While reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, one particularly striking character is Robert Cohn. Because the book is from the perspective of Jake Barnes we can’t exactly see the way Cohn is feeling. But from what we are told, we can almost infer all of his constant feelings. From the beginning, we can see that Cohn has faced discrimination during his life, but we also know that despite this, Cohn is very hardworking. For one, his attendance to Princeton shows that he was obviously intelligent man, but yet from Jake’s point of view, we could easily see that Cohn isn’t too sharp. For instance, when Cohn wrote his first novel, his editors (and Jake) believed that it was poor. But we can see by the success of his second novel that Cohn is intelligent, and when he is inspired by something, he will work to fulfill his goal. We also see this in his boxing career. Though Jake described him as a small featherweight man who was forced into boxing by discrimination, I believed that Cohn was motivated by the constant discrimination from others and that is what won him his title.
It seems to me that Jake goes out of his way to make Cohn seem like a bum. The kind of Cohn that Jake refers to reminds me of Kramer from Seinfield. Cohn like Kramer, (from Jake’s eyes) is a moocher, a dreamer, a goof, and someone who somehow is never really going to be successful. Though we haven’t gotten too far in the book I foresee the possibility that Cohn may end up cause problems for Jake. His critical remarks for Cohn makes me sense a little bit of jealously in Jake. This is especially prominent in the section where Cohn mentions Lady Bett Ashley. I think Jake is very self-conscious about his relationship with Brett. I think he probably hates the fact that he can’t tell Cohn to back off because in reality he is not with Brett. So even the possibility that Cohn could come in and take some of Brett’s attention, is frightening to Jake. But, as we have seen from Cohn, inspirations lead him to an initiation of action. His current focus is on Brett, and if Cohn works hard enough I presume that he will succeed.
