Jake and Cohn: How close is their friendship really
When Robert Cohn was first introduced by Jake in the first chapter, it seemed as if Jake disliked Robert. In the first paragraph, Jake outright downplays Cohn's middleweight boxing champion status and even goes as far to say that he was suspicious that Cohn had even got the title. He also described Cohn as a pushover who was easily controlled by women that were nice and showed him attention. But even with these negative descriptions of Cohn, he is still Jake's "Tennis friend" with the two of them interacting quite a bit in the book so far, seemingly cordially. But I think there is a characteristic of Cohn that stops his and Jake's relationship at the acquaintance line, without ever passing into the true friendship zone. That characteristic is Cohn's un-manliness.
Jake tries to be as manly as possible. Having fought through WWI, he was left with no choice by his peers but to turn away all feminine qualities and tough everything out. Tragically, he left the war without a working penis, the epitome of a man's manliness. But even with a malfunctioning groin, he still tries to keep up his manly persona and shuns anything unmanly that a guy can do because he feels like its an attack on his own manliness. An example of his insecurity is when a group of gay men enter the club exhibiting feminine traits like dancing "big hippily" and having "wavy hair." When he saw them, he had such a negative reaction that he had to leave the club and go to the bar down the street to calm himself down. It is because of Jake's devoutness to the idea of manliness that his relationship with Cohn could never be something more than acquaintances.
Although Cohn was middle weight boxing champion, he hated fighting. He only did it to "counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew." Although boxing itself is manly, Cohn only did it for the purpose of protecting himself and not for the joy of the sport, and thus it the manly factor of the sport. And the fact that Cohn has use boxing to protect himself from antisemitism instead of just toughing it out also goes against Jake's idea of manliness. Since Cohn is described as being a reactive, shy, and friendly boy, it is easy to see how he can be a pushover. His first marriage was with the first girl who was nice to him. If this was truly the case, then you can see how divorce could be inevitable. Robert and his wife were both unsatisfied, but Robert was too chicken to actually bring it up. The fact that it was his wife that had brought up the divorce is something Jake would've thought shameful because as a "man," you are supposed to stand up for yourself and control your own destiny and not let a woman control you.
It is because of Cohn's un-manliness that Jake can't fully relate to him and such they can never be truly close friends.
Jake tries to be as manly as possible. Having fought through WWI, he was left with no choice by his peers but to turn away all feminine qualities and tough everything out. Tragically, he left the war without a working penis, the epitome of a man's manliness. But even with a malfunctioning groin, he still tries to keep up his manly persona and shuns anything unmanly that a guy can do because he feels like its an attack on his own manliness. An example of his insecurity is when a group of gay men enter the club exhibiting feminine traits like dancing "big hippily" and having "wavy hair." When he saw them, he had such a negative reaction that he had to leave the club and go to the bar down the street to calm himself down. It is because of Jake's devoutness to the idea of manliness that his relationship with Cohn could never be something more than acquaintances.
Although Cohn was middle weight boxing champion, he hated fighting. He only did it to "counteract the feeling of inferiority and shyness he had felt on being treated as a Jew." Although boxing itself is manly, Cohn only did it for the purpose of protecting himself and not for the joy of the sport, and thus it the manly factor of the sport. And the fact that Cohn has use boxing to protect himself from antisemitism instead of just toughing it out also goes against Jake's idea of manliness. Since Cohn is described as being a reactive, shy, and friendly boy, it is easy to see how he can be a pushover. His first marriage was with the first girl who was nice to him. If this was truly the case, then you can see how divorce could be inevitable. Robert and his wife were both unsatisfied, but Robert was too chicken to actually bring it up. The fact that it was his wife that had brought up the divorce is something Jake would've thought shameful because as a "man," you are supposed to stand up for yourself and control your own destiny and not let a woman control you.
It is because of Cohn's un-manliness that Jake can't fully relate to him and such they can never be truly close friends.
Noticing that Jake sees Cohn as unmanly and as a result they can't be close is a great observation in my opinion. As we talked about in class, Jake seems to be very defensive about his manliness, which has a lot to do with his injury to his genitals. As you pointed out this also makes him defensive about manliness in general (the stuff with the crowd of gay men illuminates this point). I've only thought about Jake's defense of manliness as a general concept, but your point that a lot of it is focused on Cohn makes a lot of sense. In the initial description of Cohn Jake says a lot of negative things about him that can be connected to a lack of masculinity (things like shyness). It's interesting to wonder if perhaps Jake sees Cohn in a narrow light by only focusing on his unmanly aspect. I think it's possible Jake doesn't really know Cohn.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a pretty good point. I agree with what you're saying, as it definitely feels like Cohn and Jake aren't BFFs. I would also add in that it feels like its more of a one-sided friendship. Cohn talks about his life and his feelings very honestly with Jake, even talking about his crush on Brett openly and asking Jake to go travel with him. But with Jake, it feels like he's just trying to be nice to Cohn and treats him like a little boy. He's not the type of guy Jake would go hang out with to talk about his problems or confide in or just have a great time. Jake just kind of pities Cohn and is "friends" with him because he knows no one else is going to.
ReplyDeleteI agree both with you and Tim. I think that the relationship between Jake and Cohn is very shallow and doesn't involve much compassion, if none at all. They are companions for the sake of being companions, and the reason why they haven't been able to connect on a deeper level is Jake's insecurities of being "unmanly". I think that Jake sees Cohn more as an object of jealously in a way, because he is a "full man" which is why he is so quick to attack Cohn at places where Cohn seems "unmanly" in the way he behaves and interacts.
ReplyDeleteI don't know- this is a viable viewpoint and I could definitely see it being true, but I think about their relationship a different way. When I was little, my best friend talked to other people about me the way that Jake talks about Cohn to us. Later she told me that it was only out of jealousy. The two of us were super close, but she found that putting me down in front of other people gave her a sense of authority and made them see her as superior. If you haven't noticed I'm not a guy, so this phenomenon had nothing to do with masculinity. I think this is exactly what's going on between Robert and Jake. IMO, they're probably far more close than Jake let's on and he's only rude about Cohn because of his own insecurity.
ReplyDeleteWith the examples of Cohn and the men who accompany Brett to the bar, it's becoming clear that Jake isn't just applying his standard of "manliness" and criticizing anyone who doesn't measure up. Brett has everything to do with it: we see a similar kind of dismissal of others who have expressed interest in her or aligned themselves with her. Like so much else in this novel, it's becoming clear that Brett has a lot to do with Jake's values and the way he speaks about others. He *uses* masculinity as the basis for his criticism, but that doesn't mean it's the sole reason for his criticism.
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