Ethnicity as a Scapegoat
It’s no secret that Jake and Robert had some tension in The Sun Also Rises. Evident in their fight, and the rocky aftermath, they definitely had some animosity toward each other. Jake described Robert as nice and friendly, only following it by calling him “bitter” (Hemingway 4). Jake uses these qualities to somewhat uplift Robert, but then immediately downplays his personality. Throughout the book, Robert Cohn’s friends used his Jewish identity as a way to express their underlying hatred for him.
More inconspicuously, he is referred to as “Cohn,” rather than his first name like the rest of the characters. Similar to how Lady Brett Ashley was commonly referred to just “Brett”–to emphasize her androgyny, as you can only mention her appearance so many times–Robert being called “Cohn” was likely to emphasize the fact that he was Jewish. By almost exclusively using his surname, the characters can point out his identity to whoever they want (which is especially notable considering they spend a lot of time out at restaurants and bars), and they definitely use that power. Jake and Mike were never referred to as “Barnes” or “Campbell” respectively, so why Robert Cohn? We first see this happen right in the opening lines of the book, in which Jake goes right to calling him “Cohn,” as if he only mentioned his first name for clarification:
“Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton” (Hemingway 3).
In the third sentence, Jake rather bluntly explains Robert’s mistreatment due to his identity. Although Jake is well aware of this, he and his friends are the main people perpetuating it. Robert was frequently referred to as a “Jew,” which was obviously only used to point out his ethnicity in a time when anti-semitism was rampant. Mike, in casual conversation before going to sleep, told Jake that Brett’s “Jew has gone away” (Hemingway 210). And earlier in the book, when Jake was confiding in Brett about his annoyance with Robert and Mike, said that “to have that damned Jew about” would only mean trouble, but interestingly enough, he called Mike by his name only a couple of words later (Hemingway 184). By using that word as a title for Robert, his so-called friends separate him from the rest of the group, pointing out a difference that they knew would be perceived negatively by others.
Why his friends would do this, especially Jake, isn’t all that big of a mystery. None of the instances where Robert’s ethnicity was mentioned had anything to do with him being Jewish. They were always passing comments related to other situations, so it’s most likely that they were using his ethnicity as a scapegoat for their hatred of his other qualities. Jake was likely jealous that Robert was probably a better lover for Brett, so he used anything he could to deter her from him. Even to the reader, he immediately downplays Robert’s boxing title, saying that he only did it to combat anti-semitism, once again shoving his ethnicity into a conversation where it had no place. When they couldn’t blatantly express their (honestly undeserving) hatred for Robert, they used what they knew would fly under the radar in the social climate of the time.
Works Cited
Ernest Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises. The Project Gutenberg, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926, United States.
I am so glad someone chose to write about this topic, and you did a fantastic job with it. The perspective of the book makes many sympathize for Jake and others for having to be around Robert, but often it was just their opinions that influenced the readers. Robert received a great deal of wrongful hate and anti-semitism that was just skimmed by due to the set-up of the book around it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really important aspect of the book and you summarized it very well. It is also tricky subject to write about, because there are many smaller, subtle things said consistently about Cohn's ethnicity but never any large sections of dialogue focused on it. It is interesting to think that Jake talks about how he recognizes Cohn's history of being discriminated against, and yet continues to do it. As you said, this aspect of the novel is revealing of the worse aspects of the character dynamics and the social norms surrounding it.
ReplyDeleteI like how you took a difficult subject to talk about, and executed it well. Cohn is definitely an interesting character to unravel, but also the hatred his friends have for him. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteIt's no surprise that a reader of this novel would get the impression that all of this tension between Jake and Cohn is evident on the surface, but a closer inspection reveals that Jake rarely voices any of his criticism of Cohn to his face, and he mainly lets the others do the talking when they all complain about him. Jake does make the ill ethnic joke about Cohn's broken nose at the start, but he never says anything out loud about Cohn's Jewishness (while Bill and Mike do). It's also important to remember that Cohn seems to know nothing about Jake's unique situation with Brett--he doesn't KNOW he's upsetting Jake when he goes away with Brett to San Sebastian, and he seems bewildered later when Jake is being unfriendly. But compared to Mike--who loudly provokes Cohn throughout the Pamplona scenes--Jake never says anything aloud. When Cohn follows him and Brett around, it's Brett who has to be "rude enough to him" to get him to leave.
ReplyDeleteI'm not minimizing or denying Jake's participation in the anti-Semitism and generally anti-Cohn vibe of the book--but I am noting that he primarily shares this stuff with US, but not with the others in the novel, so we have a rather different view of his relations with Cohn than everyone else does (including Cohn). Cohn knocks Jake out because he truly can't fathom why Jake would "betray" HIM so badly by setting Brett up with Romero--he still has no idea how badly hurt Jake is by all of this mess, and he has no idea why Jake won't forgive him for the punch to the face.
Cohn’s Jewish identity is used throughout The Sun Also Rises as a subtle tool to isolate him from the rest of the group. The repeated use of his surname is an example of this separation and highlights the alienation he faces from those around him. I think it could be argued that part of Jake's racism stems from his disdain for Robert's relationship with Brett.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a super important part of this book, and super important to consider when discussing the rest of the group and their disdain for Robert Cohn. To me at least, it seems like the anti-semitism towards Cohn gets more evident as the book goes on, and as tensions get higher among the group, the anti semitic thoughts are voiced more often and more aggressively. To me, this implies that Cohn's jewishness is not necessarily the reason that people hate him, but it gives them a good thing to make fun of him for, and gives them a reason to dislike him. I really like the way you describe his ethnicity as a scapegoat, because I think that's exactly what it is! Great post, you explained this really well.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting aspect of The Sun Also Rises. I think that the prevalence of antisemitism, and the fact that Jake is of few characters that does not constantly remark on Cohn's jewishness, has something to do with his masculinity and idealistic male persona. He tries to avoid excessive emotion, a 'feminine' quality, but he is within a certain time period when people were opening up to diversity and becoming more accepting. He maintains a middle ground of these two, not acting as discriminatory as the other men, but showing an acceptance that Brett probably expects from him. This might have something to do with the character, but I think it might have been to open the spectrum of women who would swoon over him. The original cover was designed for alluring women and "breathed sex" according to historians. I imagine a uncontroversial man might be more widely liked.. Great post!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really important but I presume often overlooked feature of this book, and I appreciate that you are tackling it in your blog post. I think it is interesting that Jake seems to find it necessary to bring up Cohn's religious identity up very often in the beginning, but as the story progresses his contempt towards Robert becomes based on many other things that Cohn seems to do to annoy Jake. This might be Jake's way of covering up that a lot of his contempt comes from his preconceptions about Cohn's heritage, but it struck me as interesting that Cohn's heritage was not really mentioned by Jake specifically after the opening chapter as why he felt hate towards him. Other characters such as Bill, however, constantly bring it up when they talk about why they dislike Cohn and are less filtered. Great thought-provoking post!
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