Sun Also Rises Quotations essays

Sun Also Rises Quotations essays Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact he disliked it, but he learned it painfully and thoroughly to counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew at Princeton (pg.11) These lines begin the novel, providing a brief biography of the character, Robert Cohn. The narration is in first person perspective of Jake Barnes who is a fond friend of Robert. This small passage presents many of the themes that the novel goes on to develop, such as competitiveness and resentment between men and their insecurities. Cohn suffers from the feelings of inferiority because he is Jewish, wealthy and rather unsocial and shy. His substantial amount of wealth prevents him from clearly relating to others around him when at Princeton. The inferiority that Robert feels is his excuse to seek competitiveness. He becomes a boxer to heighten his social standing as well as hiding his feelings of weakens through the violence of such a sport. Even though he detests boxing all together, he is very persistent and continues to improve his skills. This later proves to be harmful, as Jake and Brett can no longer handle his insecurities. The tone of arrogance in this quotation is quite evident. It gives the reader a sense of jealousy towards Robert and they begin to think about what may happen if his quest for acknowledgement will pay off. If Roberts social position is firmly established, Robert will become too overconfident. In fact, the next few chapters reveal him gaining more social recognition. He becomes too proud and cocky with all of this attention. His self-righteousness forms hatred and resentment towards himself from his fellow friends. The hostility expressed by Jake and his friends, was simply formed through their own jealousy of ...