Sun Also Rises

2103 Words5 Pages

The Sun Also Rises

The novel starts out when Jake Barnes, Frances Coyne, and Robert Cohn are

dining together. Jake suggests that he and Cohn go to Strasbourg together, because he

knows a girl there who can show them around. Frances kicks him under the table several

times before Jake gets her hint. After dinner, Robert follows Cohn to ask why he

mentioned the girl. He tells Robert that he can’t take any trip that involves seeing any

girls.

Robert gains a new confidence when he returns from a trip to New York where the

critics praised his first novel. Women threw themselves at him, and he also won several

hundred dollars playing bridge with his New York connections. He has also been seized

with a desire to go to South America. He feels that he is not living his life to the fullest,

and he unsuccessfully tries to persuade Jake to go with him, offering to pay for everything.

Jake tells him that only bull-fighters live their lives to the fullest. But Jake just tells him

that he can’t escape his misery by moving from one place to another.

While sitting alone in a cafe later that evening, Jake catches the eye of a pretty girl

named Georgette. Jake thinks it would be nice to have dinner with someone, so they take

a cab to find a restaurant. Georgette makes a pass at him, and Jake explains that he got a

wound in the war that makes it impossible for him to have sex. They agree that the war

was a horrible thing, and that it never should have been fought.

When they get to the restaurant, some of Jake's friends see him and invite him to a

dancing-club with Georgette. Lady Brett Ashley arrives with a group of men that are

wearing jerseys. Cohn asks Jake to have a drink, and Brett joins them. Cohn immediately

becomes infatuated with her, and tries unsuccessfully to persuade her to dance with him.
But Jake and Brett end up leaving the club together. Once they get into a taxi, Brett tells

Jake that she is miserable. Jake kisses her, but she tells him to stop. They love one

another, but Brett won’t have a romantic relationship because Jake can’t have sex. They

go to a cafe to drink. When they get there, they meet some acquaintances, and get

introduced to Count Mippipopolous. Jake leaves to return home for the ...

... middle of paper ...

...ean de Luz to drop Mike off. Jake

says good-bye to Bill at the train station in Bayonne. Then Jake takes a train to San

Sebastian. Not long after he gets there, he gets two telegrams, one forwarded from Paris

and one forwarded from Pamplona. They are both from Brett. She wants him to come to

Hotel Montana in Madrid because she’s in trouble.

When Jake gets to Madrid, Brett greets him with a kiss. She called Jake because

she was not sure if she could make Pedro go away, and she did not have money to leave.

Pedro offered her money, but she would not take it. He wanted to marry her, so she would

not leave him. She left Pedro because she did not want to ruin him. She wants to go back

to Mike. Brett and Jake go to a bar and have several martinis before having dinner in a

nice restaurant with several bottles of wine. She begs Jake not to get drunk. She assures

him that he will be all right. They get a taxi to drive around town. Jake puts his arm

around her, and Brett says, "Oh Jake, we could have had such a damned good time

together." Jake replies, "Yes, isn't it pretty to think so?" And that’s how the book ends.

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