Passage

'The sort of healthy conceit that he had when he returned from American early in the spring was gone. Then he had been sure of his work, only with these personal longings for adventure. Now the sureness was gone. Somehow I feel I have not shown Robert Cohn clearly. The reason is that until he fell in love with Brett, I never heard him make one remark that would, in any way, detach him from other people. He was nice to watch on the tennis-court, he had a good body, and he kept it in shape; he handled his cards well at bridge, and he had a funny sort of undergraduate quality about him. If he were in a crowd nothing he said stood out. He wore what used to be called polo shirts at school, and may be called that still, but he was not professionally youthful. I do not believe he thought about his clothes much. Externally he had been formed at Princeton. Internally he had been molded by the two women who had trained him. He had a nice boyish sort of cheerfulness that had never been trained out of him, and I probably have not brought it out. He loved to win at tennis. He probably loved to win as much as Lenglen, for instance. On the other hand, he was not angry at being beaten. When he fell in love with Brett his tennis game went all to pieces. People beat him who never had a change with him. He was nice about it."

Page 51-52

I chose this passage because this shows Cohn as a foil similar to the first chapter. And this passage also shows the way that Jake sees Cohn. Reading this passage displays the way that Jake views Cohn as a child by refering to him as a boy, and describing him as having "a funny sort of of undergraduate quality." From this you can see that Jake sees him as a lesser man than himself because he acts like a younger person. Jake also compares Cohn to a woman, Lenglen, this further emasculates Cohn and displays Jakes view of Robert. From this passage we also learn quite a lot about Cohn's personality and how it developed.

"Wimbledon - Suzanne Lenglen."Wimbledon - The Home of Wimbledon. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. .

http://naoisemcmanus.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/important-passages-in-chapter-vii/

I think that the passage Naoise chose is important because here we can really see the relationship that Brett and Jake have together. In this passage we can also see that the relationship they do have it more complicated than just a passing fancy. We also get some insight into Brett personality in this passage. Because we understand that Brett and Jake cannot be together even though they clearly have feelings, we see Brett try and distance herself from him by traveling and Jake just wants to spend time with her. This displays Brett as part of the lost generation because she is just trying to run away from the problem instead of trying to work something out for the two of them.

After reading Naoise's justification I now understand more of Jake's reaction in the passage. As throughout the entire novel sentimentality sentimentality is frowned upon and here Jake expresses is feelings. I find it interesting that throughout the novel emotional episodes are frowned upon and the minute that Jake is sentimental he is rejected by Brett, this shows that even Brett who professes to love his does feel comfortable talking about emotions and sees Jake as weaker when he does.