Bar tabs and contradictions

In The Sun Also Rises, Hemmingway uses the constant tabulation of drinks to reconcile contradictions. To start, the drink counts work to blend the Lost Generation lifestyle with Jake's interior sense of attentiveness. As the gang reels through Paris from one bar to another, the days blend together for them. Dates are missed, people appear and disappear in the party. But Jake, the newspaperman, is still writing, working, and watching. He reports the scene to us through bar tabs, the facts of his story.

Another contradiction develops from Jake's strong reluctance to talk about himself. He'll tell us about trout, about bulls, about his friends' histories, but his own self-reflection is limited to a few sleepless musings. How can he function as an effective narrator about himself as a character? Again, it's bar tabs: Jake may not tell us how he feels, but he tells us precisely what he drinks. He drinks as a reaction to the drama around him, and his drinking changes, knocks out, or restores him. As such, it's our best clue to how Jake's inner self is meeting his outer world.