Go Sit in the Corner, Robert, and Think About What You've Done

I finished reading Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises not half an hour ago, and I'm just full of discordant thoughts in the aftermath. From those, for this third in-the-process post, I've pulled out a seemingly manageable quandary to look over, dealing this time with characters rather than themes or patterns. My question is, what's up with Robert Cohn? He's an odd character, certainly, but what makes him odd and what purpose does he serve in the text?

One glaring difference between Robert and his group, as presented in the book, is his faith--which Hemingway notably refers to as race. Robert is Jewish and the group makes quite a big deal about it, whether poking fun at him or discussing him behind his back. They attribute his "air of superiority" to his Jewishness and generally seem to consider it an unfortunate trait of his. This perspective on race comes from the era in which Hemingway wrote the novel, I think, but the question remains of why he would write a Jew into his book. The context of the same era gives an interesting answer to the question: Robert Cohn is a kind of scapegoat.

Hemingway writes this novel as a commentary or explication of some sort of universal human experience, and in the development of such a story he needs someone to do things just the wrong way or to play out the perfect storm to convey the hardships of that experience. It seems plausible to me that Hemingway would decide that a Jew fit such a character position well because of the era of his upbringing. Robert's Jewishness plays a heavy hand in assigning his overall traits in the story beyond simply his faith and his character role, though he breaks the established mold in at least one way. He is American born and raised, hailing from two of the richest and oldest families in New York, he graduates from Princeton, and he leads a less than extravagant lifestyle as a writer in Paris. As the story progresses he achieves some success with his writing and becomes somewhat overly self-assured. Robert's talent for boxing comprises his main diversion from the Jewish image.

That much establishes his background, but the troubles that befall Robert and cement his place in the story only riff on his Jewish heritage, they don't stem from it. Robert, through the second and third "Books" of this novel, falls quite hard for Lady Brett Ashley and that quickly comes to define him. This piece interests me, as I think it makes up the heart of this novel, but the notable issue here is the way that Robert falls for Brett. Every main character loves Brett except for Bill Gorton, but each loves her in a different way and each finds a different experience with her. Robert manages to sleep with Brett at one point, and thenceforth believes that she must feel something for him despite many clues suggesting otherwise. He becomes terribly hung up on the idea and does some regrettable things in pursuit of her (hint: he displays his boxing prowess), only coming to realize his blindness too late. 

Hemingway puts Robert in this position because he wants to show how love can detriment people, and because of this and the fact that Robert operates on essentially good intentions through all the damaging things that he does, he turns out to be something of a tragic hero in the novel. I'm only just now seeing this as I write, so I question the bit earlier about Hemingway's stance on Judaism, but perhaps he sets Robert as a Jew because of the generally positive traits he has--nice, smart, helpful--and only gives him an overabundance of romanticism as a fatal flaw to show that even the best men can fall prey to the same.

Robert and his relationship with Brett are central to the story without a doubt, and his foolish actions in her pursuit are central to that relationship. Considering the entirety of the story, the role of a tragic hero fits him well; he goes wrong at a definite point but continues to act on his values for the duration of his time in the spotlight. With Robert, Hemingway says that even honest pursuits at love can fail terribly. 

More on this with the final post--plus a bit of end-tying for the other posts.

Happy Blogging!