rk out, and he also set her up with Pedro Romero.Although the feelings between Brett and Pedro may have been mutual, Brett did the rightthing by giving him up; whatever Brett wanted, Jake was willing to give her because hewanted her to be happy. Love for Robert Cohn is a silly and naive love learned from storybook romances.For example the book that Robert Cohn read, The Purple Land, which was about an agingEnglishman finding love in a romantic country seriously affected him. Robert hadold-fashioned notions of love- he believed in commitment. Robert was too blind to realizethat his kind of love was lost on Jake's crowd of friends, especially Brett. Robert was immediately attracted to her. Since Brett may have been curious or just bored, she decided togo off with him to San Sebastian, Spain. “What does their romance mean? For Brett,nothing; for Robert, everything. He believed that their affair was a perfect love. Robertcould not stand to see Brett with another man;” (Barron’s Booknotes) even though theywere not together he was jealous.“Mike, Brett's fiancee, was too drunk and maybe too insecure to love. Bill Gortonpicked up an American girl at the fiesta, but nothing serious came out of it. He was toocynical or too unfriendly to love. Pedro Romero was a man young, innocent, passionate,and brave enough to love. Brett was almost immediately enchanted by him.” (Barron’sBooknotes) Pedro, who frequently confronted death in his occupation, was not afraid inthe bullring and controlled the bulls like a master. Pedro was the first man since Jake whocaused Brett to lose her self-control. He fell for Brett and wanted to marry her, but Brettknew she would ruin him, so she gave him up. This was the only point in the story whereBrett showed any amount of caring for another’s feelings. She did the right thing andgave up Pedro because she did not want to hurt him as she did to Jake, Robert, and Mike,e...
