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Does Brett need help?

In class discussion we touched on the question of how much Brett really needs Jake when she telegraphs him at the end of the book.

To some extent it seems like Brett wants Jake’s help but doesn’t need it. She describes herself as “RATHER IN TROUBLE” which the qualifier rather makes less urgent than it could be (242). If the situation isn’t really urgent, it’s possible Brett could solve her problems herself, without Jake’s help. Brett could just be taking advantage of how willing Jake is to immediately come to her aid. Brett has done this in the past; she probably could have gotten together with Romero without getting Jake to introduce her.

But I think Brett really did need Jake.

For one thing Brett needs Jake’s money. We know she’s broke at the moment because she tells Jake about Romero’s efforts to give her money: “I told him I had scads of it. He knew that was a lie.” (246).We know she thought she needed Jake to pay for her hotel at least when she sent the telegram because Jake  describes trying to pay for it: “The woman who ran the hotel would not let me pay the bill. The bill had been paid.” (247). Brett also still needs to buy food and transportation back to Paris, or really since she’s broke, she needs someone to buy it for her and Jake is her most viable option. Mike can’t pay for everything because he’s bankrupt and given that her husband “used to tell her that he’d kill her,” she probably doesn’t want to ask him for help.

Brett also needs Jake because he can speak Spanish. We know Brett can’t speak Spanish because she asks Romero to teach her Spanish: “‘Sit down,’ Brett said to him, “You must teach me Spanish.” (190). Brett is alone in a country where she doesn’t speak the language in a time period when not as many people learned English. In order to navigate around Madrid and get back to Paris, Brett needs someone to translate for her and Jake is the friend who speaks Spanish. Having just translated for her entire friend group on their big trip, he is the obvious choice to ask for help.


Brett also needs Jake’s emotional support. She is deeply distressed by the way her relationship with Romero ended. Jake describes her crying: “She looked away. I thought she was looking for another cigarette. Then I saw she was crying. I could feel her crying. Shaking and crying. I put my arms around her.” (247). This is the only time we see Brett crying in the book and she goes on crying for a while; as the conversation continues Jake again notes: “I could feel her crying” and “I could feel her shaking.” Brett must be really, deeply upset. However you feel about her relationship with Jake, it’s understandable that she needs someone she knows well to comfort her. Out of her close friends we meet in the book, Jake is the only one who isn’t mad at her and so the only one who she could reasonably expect to be any help.

Comments

  1. Ayat JaberOctober 11, 2017 at 8:03 AM

    You brought up strong points. Throughout the book, Jake seems to be the support of a lot of people, because he always holds his feelings to himself without showing them to others (except for Brett at times). His stoic-ness and work ethic allows others to hold on to him for his money and emotional support. No one really ever gets mad at Jake, with Cohn even apologizing for beating him. Brett doesn't have anyone with such a deep friendship (and romance?) history like Jake, and he is always there for her to lean on in the end. It may be manipulative on Brett's part, but she doesn't really have anyone else at this time, right?

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  2. MitchellOctober 17, 2017 at 9:16 AM

    And when people get upset with Jake for "putting up with" Brett, and complaining that he "doesn't get anything out of" their relationship, I would cite a moment like this at the end--yes, Brett very much needs Jake here, and it's not just (or even mainly) about the money. He knows that she's carrying around some sadness and suffering, just as she knows that he isn't quite the "complete man" he pretends to be when they're in public. They know each other's pain, and there is a sense in which, when the dust clears, they will be there for each other. What does Jake "get out of it"? The chance to be needed, to have someone rely on him, to give him a purpose in life, in a sense. Amid the aimlessness and irony and empty bacchanalia in the novel, there is a solid and dependable relationship at the core. Parties can be left behind; the essential Jake-Brett moments take place in their private rooms, or alone together in cabs.

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