Trying to Sleep: Jake's Shift from Paris to Spain

The Sun Also Rises is a novel about the complexities of love, relationships, and identity in a post-WWI world. Most of the characters are expatriates, and the book describes their lives and stories as they take place in different settings. The first part of the book takes place in Paris as we are introduced to Jake Barnes, the main character, and the tangled relationship he has with Brett Ashley. Hemingway brings us into 1920s Parisian society as his characters pass through bars, cafés, and clubs in quick succession. Later in the book Jake and Brett's friends decide to take a trip to Spain. Jake and Bill have the chance to go fishing on their own, away from Brett, Mike, and Cohn. During this small period in the book we notice a significant change in Jake's attitude and narration style. Compared with the intense, bustling, emotionally-charged scene of Paris, Jake is calm, relaxed, and satisfied. 

Two contrasting scenes stick out as examples of this effect. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to Brett in a taxi ride with Jake. They go around Paris and Jake leaves early to go home, claiming he has a headache. In the narration that follows we gain an understanding of Jake's emotions by reading in between the lines. He describes his actions when he gets home, describes getting ready to sleep, and describes his thoughts as he's trying to fall asleep but can't. This is an important scene to analyse as it is one of the few times Jake is vulnerable and writes about his true emotions. In a similar scene, Jake describes his evening on the fishing trip with Bill. We notice a stark contrast in his emotions as he narrates the scene. By comparing these two scenes, we understand the effect a change of setting has on Jake, and understand more about his relationships and him as a character.

In the first scene, we see how Jake narrates his actions and his surroundings to distract himself from his emotions. Jake describes insignificant details of walk back from the bar where he left Brett and her friends: "I passed Ney's statue standing among the new-leaved chestnut-trees in the arc-light... I stopped and read the inscription: from the Bonapartist Groups, some date; I forget" (Hemingway 24). Later, when he is in his apartment, he busies himself with mundane tasks before he goes to sleep: "I got out my check-book and deducted four checks drawn since the first of the month, and discovered I had a balance of $1832.60. I wrote this on the back of the statement. The other letter was a wedding announcement... I knew neither the girl nor the man she was marrying" (Hemingway 25). We see how Jake narrates only his actions, not his thoughts, as he tries to avoid dealing with his complicated emotions. When Jake describes his surroundings in Spain there is no iceberg beneath the surface. Jake's emotions are uncomplicated, as he describes his evening with a happy, direct tone: "The wind was blowing against the shutters. The room was on the north side of the inn. We washed, put on sweaters, and came down-stairs to the dining-room. It had a stone floor, low ceiling, and was oak-panelled" (Hemingway 88). In these simple depictions of his space, we see that Jake is calm and unbothered by his emotions. This reflects the change of setting from Paris to Spain, where Brett is elsewhere and Jake can find a peace of mind in her absence. In both of these scenes, Jake's emotions are revealed as he describes his actions before going to sleep.

The same conclusions can be made when Jake actually tries to go to sleep. In Paris, Jake finishes addressing his mail and then reads a bull-fighting paper. After he exhausts all he can do, he decides to go to sleep. Immediately we understand how much of a struggle this is for him, when he says "I blew out the lamp. Perhaps I would be able to sleep. My head started to work. The old grievance" (Hemingway 25). Jake starts to think of his past, his injury and how it affects his life, his relationship with Brett, and is unable to fall asleep: "I lay awake thinking with my mind jumping around. Then I couldn't keep away form it, and started to think about Brett and the rest of it went away... Then all of a sudden I started to cry. Then after a while it was better and I lay in bed and listened to the heavy trams go by" (Hemingway 26). In his descriptions we see how Jake struggles to deal with his emotions in order to go to sleep. He is affected by Brett and is unable to distract himself with other things, so he is left with his own thoughts. In contrast, we see how Jake doesn't struggle to go to sleep when in Spain. He is away from Brett, away from his tense life in Paris, and falling asleep is uncomplicated: "After supper we went up-stairs and smoked and read in bed to keep warm. Once in the night I woke and heard the wind blowing. It felt good to be warm and in bed." (Hemingway 89). In both of these scenes, we see how Jake's mind is affected by his surroundings. His emotions are most transparent at night, when he is going to sleep and is only left to narrate his thoughts and emotions. We see how the complicated routine of sleeping in Paris is nothing like the simplicity of sleeping on his fishing trip with Bill. By contrasting different aspects of both scenes we gain a better understanding of Jake as a character.

Works cited: Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. Scribner, 1926.