One theme that I found recurring throughout the novel, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, was love. Lady Brett Ashley was a beautiful woman who seemed tobe irresistible to the men she became acquainted with. For example Robert Cohn, BillGorton, Pedro Romero, Mike Campbell, and last but not least Jake Barnes. Brett was extremely vulnerable to the charm that various men in her life seemed to smother her with. Brett was not happy with her life or her surroundings and sought escape and refuge in thearms of these men. All of these men had strong feelings for Brett. The only problem wasthat Brett had no feelings for any of those men, except for Jake. The only reason Jake andBrett were not together was due to a wound Jake received during the war. Jake’s woundmade him impotent, incapable of making love. The torture of his wound, though, is thathe can still feel desire. Jake and Brett could not love each other physically. They could not show eachother how much they truly loved one another. They both desperately want something thatthey could not have due to Jake’s injury. Neither Jake nor Brett were able to find anysatisfaction or completeness in love. Jake was defined by this wound. He was alwaysthinking about it, even when he did not seem to be. Whenever Jake was about to go tobed, and his thoughts loosened, he thought about his wound and Brett. Jake was able tofeel love, but he could not express it or consummate it. Brett herself told Jake not to loveher because she would only deceive him. Love, for Brett, had become a power she controlled. It changed men but left her unaffected. Jake was tolerant of Brett’s behavior because he loved her unconditionally and was willing to overlook everything she did. A different way Jake showed love for Brett was, in my opinion, in a rather strangeway. He loved Brett more than anything and he wanted her to be happy, so he set her upwith Robert Cohn, which did not wo...
