We Hate What We See In Others

In life, I have found, that those that we have developed an immediate or slow dislike to, are usually those that we attach to certain aspects of our own personality that we feel self-conscious about. If, for example, one dislikes the fact that they perceive themselves as needy, or too attached to something, they will dislike those around them that echo this aspect of themselves. We have developed a certain dislike and irrational hatred to parts of ourselves, and upon seeing someone display these traits in the open we see ourselves echoed in their actions. Because of this we hate them. Normally we have no idea why, because we have not examined what it is we hate about them. But, most of the time, it is simply because they cat in some way that reminds us what we fear about ourselves. Similarly, those that we hold close and affiliate ourselves with often are those that echo the traits that we see as positive. Weather or not we desire these traits, and therefore feel a disposition to like this person, or we have these traits and upon seeing the person act in ways that we ourselves would, we see our goals and ourselves within the actions of another person.

If we accept that those we hate are those who reflect an aspect of ourselves that we dislike, we can say that the reason Jake, in The Sun Also Rises hates Robert Cohn is because he associates his own personal problems with Cohn. After the First World War, Jake receives a war wound that renders him impotent. Because of this he feels completely demasculated, although he can experience sexual desire his is incapable of performing any sexual act. This causes him to retreat into himself, and throw up a wall of indifference. His demasculation destroys him inside, and he hates not only his incapability to have sex, but also blames himself for what has happened. Before Jake was a soldier, a masculine and powerful figure, but now with his manhood taken away, he feels himself to be nothing of a man. He describes Cohn by saying “Externally he had been formed at Princeton.  Internally he had been formed by the two women who had trained him”. Meaning that Cohn also displays the signs of demasculation. Although Cohn was a champion boxer, his experience at Princeton formed him into a self doubting and unconfident person. While he fits into the category of what is considered manly by being a champion boxer, his personality lets him down, and masculine is never defined as being self conscious, doubting, and needy. He was raised by his mother, and because of his experience at Princeton Cohn married the first woman who was nice to him. She trained him, and ultimately fits into the ‘second mother’ role, as leaving Princeton Cohn was still a boy in his mind. Jake see’s Cohn as someone who fits a masculine role, but ultimately because of his character and experiences is demasculated. Within Cohn, Jake see’s someone exactly like him. He hates Cohn, not for who Cohn is, but for what Cohn reflects about Jake. This is the reason that Hemmingway opens the novel with a description of Cohn. Through Cohn we can see the aspects of Jake that causes Jake to become the self hating and indifferent person that he is. Cohn acts a mirror, showing Jake all that he hates about himself, and this causes Jake to despise Cohn.

This could also explain why Jake has a connection with Brett. Brett represents all that Jake see’s positive about himself. With her nonchalant attitude (when sober). And his lack of direction and purpose, Jake see’s his own personality and desires reflect through her actions. Because she reflects all that Jake could have had before his impotence, Jake loves her. He not only loves her, but that way that see acts as a mirror of his perceived positive aspects of his personality.

In the novel The Sun Also Rises we learn the desires, the fears, and the aspects of our protagonist’s personality not only through description of him, but also to how he describes and relates to other characters. Jake surroundings act as canvas onto which he pours his own personality. While we can infer parts of Jake’s personality through his actions, the subtle and discrete ways that he reacts to that around him give the reader a much larger image of Jake.

 

I got the idea for this by reading this.

This Quote got me thinking about the idea’s I discussed in the Blog Post
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.”
– Hermann Hesse

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