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1. When Jake Barnes rebuffs the prostitute
Georgette because he is "sick," she says, "Everybody's sick. I'm sick,
too" (p.23). Is Georgette's observation an appropriate description of
the people in the novel? Why is Jake's emasculating wound such an
effective symbol?
2. When Jake and Bill walk during the Paris evening looking at Notre
Dame, watching young lovers, and savoring cooking smells, Jake asks
whether Bill would like a drink. Why does Bill respond, "No...I don't
need it" (p. 83)? Why does Jake say that for Cohn the Bayonne cathedral
was "a very good example of something or other" (p. 96)?
3. Is Jake and Bill's fishing trip to Burguete relevant to the epigraph
from Ecclesiastes? How do their conversations in Burguete differ from
those they have back in Pamplona? How do Robert's, Mike's, and Brett's
absences from the fishing trip set them apart from Jake and Bill? Why is
the Englishman Harris included in the Burguete scene?
4. How would you describe Jake Barnes's relationship with Brett? Does he
love her; understand her? Is his view of Brett constant? How does he see
her at the close of the novel? What does he mean when he says, "Isn't it
pretty to think so," when Brett tells him that they "could have had such
a damned good time together" (p. 251)?
5. If Hemingway's novel is about "the lost generation," do we conclude
that all five of the persons who have gone to Pamplona are lost? Is
there evidence that moral or spiritual cleansing ever takes place in the
novel?
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