The Sun Also Rises Response

Why does the book start with Robert Cohn?

Beginning the book with Robert Cohn reveals something interesting about our narrator, Jacob (Jake) Barnes.  Jake is very observant; he spends a lot of the novel observing other characters rather than reflecting on himself and his own life. This particular beginning tells us Jake's critical opinion of Robert who he views as somewhat pathetic. The fact that he is interested with Robert's past and searches to verify the fact that he was a boxer at Princeton even though he is not impressed with his boxing title reveals Jake's observant and perhaps prying nature as a journalist. 

I also think that opening with Robert was a great hook. At first, I skipped over the first "I" and didn't realize the book was in first person until the second "I" at the end of the first page. When I came to realize it was in third person, I was intrigued by Jake's voice as being similar to a third person narrator who would describe the protagonist in a similar expository mode. I wanted to know more about the relationship between Jake and Robert. Opening in this way allows for the line "I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together" (Hemingway 12) because it has truth in the specific example of Jake having suspicions of Robert. It is interesting that although he relays having suspicions of Robert, he ends this beginning chapter by stating “I rather liked him and evidently she led him quite a life” (Hemingway 15). Although Jake claims to like Robert, he speaks about him in a condescending tone. This tone gives the reader a sense that Robert’s weakness(es) will play out in the remainder of the novel, and his struggles with women are indeed revealed.

            I found myself immersed in the partial summary of Robert’s life in the first chapter and yet at the same time wondering who exactly our narrator was and what a summary of his life would like. The fact that we do not learn the narrator’s name until the very end of the first chapter and the way in which Jake reports about Robert gives Jake a certain authorial and reporter-like voice which I feel represents his character. Because Jake does not reveal much about himself directly, the readers are forced to learn indirectly about Jake through his observations and perception of others. I think opening with Robert Cohn is an appropriate way to introduce the reader to learning about Jake more indirectly and more specifically revealing the journalist within him.