After today’s class discussion and reading Lydia’s most recent blogpost, I can definitely understand why Jake Barnes feels the need to bring others down (specifically men) when introducing them. This is evident in the beginning of the book when Jake is describing one of his seemingly best friends, Robert Cohn, by saying “Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title” (11). Although the second sentence is obviously very demeaning towards Cohn, in the first sentence, the use of the word “once” implies that, however impressive Cohn once was back at Princeton, (of which according to Jake, wasn’t very much), he isn’t nearly as impressive now.
This part of Jake’s personality is also evident when he is describing the gay men who walz into the bar with Lady Ashley Brett. He states that they “always made [him] angry...[he] always wanted to swing on one, any one, anything to shatter that superior, simpering composure” (28). During this time in Paris, as Mr. Mitchell has stated in class, although gay men were still considered a minority, they were open and people were (supposed to be) tolerant. Jake himself states “I know they are supposed to be amusing, and you should be tolerant” (28). Knowing this leads me to believe that, although Jake may be uncomfortable around homosexuals, deep down, his hatred isn’t related to homophobia, but to envy and disappointment. These feels are most clearly related to his war injury, where he isn’t able to have a physical relationship with a woman as these men could have. But even though these men are fortunate to be blessed with fully functional reproductive organs, in Jake’s mind, they don’t use them in the “right” way.
All of these situations lead to why Jake is so insecure with himself and feels the need to bring others down in order to boost his self esteem. His injury has limited his ability to have an emotional and physical connection with most women, especially Brett. Both Brett and Jake have illuded that they have had a past relationship around the time that Jake was in the hospital, but it didn’t work out, seemingly because of Jake’s limitations. Even though Jake has tried to convince Brett that they should try to be in a relationship again, Brett’s response is that “I don’t want to go through that hell again” (34), claiming that “It isn’t all that you know” (34), of which Jake responds with, “what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it” (34). Even though he tells Brett that his would can be a funny joke, it’s clear that Jake isn’t laughing at his injury, and I’m sure that he thinking about it more often that he’d like to admit. It pains him to accept the fact that he will never be with the woman he loves, because he fought in the war.
This is interesting because, in the twentieth century, when a man went off to fight in the war, it was seen as a proof of his manliness. In fact, it was seen as epicene to not fight in the war, and so so many men left their homes and fought for the wrong reasons. Like in Mrs Dalloway where Septimus Smith is told that his interests in poetry and Shakespeare makes him seem effeminate, and so he goes off to fight in the war in order to prove himself. But, instead of coming back a war hero, he comes back a cynical, clinically ill man with feelings of numbness and hallucinations; he will never be the same because of what he saw and felt during combat. He goes away, wanting to return a bigger and better man (according to society), but instead he comes back with PTSD, (referred to as shellshock back then). Since PTSD was an unfamiliar diagnosis back then, he was seen as weak for dwelling on the war and not moving on. Septimus’ attempts to raise his manliness by going to war actually did the exact opposite, and this led him to live a damned, damaged life until his sudden death.
In Jake Barnes’ situation, I assume he also left to fight in the war both because it was what men did to prove their manliness, (although, considering what we know about Jake so far, I don’t think Jake was seen as unmanly. At least, not in comparison to Septimus). In any case, Jake comes back from the war, physically and emotionally less of a man than he was before. He even cries about his injury and how it has affected his life, (most importantly his relationship with Brett), which is not something that is considered very “manly”. Even after we figure out his injury, Jake shows us his one final attempt to prove that he is still “manly” by stating, “I never think about it” (34), trying to convince us, and Brett, that the wound is nothing and that he is still the man he was and that Brett deserves.
Now the wound itself proves to be very interesting. When Jake is fully clothed, he appears to be healthy. No one would think twice about him having a serious injury from the war. Because of this, Jake is able to keep a facade that masks his internal grief and disappointment. “It’s awfully easy to be hard-boiled about everything in the daytime, but at night it is another thing” (42). Jake can fool anyone in the world, except himself. He is most vulnerable when by himself, because he can’t convince others otherwise, since it is only him, so he is left to accept the facts: that serious physical relationships will be hard, if not impossible, for him to achieve, that the universe has make him into a joke for others (not himself) to laugh at, and that he will have to live his life as a lie until he has the confidence to share his story with someone else other than Brett, who has already decided that her and Jake need to stay apart from each other. Hanging out with Brett is very theraputic for Jake, because she is the only person (that we know of) that is aware of Jake’s injury. Therefore, Jake can really be himself around her, and he doesn’t feel like he’s living a lie. When/ If Brett leaves, Jake will be alone and even more depressed for no one around him will be aware of his true self.
All in all, Jake’s injury seems to be, not only the butt of everyone’s joke, but also the butt of his depression. He feels detached from society and always the “third wheel” of social gatherings, for only he knows the true difference between him and all of his other male friends, and that causes him to ostracize himself from groups. As science has progressed, we have learned of the repercussions of keeping feelings such as these bottled up for long periods of time can be seriously detrimental. Since it is only the first section of the book, it will be interesting to see what will happen to Jake when/if Brett leaves and if Jake will confide in anyone or how his silence will affect both himself and his relationship with the people around him.
We don't get much sense of what Jake was like before the war--and it doesn't seem as if any of the characters in the novel even knew him before the war (Brett seems to be his oldest friend in this scene, and they met after he was injured). But I think we can surmise that his whole tough/stoical persona didn't suddenly develop after the war--his attitude is implied in passing comments like referring to the Italian front as a "joke front," not *quite* as hardcore as northern France, presumably. Even here, we can tell that Jake views his injury with added shame because, in his view, he wasn't even doing anything particularly intense or dramatic when he was injured--a "joke wound" on a "joke front."
ReplyDeleteJake could be seen as clinging to a code of behavior that was strong before the war, but which has become somewhat obsolete in the years after. No one else in the novel seems quite as concerned about traditional gender roles as he is (and even he is attracted to Brett, whose views on sexuality are very "modern" and whose look is decidedly androgynous). He could be seen as the "damaged man," trying to maintain some kind of dominance or authority in a more decadent and diverse postwar world.