English 015 - Americans Abroad
Charlie as a Symbol of the Future
Charlie as a Symbol of the Future
Category: 2E: Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald | Bryan Ciborowski
While abroad, Americans assimilate themselves into the ‘in-crowd’ in order to establish security amidst European society and culture. With this security comes the sacrifice of a personal identity struggle. This struggle results from arguments and fights amongst the ‘in-crowd’, which prove to be extremely self-revealing and reflecting. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway demonstrates this idea of self-revealance through his characters Jake and Cohn. Insecurity amongst the ‘in-crowd’ is inevitable and arises from false friendships, masculinity, and a desire for love. Each of these characters self image is altered by the end of the novel. Charlie, in Babylon Revisited, exemplifies how Jake and Cohn would react if they had left Europe for an extended period of time, returned, and looked back upon their experience abroad to see their foolishness.
Jake and Charlie share many of the same qualities, but have striking differences. Charlie and Jake can be tied together by each of their personal regrets and selfish actions: Jake with his impotence and Charlie by indirectly murdering his wife. Charlie would completely change, without a doubt, the course of his life by altering his involvement in Paris, along with his alcohol indulgences, which both lead to his responsibility of his wife’s death. Jake, on the other hand, is harder to predict whether or not he would sacrifice not participating in WWI and taking mockery, much like Cohn, because of it, in order to have Brett in his life like her wants her to be. Jake and Charlie are also seen having similar alcoholic indulgences. Another similarity is that both Jake and Charlie have anger towards another character in the book. Charlie can be seen this way as a more mature, older version of Jake. In contrast with the more mature Charlie who has no outright anger towards Marion, but rather internal anger, Jake’s anger is seen through his outward cruelty towards Cohn behind his back when drunk. One key difference between Jake and Charlie is that Charlie attempts to remedy the problems in his life by trying to get his daughter back in order to live a healthier, wholesome life, unlike Jake who just drinks his problems, mainly his impotence, away.
Charlie could also represent the future like of Cohn. In contrast with Charlie, Cohn has always been an outsider. Although Charlie was apart of the ‘in-crowd’ earlier in his life, he is now seemingly not a part of the ‘in-crowd’, or no other crowd because of his sole concern in Europe, his daughter. Cohn has several qualities that make it hard for him to be an integral part of the ‘in-crowd’. A major quality that keeps Cohn on the outside in numerous situations is his religion. From being a Jew at Princeton to not being a war veteran, Cohn is verbally abused by those around him. Cohn is also made fun of because of his value system. His value system consists of romance and honor, which would be valued by the more mature version of Charlie. It is to argue to that the old Charlie would verbally abuse Cohn much like the others do around him such as Jake and Bill. Much like the others, Charlie would take out his insecurities on Cohn to make himself feel better. Both Cohn and Charlie share the same quality of rejection. Charlie refuses the loss of his daughter because of his wife’s murder and Cohn refuses to accept Brett’s rejection.
Because of all the similarities between Jake, Bill, and Cohn with Charlie, we can assume that the characters in The Sun Also Rises reveal the parts of Charlie’s life that we do not read about in Babylon Revisited. False friendships spring from a common ground between all of the characters in these stories. Being American unites everyone along with drinking. The characters in these stories are drinking to avoid reality and create a distraction for themselves that is void of any insecurity. The characters in The Sun Also Rises exemplify how drinking makes it easy for people to form connections with one another. These drinking interactions have no point and are seen as pointless debauchery that contributes nothing to the lives of these characters. They drink because they have no purpose in their meaningless lives. Charlie’s life once seemed like he was a member of the Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises, but now his life has a purpose and a goal that will bring his life new meaning. Although not knowing it, all the Americans in The Sun Also Rises and Babylon Revisited are automatically a part of a group, the Lost Generation. Already being apart of a group removes insecurity abroad with comfort in having a common bond with other people.
Within the false friendships that are created amongst the Americans in the two stories, there is insecurity with the men in regards to their masculinity. It seems that WWI made people reevaluate what it meant to be a man. People now have realized that survival in the war was based more upon luck than bravery. Because all the veterans of the war in The Sun Also Rises feel insecure about their masculinity, in order to establish security within themselves, they criticize Cohn for not participating in the war. They also criticize Cohn for his unmanly behavior of following around Brett all the time and being aware of her every action. Charlie can be seen losing his masculinity not in the war but in the inhumane, unmanly act of locking his wife out in a cold sandstorm resulting in her sickness and ultimately her death. His wife’s murder can be seen as a metaphor for his loss of impotence. A desire for love can be seen as demonstrating a manhood quality because it is required to live a wholesome, healthy life. Charlie’s loves for his daughter, and Jake and Cohn’s desire for Brett exemplify these characters desire to remove insecurities.
Charlie is just a future example of how Jake and Cohn could be like. It seems that if Charlie were a character in The Sun Also Rises, he would fit right into the ‘in-crowd’. Charlie’s past alcohol consumptions and experiences would allow him to flourish as a part of the ‘in-crowd’. Charlie’s life reflection in Babylon Revisited causes him to regret past experience in Europe. I feel that the more mature Charlie could provide a guiding hand to the main characters in The Sun Also Rises so that they do not make any more mistakes than they already have.
Posted by on October 30, 2003 at 04:04 PM