the s

Men

Jake

Can't seem to relate to women

Romero

easily picks up Brett

Cohn

Doesn' t do too well with the ladies (or really anyone for that matter)

Mike

Controlling

Doesn't really appreciate women

Women

Brett Ashley

Charachteristics

attractive

intelligent

She knows what she wants

leads to her overlooking any relationship with Janke

her inner drive and selfishness leads her to hurt the menn she thinks she loves.

Selfish

Dates for status or personal satisfaction

Example: Relationship with the Count

But she's not...

sensitive

faithful

kind or sympathetic

There's only one main woman in the book...

Brings up competition between the men

Demeaning view of Women

turn her into more of a prize than a lover

Isolation

Jake and some of the other men who have been wounded find it hard to assimilate back into society, and find it hard to connect with others who don't share the same experinces.

Violence

They find comfort in bullfighting for its violence, feels natural after the war.

Their friend circle is often involved in drama, there are fights and fallouts all over.

Jake notes that "it all seem[s] like some bad play"; they're never able to enjoy each other's company or stop the competition.

Need for a coping mechanism

Caused some of them a sort of trauma, whether psychological or physical.

Jake finds that his physical affliction causes him an equal amount of psychological pain.

Most of the charachters in TSAR have found alcohol as a useful tool to block out the dreadful past and the equally dull future.

Careers

Jake and Bill are the only productive ones, the others have either failed in their careers or simply stopped trying.

Jake seems to have settled for the gossip column, he hasn't aspired to move beyond marginal small talk.

Love

Brett is the only one who really knows what she wants out of a relationship (personal satisfaction)

Ends up hurting Jake out of this selfishness, Jake is passive and never actively tries to engage Brett in a real relationship, even though he would really like to.

She notes to him at the end of the book that "[they] could've had such a damned good time together,"to which Jake can only reply "isn't it pretty to think so?"

Both of them acknowlage the fact that they should not have been so passive in their relationships.

A Source of dissatisfaction

Passivity in relationships and other affairs lead the characters to unhappiness and disengagement from normal activities.

Don't strive to get what they want, simply feel that life can pass them by, and it wont really matter to them.

"Don't you ever get the feeling that all your life is going by and you're not taking advantage of it?"

They realise that they have been allowing life to slip past them without ever truly living it.

Inadequacy leads them to settle for lonliness.

She ultimately finds herself unsatisfied playing the role that she has been assigned, feels that she could have done better had she lowered her standards.