RARA-AVIS: Re: _Huck Finn_, the ending

From: Douglas Hoffman ( azureus@harborside.com)
Date: 20 Jun 2007


> In "The Sun Also Rises" the narrator's references to
> his Jewish compatriot, who had the brief relationship
> with Brett, are pretty anti-Semitic, as I recall.

Hi, folks. Frequent lurker, infrequent poster.

Cohn is introduced as someone who boxed (in college, I think? high school?) not because he loved it, but because he had to -- to defend himself against guys who would beat him up for being Jewish. If I remember correctly, Hemingway put Cohn down not for being Jewish, but for playing at a sport for something other than love. Cohn is not an aficionado -- he has no affection for boxing (nor bullfighting) -- and thus deserves to be despised by the author.

Hope I'm remembering that right. I haven't read TSAR in about 20 years. I recall not being offended by the antisemitism (and I am Jewish) but by Hemingway's ridiculous code of aficion.

Doug



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