elizabeth RienstraSeptember 23, 2018 at 12:19 PM

    It's certainly true that we see some of the not-so-great aspects of Jake when he's around Bill. However, I think that it's fair to say that Jake may not be so great overall. While they're not as strong as what he discusses with Bill, Jake still has some fairly homophobic and antisemitist thoughts. Perhaps it isn't that Jake is putting up a front, but that Bill just intensifies what Jake already has.

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  2. Sophia SchmitzSeptember 25, 2018 at 9:05 AM

    I agree, at the beginning of the novel I found Jake snobbish but it is what I would expect from someone of his class. As we got further into the novel the things Jake would say I could no longer excuse. It was things that a decent human being wouldn't do or say it was more then being a snob. I think they reason for his behavior is toxic masculinity because he feels emasculated so he has to emasculated people that he thinks are less then him. He think that if someone doesn't fit into the "box" of a perfect men then that gives him the right to be mean to them.

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  3. Katie CSeptember 25, 2018 at 12:17 PM

    I think, in his own way, Hemingway is giving us an in-depth look at Jake and his friends, both good and bad parts, just like Woolf did with her characters. Personally, I think Jake is a genuinely intolerant and prejudiced person. After all, he thinks the stuff about the drummer and Cohn on his own, without Bill leading him on. However, it was mentioned in class that Jake's intolerance might be rooted in his own insecurities. That certainly doesn't excuse anything he's thought, but it does give us a more sympathetic view of it.
    I don't know much about Brett's values, but I'm not sure she'd care about Jake's prejudices. She herself seems very tolerant, but I don't think she'd cut ties with Jake if she knew. However, it is kind of interesting that Jake doesn't explicitly express his prejudiced views to Brett, or anyone else. I may be wrong, but, although he laughs at Bill and thinks racist/antisemitic things, I don't think he's said anything really bad out loud.

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  4. Jenna LeeSeptember 26, 2018 at 1:44 PM

    I believe that Jake does have homophobic and antisemetic thoughts, though I think they're slightly more unconscious than "all gays are bad" or "all Jews are bad". I think that because of the time period in which he lived in, it was okay for him to have these thoughts socially, and as readers of 2018 we feel pretty gross about them, making it harder to relate to Jake. I also believe that Mike and the rest of the crew do indeed bring out these aspects in Jake, and when he is alone, he seems to have other things to worry about than just the men Brett is with and more to how Brett cannot be with him.

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