CHAPTERS 7-8
Chapter 7 Summary: Jake returns to his flat to find Brett, along with count Mippipopolous waiting for him. Jake asks Brett if she remembers “anything about a date with [him] at the Crillon,” to which Brett responds with, “No. Did we have one? I must have been blind.” The count comments that Brett was, indeed, “quite drunk.” The characters pour out some wine and Jake turns to his room to change. Brett follows Jake into his room, kisses Jake “coolly on the forehead,” and sends the count away to give them privacy. Jake, once again, professes his love for her and asks her if they can move away together, going “off in the country for a while.” Brett claims that this would be impossible for them because she would “just tromper [Jake] with everyone else.” At this point, Brett tells Jake that she is going off to San Sebastian tomorrow. At this point, the count comes back, and the characters have a conversation about wines, titles and emotions. After, they head over to Zelli’s in Montmartre. Here, Brett tells Jake that she is planning on marrying Mike after her divorce is settled. Jake offers to contribute some money to the marriage, but Brett declines, saying, “Micheal’s people have loads of money.” Brett and Jake dance while the count watches. At the chapter’s conclusion, Jake and Brett kissed at the night and parted ways. Chapter 7 also concludes Book I of Hemingway’s novel.
Chapter 8 Summary: Beginning Book II, Chapter 8 opens with Jake receiving a San Sebastian post card from Brett. The reader learns that Cohn has gone “out in the country for a couple of weeks” and Frances has gone off to England. Bill Gorton, a fellow American, is introduced in the novel. Jake received post cards from Bill’s is travels in Vienna and Budapest, causing Jake to comment that “Bill was very happy.” However, once Bill visits Jake in Paris, he tells Jake that “It [Vienna] seemed better than it was.” Bill tells Jake about a “prize-fight,” using derogatory, racist language to refer to a fighter in Vienna. After, Jake and Bill head out in search of somewhere to eat. While walking, the men have a conversation about taxidermy and dead animals. As they are walking, Bill notices a cab passing with a “Beautiful lady [who is] going to kidnap us.” The woman was Brett, having returned from her San Sebastien trip. Brett and Bill are introduced to one another and the three characters make their way to the Closerie des Lilas for a drink. After their time together at the café, they plan to meet up again that evening “at the Select around ten.” Brett tells the men that Mike, her fiancé, will be there tonight as well. Jake and Bill continue on together and grab dinner at the Madame Lecomte’s restaurant. After dinner, the men walked along “the left bank of the Seine by the wooden foot-bridge and looked down the de Bethune, and stopped on the bridge and looked down the river at Notre Dame.” After some time, the men meet up with Brett and Mike at the Closerie des Lilas. The group engage in conversation, which leads to tension between Mike and Brett. Bill suggests seeing a fight later in the evening, to which Brett and Mike decline. Jake accepts and follows Bill to the Ledoux fight.
Chapter 7 Annotations
Gentille 🇫🇷
Feminine form of gentil- kind, nice
Quelqu’une 🇫🇷
Feminine form of quelqu’un- someone
Pelouse 🇫🇷
-
[de jardin] lawn
-
(horse riding) public enclosure
(CollinsDictionary)
“The lawn enclosure area [of a racetrack[ with the cheapest admission (three francs in the mid-twenties)” (Stoneback 96)
Pesage 🇫🇷
1. [de marchandises] weighing
2. (Horse riding)
(= action) weigh-in
(= salle) weighing room
(enceinte) weighing enclosure
(CollinsDictionary)
“The paddock” (Stoneback 96)
The France
The SS “France” was produced in 1912 by the French shipping company, Compangnie Générale Transatlantique (CCG). The SS “France” was “220 meters, 45,000 horses and 24,838 tons, a veritable floating city” (Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives). The ship was built in the grand Victorian style of the early 20th century, providing both comfort and luxury to its passengers.
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The SS "France" Ocean Liner of Compagnie Générale Transatlantique - French Line (1912).
Image Source:https://www.gjenvick.com/OceanTravel/Brochures/CGT-FrLine-1912-SteamshipFrance.html
Grand Staircase of the First Class Dining Room.
Image Source:https://www.gjenvick.com/OceanTravel/Brochures/CGT-FrLine-1912-SteamshipFrance.html
Grand Salon of the First Class.
Image Source:https://www.gjenvick.com/OceanTravel/Brochures/CGT-FrLine-1912-SteamshipFrance.html
Blind: slang, drunk
(adj.) Heavily intoxicated to the point of unconsciousness
Two hundred francs
(noun) Currency, about $216 USD
Siphon
an old-fashioned soda water siphon that dispenses self-pressurized carbonated beverages.
Tromper 🇫🇷
-
(= abuser) to deceive
-
[conjoint] to be unfaithful to ⧫ to cheat on (informal)
-
[espoir, attente] to disappoint
-
[vigilance, poursuivants] to elude
(CollinsDictionary)
San Sebastien
A charming town in the north of Spain, which is Basque country, that relies mainly on tourism for its economy. It is named for St. Sebastian, the early Christian martyr (b. AD 256). The town was burned to the ground during the Napoleonic wars, which means that this location, like many others in the book, are tainted with the past history of wars.
