Jake, both as an “above all” narrator and as an internally conflicted character, is constantly speaking from a place of insecurity. This specific form of hypermasculine insecurity is one that I can fairly confidently trace back to Jake’s unfortunate war wound that quite literally takes away his manhood. Jake is often overcompensating through his sparse narrative style and his homophobia/antisemitism/ racism and, through this overcompensation, I have actually learned to like him as a character significantly less. I also think that Jake’s overcompensation for his lack of (functional) genitals makes him an unreliable narrator, or at least an interesting perspective, for the other ~3 characters in the book that also lack what Jake specifically lacks. These characters of course being: Georgette, Frances, and Lady Brett Ashley.
Georgette is a prostitute and not especially bright from the limited conversation we get from her. She is toted around by Jake before being abandoned in a bar in favor of Brett. Although Georgette is beautiful and feminine, this is shown to be more of a fault than working in her favor.
Frances is Cohn’s ex-girlfriend who we meet briefly at the beginning of the book. While she is markedly smarter than Georgette, she uses this intelligence to manipulate and nag Cohn. Jake wonders why Cohn just sits there and takes it- bonus points because he’s insulting both Cohn’s lack of masculinity while also insulting Frances.
Finally there’s Brett. She is introduced as quite a feminine figure, but offsets this by sporting a boyish hairstyle and calls herself “chap”. This is the only woman in the book that sticks around as a pivotal character in Jake’s story. I think it is especially interesting that the only woman in the book that Jake becomes infatuated with (although there don’t seem to be a whole lot of women to choose from) is one that puts just as much energy into coming across as “masculine” and detached as Jake does.
It is an intriguing look into how Jake thinks about women, as well as men, when he forces himself to compensate for his war wound. If he, hypothetically, doesn’t think of himself as enough of a man with his war wound and without his manhood, how does he see women who weren’t born with one in the first place?
I thought your comment on how Jake is for some reason more "attracted" to a masculine / androgynous woman was an interesting one. Perhaps this is another way where Jake is overcompensating for his lack of masculinity. Also, it's strange how Jake is clearly more conservative when it comes to his ideas about "gender roles" but is still attracted to a more "masculine" figure.
ReplyDeleteThat is definitely an interesting perspective. Personally I am also not a fan of Jake for a lot of the reasons you said, mainly him being a untrustworthy narrator. I want to know about these characters and Jake makes it harder to truly know things about them. I never really thought about the reasons why while reading the book though and I think your reasons make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI think the amount of value Jake assigns to masculinity shows that there's some misogyny going on. He might be attracted to Brett's masculine traits because he doesn't respect femininity, and is able to take her more seriously because she's unconventional in some ways?
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely right that Jake seemed to heavily emphasize that Brett is boyish and "just another one of the guys". However, as Ariana mentioned in her comment, Jake seems like the type of person to really buy into the traditional gender roles and all, so it was kind of a surprise that this characteristic of Brett is portrayed as positive. Maybe Brett just get's a special pass because he loves her, and it makes her special. I also think it's interesting that Jake describes Francis, a pretty feminine woman, as manipulative and toxic to Cohn, while not acknowledging any of the not-great things Brett does to him (I'm still team Brett on that whole chat discussion tho). Does Brett's masculinity play into that? Maybe like men/masculine people don't rely on manipulation while woman do?
ReplyDeleteYes, I think this unfortunately can be traced back to his wound. He seems obsessed with masculinity as a result and it influences his relationships with both men and woman.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Jake has super fragile masculinity from his wound, and he tears down any man he sees as a threat to him because of that. You make a good point that his sense of self hinges on his wound and physical characteristics, so he views everyone else by the same standards. I didn't really consider that women's anatomy would affect how he views them, but it makes sense how distasteful he is towards them. He only really shows respect to a woman who firmly aligns herself with men and is dominant towards him.
ReplyDeleteJake's attraction to Brett's androgyny is rather perplexing. But I agree with Bianca's comment and ultimately think that Jake likes Brett's masculine traits because he respects her more for them. I definitely think Jake has a misogynistic "she's not like other girls" thing going on.
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