Jake's Deflection and Hemingway's Style: Starting the Novel with Cohn

It makes sense for The Sun Also Rises to begin with Robert Cohn for two major reasons. On the level of the author and his narrative choices, the depiction of Cohn through Jake's lens of narration allows for more economical exposition in that by describing one major character through the perspective of another, we find out a lot about both. Even though the first chapter centers around Cohn, we get a good sense of Jake – his values, his relationships, his way of seeing the world – through his narration. For example, Jake tells us, “I mistrust all frank and simple people” (12). It introduces Jake as an observant narrator that does not shy away from injecting his own subjective judgements and claims into the text, such as his claim that Cohn learned to box “to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton” (11). Finally, it introduces Jake's conflicted attitude toward Cohn that continues as a thread throughout the novel. Jake occasionally portrays Cohn with disgust and pity, and yet says, “I rather liked him” (15). It's ironic that later in the novel Jake wonders how people “could say such terrible things to Robert Cohn” (56), when he occasionally engages in or complacently allows such terrible things to be said, such as the encounter with Harvey Stone.

On the level of character within the story, I believe the first two chapters of The Sun Also Rises are Jake's attempt to divert the story's attention away from himself. In many ways, this novel is about Jake's trauma, and people (and therefore characters) will always avoid confronting their pain, their fear, and their vulnerability. Jake is incredibly evasive about his injury, and does not like to discuss the war in general. Therefore it might not matter who the novel begins with necessarily, as long as it is not Jake himself because Jake wants to avoid self-examination and self-analysis whenever possible. We see this throughout the book – a focus on the external actions and dialogue of other people, rather than directly identifying and conveying his interior thoughts or emotions.