Contemplating Cohn

To repeat the cliche of my classmates (which I suppose stems equally from the prompt and the lateness of my post), why begin the novel with Cohn? My first reaction is that starting with Cohn allows Hemingway to give the reader a larger scope of time. He gives the reader a short history of Cohn's life, moving across a much larger section of time than he does in the subsequent story. When I was reading the book, I felt like I was rushing through Cohn's story in the first chapter. Once Jake took over and the story followed his daily adventures through Paris, I felt like the story slowed down and I was much more aware of place and the placement of characters (though we get very little descriptions, other than the names of places). The scenes of conversation and action were more sharply focused because of the contrast from description into action, or expository summary to dramatic scene.

I also think that giving Cohn's life in the first chapters makes the reader feel comfortable in the world of the story. By knowing one character very well, the reader is able to relate to him when Jake takes over the story because Cohn is still in the story. Having a character that the reader knows very well who is not the main character also makes the story tricky for the reader because it is easy to project the descriptions of Cohn onto Jake. A story like The Great Gatsby, for example, revolves around both the narrator and Gatsby, forcing the reader to yield to one character or another based on the action. We cannot write off Cohn because he appears in the story and has interests that come into conflict with Jake. What giving a description of Cohn allows us to do as readers is to predict or understand how Cohn acts. When he gets frustrated at Jake for telling him to go to hell, for example, his fit of anger is strange but the reader understands it because of his inferiority complex during his college years.

The description of Cohn's mannerisms also come from the perspective of Jake, complicating how much the reader can trust the account. Although Jake appears to be accurate, there is also room for doubt because they are friends. Had the history come from an omniscient narrator, it would be less in question. Hemingway does not let us know Jake is the narrator until late in the first chapter, allowing us to think Jake himself is all knowing.