Does Jake End in the Same Place He Started?
The question I am left with at the end of The Sun Also Rises is this: Do Jake and Brett end in the same place they started? With their relationship essentially being the main conflict of the book, ordinarily, we would see a clear, linear change from beginning to end. Hemingway, however, is no ordinary writer, and we, the audience, must interpret for ourselves whether or not there is any difference. This pondering seems to be intentionally brought out by the repetition of the taxi scenes with Brett and Jake. Within the first few chapters and in the very end, we see them pictured in the back of a taxi together, and this repetition is no coincidence. In the first of these taxi scenes, we see Jake say to Brett “there’s not a damn thing we could do,” (34). Here, Jake is more frustrated than anything. Moments before, Brett had just told him not to touch her, and he seemingly feels as though if it weren’t for his injury, they could have made it work between them. Similarly, hundreds of p...