Jake grows a little

               I think Jake has grown by the end of the story, but not by much. This growth lies in his relationship to Brett. In the beginning of the novel, Jake plays Brett’s little love game in which they both acknowledge their love for each other but Brett makes it known that they can’t be together. At one point she says something along the lines of her not being able to live with her true love. She obviously has some issues. But Jake is fully involved in this dance. He doesn’t feel the same as Brett (he’s the one who suggests they try living together), but he perpetuates this weird, depressing paradigm they’re in by not being assertive and letting Brett drive their relationship with her dark romantic rationale.

                This pretty much continues all the way through the novel’s time in Paris. Even after Jake discovers she was with Cohn in San Sebastian, he doesn’t assert a resolution about their relationship. Though I think this is where his growth begins. He doesn’t tell us explicitly here, but it seems he begins to get over Brett when he finds out about her and Cohn. And then in Pamplona, Jake hooks Romero up with Brett which I think further pushes him away from her. I think that here Jake has to begin losing respect for himself or for Brett; something has to give.

                In book three, Jake responds to Brett’s telegram with “Love Jake” and then he criticizes himself for it. He seems to really become more honest with himself regarding he and Brett after he notices what his behavior says about himself—that he is letting Brett walk all over him.

                Finally, in the last scene, we see Jake’s small amount of growth manifest in his conversation with Brett. Brett says that they could have such a damn good time together, but Jake, instead of echoing this self-rendered helplessness that is Brett’s go-to source for melancholy, he takes something of a stand when he says, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” In this dialog we can feel Jake see himself some place where he is not involved with Brett. He is not exactly contradicting her, but he is sort of pushing her away, something he did not do in Paris in book one. It is not much growth, but it is something. By pushing away from Brett, he shows more respect for himself. And in terms of Jake’s being impotent, this growth perhaps represents his accepting his condition and the consequences of it.