San Sebastien postcards from the 1920s
Image Source: Ebay
Prohibition
Prohibition, present in the United States from 1920 to 1933, intended to reduce drinking by legally shutting down the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This measure stemmed from a fear of the unhealthy drinking behavior of Americans, which spread with continuing immigration from Europe.
Veuve Clicquot
Veuvue Clicquot Ponsardin (often shortened to Veuve Clicquot) is a Champagne house based in Reims, France and founded in 1772. It is credited with being one of the largest Champagne houses. Madame Clicquot, the wife of François Clicquot (the founder’s son) took over the business in 1805 when her husband died, becoming one of the first modern businesswomen.
Arrow wounds… Abyssinia
Abyssinia is a former name for Ethiopia, and the “arrow wounds” could have resulted from the First Italo-Ethiopian War, which lasted from 1895 to 1896. With its military victory, Abyssinia became the only African nation to resist European colonialism during the nineteenth century.
Chapter 8 Annotations
Vienna
Vienna was named the capital of the German-Austrian Empire in 1918 and then in 1919, the capital of Austria. It was known as a center of modernism and culture at the time Hemingway was writing, until about 1938, when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany.
[Jack] Dempsey
William Harrison Dempsey, nicknamed Jack Dempsey or the Manassa Mauler, was an American world heavyweight boxing champion. He held the champion title for seven years, from 1919 to 1926, and was renowned for almost continuously being on the offensive. During the time that Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises, Dempsey was still undefeated, which is why Hemingway makes the comment: “Any one of [the young heavyweights] was a good prospect to grow up, put on weight and trim Dempsey” (Hemingway 57).
Budapest
Today, Budapest is the capital of Hungary but before that, it was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy ruled by the Hapsburgs. In 1918, after the Austrian-Hungarian empire lost the war, Hungary declared itself an independent republic. It doesn’t seem incidental that the two places Bill Gorton mentions visiting, Vienna and Budapest, had just been radically reshaped by the war, and would have therefore been associated with the change of the modern era.
Tiger Flowers
Theodore “Tiger” Flowers, nicknamed “The Georgia Deacon” for his religious devotion, was an American professional boxer, active from 1918 to 1927 (“Tiger Flowers”). After beginning professional boxing at 22 years old, Flowers earned 21 straight victories before his first loss, and he compiled an overall record of 132 wins, 17 losses, 8 draws, and 4 no-contests over the course of 9 years (Moyle; “Tiger Flowers”). In 1926, Flowers became the first African-American World Middleweight Boxing Champion after defeating Harry Greb, who was only defeated five times during his entire career (Moyle).
Cologne
A city in Germany that had previously been contested territory in the Franco-Prussian wars. It was bombed by air raid in WWI and occupied by British forces until 1926 under the terms of the armistice.
Dempsey was thought of as the apotheosis of the professional fighter.
Image Source: www.britannica.com/biography/Jack-Dempsey
Hemingway, showcasing his interest in boxing, alludes to Tiger Flowers when Bill discusses the fights he saw in Vienna.
Image Source: https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/11336
A DH4 in flight over France
Image Source: https://today-in-wwi.tumblr.com/post/174024425313/british-bomb-cologne
Jack Roses
A Jack Rose was a cocktail popular in the 1920s and 1930s, consisting of applejack, grenadine, and lemon or lime juice. While the inventors of this cocktail are unknown, it is widely suspected to have been created by either Frank J. May – who was a mixologist at Gene Sullivan’s Café in Jersey City and claimed to be better known as “Jack Rose” – or Frank Haas, a veteran bartender at Eberline’s on Wall Street who invented a similar cocktail named The Daisy. Regardless of its origin, the Jack Rose was a hit up until the 1960s, where it disappeared from cocktail menus, but the last two decades have seen a resurgence of interest in pre-prohibition cocktails like the Jack Rose.
Daunted
(verb) Make someone feel intimidated or apprehensive
“I’m like a cat that way”
Hemingway had a life-long connection with pets and animals in his private life, exemplifying his “more empathetic, emotional side” (Kosiba 132). According to Sara A. Kosiba, “Hemingway’s pets provided a source of amusement and a distraction from the more serious aspects of life, as well as companionship and emotional support during lonely periods” (132-33). Hemingway even had a cat in Paris named F. Puss who became Bumby’s “babysitter” when the Hemingways were gone.
Hemingway, while living in his Cuban home, the Finca Vigía, had many cats in and around his property, most famously Princessa and Boise. Hemingway so loved these cats that he constructed “a tower built primarily to house the growing number of cats” on his property (Kosiba 133).
More can be found on Hemingway and his relationship with animals and his pets in Carlene Fredricka Brennen’s book Hemingway’s Cats: An Illustrated Biography.
