4. Lonely Jacob

In chapters 3 and 4, one of the most prominent ideas I caught on to was that Jake Barnes is one lonely guy. For starters, most of this novel has taken place at a bar of some sort. Liquor seems to always find its way into Jake's hands. Secondly, Jake meets up with Georgette, a woman who seems to be quite comfortable getting friendly with persons of the opposite gender... He buys her a drink and then takes her out to eat because he believed "that it would be nice to eat with someone," (24). He is lonely and finds that company would bring him some form of happiness.

After spending time with Lady Brett Ashley, we also find Jake to be experiencing loneliness and sadness over his war injury as he tries to fall asleep on page 39: "Then all of a sudden I started to cry." I am about 99.99% positive that if someone goes to bed crying (especially a man) then they are most definitely going through a rough time emotionally. As the novel continues I am very interested to see how Jake overcomes these feelings, or if he ever does.