The Change in Jake

How does the narrator change if he does?

           

            I think that the narrator does go through a change by the end of the novel, however, the extent of that change remains in some ways indeterminate. The first way that I believe that the narrator changes is within himself. In the beginning of the novel it seems that Jake is simply meandering through Paris without much direction. We don’t ever get a real sense of his work life, his family, or passions. We know that he works for a newspaper, but how he got the job and why he’s working in Paris remains undescribed. Moreover, as a note of the narrative form, in the beginning it definitely doesn’t feel as if he is driving the story. Initially we open with his description of Robert Cohn and he is the first, and in some ways most detailed, character that we meet. He even provides much of the driving arc of the story from their trip to Spain to the tension undergirding Lady Ashley’s affairs. However, while I got this sense at the beginning of the novel, towards the end of the novel I felt Jake emerge into his own. Much of this had to do with the fact that initially, to me it seemed that much of his true feelings regarding event and people were submerged and unexpressed. However, towards the end we see, and the other characters see, very clearly how he feels about a number things. Robert Cohn. The weather. The wine. The fiesta. All of this is both described and explored both expositionally and in scene to great effect.

            The second way in which I believe that Jake changes is in his “love” of Brett. While in the beginning it appears as though he still has a hope, and inkling, that there could possibly something between he and Brett, by the end he sees the situation for what it always had been. I believe the initial state could be scene through he and Brett’s initial encounter with Robert at the Club, and the count later, where he is in a secured position in relation to each of them in terms of Brett’s affection even though she is engaged. However, as the story plays out and he sees Brett with Robert and then Mark, he begins to see Brett for who she is, and the role that he his bound to play in relation. I do not, however, believe that Jake grows into not loving Brett; he just loves her differently. He takes her for who she is and loves her despite herself, and despite himself. I believe that this is the impetus of him “pimping” her out to Romero. At last, this would explain the last scene where he respond’s to Brett’s assertion that they could have had a good life together with, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”, showing that he’s become well aware that the life of love and romance that he had hoped for at the beginning was simply a fantasy.