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 pages later Jake says, “isn’t it pretty to think so?” referring to the idea of them being happy together (251). Although these conversations are strikingly similar, I’d like to argue that there is a change from the beginning to the end of The Sun Also Rises. It’s not necessarily true that this changes Jake and Brett’s relationship, or even the way Jake sees it as he is very drunk in this scene, but it’s tragic for the reader to witness him have this realization on the last page: If it weren’t for his injury, Jake and Brett would still not have a perfect relationship. In fact, he would not be special to her at all, in my opinion. He says himself that if he didn’t have the injury and was trying to be with Brett, like other men, he’d “be as big an ass as Cohn,” (185). 

I believe Jake realizes (even if only for a moment) that their relationship is different than all of Brett’s others for two reasons, the first being their history. They have known each other since the war as she was his nurse, and she has seen him go through so much, something that is not true of Cohn, Romero, or Mike. Next, (albeit this reason is more interpretive) Brett seems to always want what she can’t have. Since there’s no way for them to know what their relationship would be like if the injury wasn’t there, it seems to plague her mind much more than her other relationships. 

The thing is, the book cuts off right after Jake’s final line, and we never learn what happens to them after their night in Madrid. I, however, don’t believe that anything changes between them after the ending. I would guess that they continue to see each other every now and then when Brett is in need, and Jake is thrown through the cycle of emotions every time. That’s the tragedy of The Sun Also Rises. Jake wants to be with Brett so badly, but she isn’t the type that can settle. Their connection tears him apart, as he is always called upon to help with her struggles, but she never seems to stay too long after she gets what she needs. These visits always seem to bring up negative emotions. He may not show these when he is complying with Brett, but they catch up to him, as apparent when he thinks “This was Brett, that I had felt like crying about… It is awfully easy to be hard-boiled in the daytime, but at night it is another thing,” after being awakened by Brett for a short visit in the middle of the night, (42).  Despite these feelings, the reader realizes in the end the sad truth that the interactions Jake has with Brett hurt him and make him feel used, but it’s the closest he can get to being with her, so he complies and will continue to comply.   

Works Cited:

Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961, author. The Sun Also Rises. New York :Scribner, 2006.