Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Individual
Group Discount
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews October 7, 2023 September 30, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan - Group Discount
Qty: 00
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
During these three years, the first spent in travel, the last two in Paris, Robert Cohn had two friends, Braddocks and myself. Braddocks was his literary friend. I was his tennis friend.
Early in the novel, Jake Barnes, the narrator and protagonist, describes his relationship with Robert Cohn. While having dinner with Robert and Robert’s girlfriend, Frances, Jake gets a glimpse of Frances’s jealous streak. After Jake suggests that he and Robert visit Strasbourg where he knows a woman who would show them around, Robert kicks him under the table, a warning to not mention other women around Frances. Understanding Robert’s cue, Jake then suggests another travel option.
Listen, Robert, going to another country doesn't make any difference. I've tried all that. You can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There's nothing to that.
Robert has just admitted to Barnes that he feels like half his life has passed, and he wants to make a drastic change to live the second half to the fullest. After Robert tries to talk Jake into going to South America with him, Jake explains his lack of interest in going. With his words, Jake shows wisdom. He has already seen much of the world and realizes that one cannot escape insecurities or unhappiness simply by changing locations.
“And it’s a lot of fun, too, to be in love.” . . . “No,” she said. “I think it’s hell on earth.”
While riding in a taxi, Jake and Brett talk about their love for each other, a love that remains unconsummated because of Jake’s war injury. Jake tries to deflect the subject, but Brett finds the situation difficult to laugh about, much less accept. She experiences the frustration of their mutual, unconsummated attraction as pain. Although she finds even seeing Jake challenging, a few hours later, she appears at Jake’s home because she wants to see him again. Readers may infer that while Brett loves Jake, she feels tormented by the fact that they can’t fulfill a sexual relationship.
“Were you ever in love with her?” “Sure.” “For how long?” “Off and on for a hell of a long time.”
As Bill and Jake rest after trout fishing, they talk about life and love, and especially Brett. Apparently, all of the men in the novel feel attracted to her, and here, Jake admits his long-standing feelings for Brett. Jake’s inner tension serves as the heart of the narrative and rises in temperature until the story’s climax.
“But he’s not an aficionado like you are.” Afición means passion. An aficionado is one who is passionate about the bull-fights.
Montoya, owner of the hotel in Pamplona, praises Jake for his passion about the bulls. The hotelier mentions that while Robert seems interested in the sport, his passion for bullfighting doesn’t compare to Jake’s. Montoya notes that few people have Jake’s level of devotion to the blood sport. During the next pages, readers may easily note that the bulls symbolize heightened physical masculinity, a quality lacking in the human males in the novel. Readers may also infer that Montoya’s words indicate that Jake’s passion for other things or people in his life also outshines Robert’s.
That was morality; things that make you disgusted afterward. No, that must be immorality.
During Jake’s lengthy internal monologue, he considers the effects of alcohol on each of his friends. He classifies Mike as a bad drunk who purposefully hurt Robert—and admits that he secretly enjoyed watching the whole scene unfold and the effect Mike’s words had on Robert. However, Jake’s sadistic streak makes him feel disgusted with himself. This confusion stands at the heart of the novel and Jake as a character, and readers may infer that such confusion likely describes reactions to both the bullfights and the war.
The three of us sat at the table, and it seemed as though about six people were missing.
Jake reflects on the people sitting—and not sitting—at the table, and his observations clearly reflect a feeling of loss. As he sits with Bill and Mike, he misses Brett, Robert, Romero, and perhaps Frances, Harris, and Harvey Stone. Sadly, this scene reflects Jake’s attitude about his life: His missing parts feel more significant than what he has, and those missing parts prevent him from living his life to its fullest. The novel ends with Jake’s acute sense of loss, and this moment at the mostly empty table sets off that emotional wave.
That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring her back. And sign the wire with love. That was it all right.
After Jake receives a telegram from Brett asking that he come to Madrid to rescue her, he sends a telegram stating he will come to her. Here, he reflects on the situation, summing up the action of the entire novel with just a few short sentences. The futility of Jake and Brett’s situation and the meaningless of all that has happened between them seem reduced to these four clipped actions.
Brett moved close to me. We sat close against each other. I put my arm around her and she rested against me very comfortably. It was very hot and bright, and the houses looked sharply white. We turned out into the Gran Vía.
Jake describes the scene while riding in a taxi with Brett through the streets of Madrid. At this moment, he and Brett feel especially close, both physically and spiritually. Theirs is the deepest friendship in the novel. Readers may find the situation ironic that the hypersexual Brett can feel so intimate with the one man who cannot have sex with her. Jake views their love as a pretty thought that, sadly, can never be fully realized.
Please wait while we process your payment