Nix
(verb) Put an end to, cancel
“In it was Brett” (80) syntactical rhyme with “With them was Brett”
Syntax refers to the order of words in a sentence. Because Hemingway was influenced by Stein and her fascination of repetition, he found subtler ways to experiment with repetition in his prose. Chapter 3 shows the introduction of Brett into the narrative: “With them [the group of homosexuals] was Brett” (28). Further in the narrative, Hemingway describes the introduction of Brett and Bill in a similar fashion: “A taxi passed, some one in it waved, then banged for the driver to stop. The taxi backed up to the curb. In it was Brett [emphasis added]” (80). These two sentences mirror one another; the first half of each sentence provides the objects–the men and the taxi, respectively. The second half of each sentence is the exact same– “was Brett.” Here the syntactical rhyme is apparent. The subject-verb placement in each sentence parallels perfectly from Chapter 3 to Chapter 8. Thus, Hemingway is experimenting with syntactical rhyme.
Madame Leconte’s Restaurant
Jake and Bill dine at "Madame Lecomte's," a small hotel-restaurant named Le Rendez-Vous des Mariniers (long gone) on the Île Saint-Louis.
Quais 🇫🇷
1. [de port] quay
[de cours d’eau, canal] embankment
être à quai [navire] to be alongside
2. [de gare] platform
(CollinsDictionary)
American Women’s Club
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Women’s Club Movement originated from women in the early 1800s finding an acceptable social outlet outside the home by forming groups to help the community, support social change, and supplement women’s lack of higher education options (“Women’s Clubs”; Gere and Robbins 643; “Women’s Club Movement”). These clubs flourished between 1880 and the mid-1920s, which led to about two million women from various backgrounds to unite and work towards similar goals (Gere and Robbins 643-644). It is not clear which specific American Women’s Club Hemingway is referencing, as there were several clubs under this umbrella term that were rapidly gaining traction, including the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) organized in New York City in 1890 and the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) formed in Washington D.C. in 1896 (“Women’s Club Movement”).
Armistice
Hemingway references the end of World War I, as the Great War culminated in an armistice rather than a surrender. An armistice means “a suspension of hostilities” and “a ceasefire” (“Armistice, n.”). On November 11, 1918, the Armistice was signed in the Compiègne Forest in France between the Allies and the German diplomats, and peace was declared with the Treaty of Versailles one year later (Boutet).
A video showing the WWI Armistice in 1918
Slate (a small handheld chalkboard, here, upon which the bill is tallied)
(noun) A stone plate that is used to write on typically framed in wood and formerly used in schools
Compatriot
(noun) Fellow citizen or national of a country
“There was a patch of dried blood on the bridge of his nose.”
The nose has commonly been associated with the phallus. According to Howard E. Book, “Symbolically, the nose and penis are closely related,” leading the reader to sense psychological associations and undertones in this scene between Brett and Micheal. Micheal states that he has been wounded in the nose by “an old lady’s bags.” Jake notes “a patch of dried blood on the bridge of his nose.” Brett’s nose is also noted; however, her nose is described as “beautiful” with no visual damage.
If we are to take the nose as a phallic image, symbolically Mike’s penis has been wounded in the affair with the old lady. Because of the objectified language Mike uses against Brett in this scene, a valid interpretation lends itself to viewing Brett as the old woman who wounded Mike. There is also discussion surrounding a fight that Bill brings into the conversation (“There’s a fight to-night.”); Hemingway’s inclusion of another fight causes the reader to at least unconsciously associate Mike’s injury with the upcoming fight Bill wants to see. Taken in a literary sense, Hemingway has juxtaposed a sports fighting event with a relational fight to subtly demonstrate domestic abuse in Brett and Mike’s relationship. Clearly, Brett is jumping in and out of conventional gender norms (sleeping around, controlling presence, short hair, etc.). Brett could have caused injury to Mike’s phallus through her behavior, causing him to bleed “on the bridge of his nose”; in other words, he now has a wounded penis because of his inability to satisfy and keep Brett.
Brett on the other hand is given a “beautiful” nose– her phallus is unencumbered and pristine. Hemingway subtly and subconsciously evokes masculine attributes towards Brett while he explicitly plays with gender norms through his compelling female lead.
Interestingly, the surrealist movement “in literature and the visual arts emerged in Paris in the wake of World War I” after the Surrealist Manifesto was published in 1924 by André Breton (Taylor 91). According to Sue Taylor, surrealism, along with concentrating on the “inward focus,” also has “an intense fascination with sex, more overt than any preceding movement in Western art” (92). Taylor notes Freud’s first case of fetishism– the nose substituted for the penis (100).
“I say, Brett, you are a lovely piece.”
Throughout this exchange between Mike, Brett, and Bill, objectionable language is used against Brett, possibly suggesting relational strife between Brett and Mike. As was discussed, through subliminal psychological associations, Hemingway hints at an abusive domestic relationship between Brett and Mike. Mike continues to objective Brett through offensive language and non-personal referrals. For example, Mike states, “Isn’t she a lovely piece? Don’t you think Jake?... I had a date with this thing here” (85). Mike might be psychologically disassociating himself from Brett due to the injuries she might have caused him in their tussle. By referring to Brett in a non-personal, objectified fashion, Mike not only puts distance between himself and Brett but also lashes back out at her rhetorically, disrespecting her through his verbal attacks.