Motivation

The motivation in the novel is clearly love. That seems to be Brett's reason for existence, or so she thinks, and it surrounds her and many of the men in the book. First, she loves Jake. They have their past, but she's tried to move on. So then there's Mike. She says she loves him, and they plan to get married after she is divorced from her current husband. Then Cohn comes along. Brett and Cohn have a little "fling" in San Sebastian which means nothing to her and everything to him. And then he knocks out half of their "friends" because he wants to be with her. And finally, Romero. On page 220, Jake narrates "...he [Romero] loved Brett. Everything of which he could control the locality he did in front of her all that afternoon." He wanted to show off for her and prove his love/worth to her. All of this begs the question "Does Brett really love anyone?" But I suppose that as long as the men think they're in love, it's all the same to her.

Paris to Pamplona

As I stated in a previous blog, it seems like the characters in the novel don't even like Paris. They all talk about how dirty it is and how they get sick of the town itself. However, everything is good in Paris for everybody. They party and sleep around (cough cough...Brett...cough cough), and no one gets in fights or gets "sore" as they say in the book. Their descriptions of Spain make it sound as though the grass is greener there. (I wish that counted as another lit term blog for "cliche"...sad face.) They talk about how beautiful the countryside is when they're on the train, and places are described as "nice" and "very clean" like on page 96. But once they all arrive in Spain, things go downhill fast. Mike gets mad at Brett, everyone now publicly despises Cohn, and no one can stay sober for more than five minutes. I don't understand how a place that seems to be all-around better than Paris in the opinions of the characters can be the center of so much more turmoil.

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."