Wietfeldt Group B Blog Post: Sun Also Rises/Death in the Afternoon

For this week's blog post, I wanted to focus on the two things: how Jake and Cohn have a very weird relationship and how bull fights are related to both The Sun Also Rises and Death In The Afternoon. In terms of the relationship between Cohn and Jake, we see that Jake is very critical of Cohn. While Cohn was once the boxing champion of Princeton, he was also made fun of for being Jewish. Even Jake will make casual comments about his nose being so big. When Cohn was boxing, Jake comments, "This increased Cohn's distaste for boxing, bit it gave him a certain satisfaction of some sort, and it certainly improved his nose" (Hemingway 1). Clearly, with the time period being in the 1920s, Hemingway is not afraid to write anti-semitic comments. With World War I just ending and World War II about to begin, the Holocaust is about to begin which would make sense why there was so much hostility against Jewish people. However, this isn't to say that there isn't any more anti-semitic comments against the Jews, it's just that the time period and the comments that Jake makes seems to line up. In addition to this, even when Jake makes all of these negative comments against Cohn, he does have some positive things to say. For example, his relationship with Frances went from a very possessive relationship to one where they were happy and ready to get married.

In terms of the bull fights, they are mentioned in chapter two when Cohn wants to leave Spain and go to South America with Frances and Jake. Even when Jake insists that South America will not be like the movies that he has watched, Cohn says, "I'm not interested in bull-fighters. That's an abnormal life. I want to go back in the country in South America. We could have a great trip" (Hemingway 18). Because Cohn and Jake live in Spain, it makes sense that bull fighting would be popular and how this connects to Death In The Afternoon. In this book, Hemingway mentions that bull fighting should be seen as an art and many Americans may take offense that both the men and bulls get hurt. There are two different types of spectators in bull fighting: ones that sympathize with the animals and ones that sympathize with the humans. For the spectators that sympathize with the animals, it can be hard to like bull fighting when the bulls have to be killed or even the horses. For the other spectators, it is hard to watch when the men don't time their dodge correctly and get killed.

Comments

  1. Jordan SilversmithNovember 11, 2018 at 7:11 PM

    Your point about how difficult it can be to watch the bullfights is interesting, and is also explored further in chapter fifteen of The Sun Also Rises. During the bullfight, Cohn is unable to watch the entire time due to the violent nature of the spectacle, while Brett can watch every detail. By writing this, I think Hemingway was trying to portray his point from Death In the Afternoon regarding the violence in the bullfights, and the different effects that this can have on people.

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