Crazy Cohn.

I really dislike Cohn. It's a very straightforward feeling. I don't even care that he's Jewish for that fact has nothing to do with my judgment of him. It's the way he talks, the way he's awkwardly trailing after Brett, the way he sends Frances away, and the way he's so easily susceptible to others' influences. Like Jake, I do not consider him a masculine figure, certainly not one worthy of Brett's love. At best, Cohn is pitiable, rather like a puppy. Brett takes him to San Sebastian out of pity, Jake befriends him to offer him advice - reading the interactions between the two, I think Jake is very much motivated by a feeling of sympathy and perhaps a bit of jealousy for Cohn still has his life, his masculinity, but he's squandering it away.

And then there's the fact Cohn's a punching machine. He's extremely volatile, almost naively so. He has a complete lack of control over his emotions and resorts to the most brutal and crude way of expressing his rage. Unlike Jake and Bill, and to a certain extent Mike, Cohn is unbelievably sensitive. It's almost feminine the way feelings leap and soar in him. It's a terrible weak trait in a Hemingway hero, and it certainly not admirable. It makes him susceptible to others' derision and an easy target. I do not condone the way Mike jeers over his Jewish ancestry, but there is a shade of justification for Mike. Cohn hangs around Brett like an adoring knight, which would be fine, almost sweet if you were utterly romantic, but he thinks too highly of himself. For he sees Brett as a woman to be claimed and protected by him, hero extraordinaire, when she doesn't need him and certainly doesn't want him.