Why I Don't Care About Jake
Throughout The Sun Also Rises, I've been having a pretty hard time empathizing or sympathizing with the main character, Jake. From what I can see in class discussions and other blog posts, I'm certainly not the only one - he's not exactly likable. However, I think for me, it's not just the fact that he has some unlikable traits that makes me dislike him as a character and not be able to connect emotionally with him. I know I've certainly enjoyed or cared about characters that were pretty unlikable. I think a large reason behind this is actually Hemmingway's writing style.
I don't necessarily dislike how Hemmingway writes - I actually enjoy the short, terse sentences, and the way he writes his dialogue (which makes up the majority of the novel). I just think it's very unfortunate that his style manages to combine with my feelings on Jake to make a main character I just can't get behind or care about.
Hemingway’s style leaves a lot up for interpretation, leaves it up to you to decide the tone of the conversations, to decide what the hidden messages lurking beneath the surface discussion are. And it's a real shame that I don’t like Jake's base characteristics and personality traits, because now that I’m the one deciding how I think Jake is feeling and sounding in these interactions, I have no initial inclination to give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s like a vicious cycle - I didn’t like Jake and Hemingway’s writing style doesn't seem meant to pull you out and flip your opinion on a character just like that (at least from my perspective), so I just dislike him more and more.
At this point, when I don't like a character as much as I don't like Jake, I generally need a heavy hand from the author to come in and make me care about the character. This is generally done through the type of narrating we see in, for example, Mrs. Dalloway (not that I'd call that style "heavy handed", but the idea still stands). We're thrown into the characters mind, see how they feel and think, and learn to sympathize and care about them even if we don't like them. This certainly happened for me with Peter.
Hemmingway's style is like the opposite of this heavy hand, and so what ends up happening is that I really just don't feel anything about Jake. Objectively, I don't like his personality traits or his pretty blatant prejudices, but even beyond that, I can't bring myself to care much about his plights and troubles. That’s not to say that I don’t understand him, or see where he’s coming from. I do, and I can see when he's heavily impacted by something, when he's feeling emotional. I just don't particularly care all that much.
That probably also lends a hand to why I ended up on Brett's side of the whole discussion about who's in the wrong in their relationship - because this strange disconnect seems to only apply to Jake. How unfortunate.
He's just so unenthusiastic. Has he ever expressed that he actually likes something or someone other than alcohol or Brett?
ReplyDeleteno no, he also likes making fun of other men for not being masculine enough! or, better yet, for being minorities - quite a cheery guy, isn't he?
DeleteI completely agree--it's hard for me to care enough about Jake to even try digging deep into his psyche. And then, most of what we've been able to "unearth" from Jake are a "macho-man" complex and fragile masculinity; these traits tend to repel me even in real life, and they're *extra* annoying in a literary character that I feel obligated to care about. I think Jake is pretty boring and kinda yucky... at least Brett is fun.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it is more difficult to sympathize with characters due to Hemingway's writing style, simply because it is sometimes difficult to know what characters' feelings are. Reading a passage one time through, I feel very much like a passive observer in the story. However, when re-reading parts of the book and beginning to unpack the subtext in class discussions, I can begin to understand characters more and care about their issues. Don't get me wrong, I do think Jake is a jerk, but I can still appreciate the fact that he is probably a jerk at least partially because of the things he has gone through in his life.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jake is not a very likeable character, and Hemingway sure isn't helping him out. The moments where I've been most able to connect with Jake have been when he shows little bits of emotion, but these moments come so rarely that they're not enough for me to build a connection with Jake. He's a really unsympathetic character because he feels so distant. I guess we could see this as a plus, though: do we really want to like a character who's openly racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic? Maybe Hemingway is doing us all a favor by not making us like Jake.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to figure out what Jake's thinking a lot of the time, and he makes an effort to keep his emotions in for most of the day anyways. A lot of his conversations are him sitting there absorbing what the other person says, giving some stock answer without much emotion. It's very hard to relate to him.
ReplyDeleteI sort of feel differently, I don't particularly hate Jake, even though he's given me plenty of reasons to, I just think he's someone hurting a lot on the inside and lashing out because of it. He's pretty racist, but I think it's to an extent that can be chalked up to the norm of the time period. I don't think it's fair to fault him on this, because although he uses some offensive language, he isn't Bill level racist. I feel like if one of us lost our ability to have intercourse/reproduce because of something like a war injury, we'd be feeling pretty bitter as well. I can't empathize with Jake but I can definitely sympathize. There's no way living like he does is easy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point on how Hemingways style doesn't really force us to care about characters, it just assumes that we will or we won't and let's us decide on our own. And while I, like you, can't find many positive traits in Jake to relate to or like, I do care about him as a character because certain moments such as the ones where he is alone, just reflecting, really make me feel bad for him. It's the way that we see his hardened proud persona melt away when he's just a sad man alone in his room that makes me realize that he's in an insescapable situation and much of his prejudices and other over compensating traits just stem from his injury and the isecurity that came with, and I wish he could have a way to be happy.
ReplyDeleteI think you really hit the nail on the head in terms of Hemingway's style and how we don't always get too much insight of the thoughts and emotions of the characters. However, I can't say I necessarily disliked Jake. I also certainly didn't sympathize with him. He played such a background character in his own story it's hard to stand behind him on anything. He was constantly sarcastic and indifferent, and being stuck with someone like that (due to the fact we're following him in this novel) was annoying to say the least.
ReplyDelete