Is Brett and Jake's emotional relationship enough?
While writing this post, I was compelled to differentiate between Brett and Jake, to play devil's advocate and argue against either of the characters. I wanted to flesh out why, exactly, Jake and Brett's relationship would never work. I eventually surmised that Brett and Jake have very different understandings of what constitutes a successful relationship -- Brett defines a perfect relationship as involving both romantic and physical elements, while Jake views his relationships as purely emotional. I assumed this created a rift between them, a chasm of Brett's promiscuity that Jake simply couldn't fulfill. However, I was gravely mistaken. Throughout the novel, Brett relies on Jake for emotional support. She sleeps with other men and gets angry when they act possessive; she returns to Jake when her other relationships go haywire and waxes poetic about how he has never acted as "badly" as her other suitors and how he's the best of them all (Hemingway 187). ...