Brett and Jake's Relationship

Jake and Brett’s relationship is something we have discussed over and over again, and never completely figured out. Nonetheless, the relationship has a major part in the plot of The Sun Also Rises.

To start out, consider the two parallel scenes at the beginning and ending of the novel. In the original taxi scene, Jake asks Brett, “Isn’t there anything we can do about it,” referring to their non-sexual, romantic yet unromantic, relationship (Hemingway 34). At this point, as reader, we have only just met Brett, and it seems the traditional gender roles have been switched, with Brett as the “masculine player” and Jake as the girl who is trying to turn a one-night stand into a relationship (I am referring to the stereotype of the clingy girl with the player boy, regardless of the fact that Brett and Jake have not had a one-night stand).

In this scene, it seems to me that they have both resigned themselves to this open relationship, but at the same time, they both hope a committed relationship could at some point be successful. When Jake asks Brett if there is anything they can do, her response, “I don’t want to go through that hell again,” seems to imply that they have tried previously and failed (34). These failed attempts have convinced Brett that she cannot have a working relationship with Jake. Simultaneously, however, Brett’s repeating the statement that it’s the way she is, seems to suggest she is trying to convince herself as well as Jake. In my opinion, throughout the entire novel, Brett makes excuses for why she can’t be with Jake because she is scared to commit to a single person. We hear about what happened with her first husband, and it makes sense that this would have scarred her. So, when Jake asks her in the beginning if they could be together, she talks about how she would cheat on him with everyone, and how it would never work.

However, by the end of the book, following several situations in which Brett and Jake’s relationship suffers from her relationships with others (despite the fact that Brett and Jake are only officially friends), it seems like Brett is more open to having a relationship with him. She seems to view him in a better light than the other men (Cohn, Romero), having said he wouldn’t act as badly as they had, and in the final chapter when they are in the taxi, it is Brett who asks Jake about the nature of their relationship. It is not framed as a question, but rather a solemn, hopeful statement. It is hard to tell if Jake is open to a committed relationship at this point, as he responds “Yes. . . Isn’t it pretty to think so?” in regards to her statement about how good their relationship might have been (250). The use of the present tense in his statement seems to imply that he has given up on such a relationship existing, but I suspect, if The Sun Also Rises was to continue another few chapters, Brett and Jake would form a relationship, if not at least grow a lot closer.