Jake's Conflicting Views on Boxing
Image of a man boxing a bull.( https://www.freeimages.com/premium-vector/man-boxing-bull-2850106 ) The Sun Also Rises opens with a long description of Cohn’s boxing ability, which Jake presents as unimpressive and even demeaning. However, the reason for this long explanation of boxing is unclear until much later in the book. Jake's need to exude masculinity causes him to go on long tangents of traditionally male activities, like fishing, cycling races, and crucially bullfighting. In part these digressions serve to distract Jake from his suppressed feelings about his life and injury, but what I find most interesting is Jake’s conflicting opinions about boxing. When Cohn boxes Jake belittles him for it. He even says, “I never met anyone of his class who remembered him. They did not even remember that he was a middleweight boxing champion” (1). Cohn was not part of the lost generation whose lives were forever altered by the war. Instead of battling in real world combat, he foug...