Brett and Mike

Brett and Mike have a peculiar relationship. Brett sleeps with every man she meets and is in love with Jake and possibly Pedro Romero. A real classy woman, right? Anyway, her attitude toward men doesn't appear to have an adverse effect on Mike at the beginning of the novel. He seems almost oblivious, and I think he truly was oblivious to Brett and Jake's relationship. However, later in the novel, Mike becomes sensitive to Brett's promiscuous habits, and an external conflict develops. On page 210, a drunken Mike makes the distasteful comment "How's your boy friend?...Brett's got a bull-fighter...She had a Jew named Cohn, but he turned out badly." Mike's relationship with Brett appears to be falling apart toward the end of the novel, and Brett's attitude doesn't help anything. She doesn't seem like the type to get married. She'd be cheating like crazy. She can't control herself at all as she says on page 187: "I can't help it. I'm a goner now anyway...I've got to do something I really want to do. I've lost my self-respect."