Cool Girl Brett

I wrote a comment on Tina's blog and got inspired and this is the product of that.

Throughout our discussions of The Sun Also Rises, I sympathized with Brett, but not because of the hardships she went through. I sympathized with her because Hemingway's portrayal of her character was undeveloped and shallow. She was seen only through Jake's "male gaze" (as used by Tina), meaning the only aspects of her individuality that were described and valued were her physical appearance and sexuality. Brett is first described by Jake as "damned good-looking," and he proceeds to describe her appearance in great detail. The reader learns exactly how Brett's hair looks and what material her skirt is made of, but we don't know anything about her occupation, education, or interests. Contrasting Brett's introduction with Robert Cohn, the reader learns from the first line of the novel that he "was once a middleweight boxing champion of Princeton." Despite the fact that Jake hated Cohn, Jake reveals more about him from the first sentence of the novel than about Brett from the entirety of the story. Brett is what Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl, would call the Cool Girl. To get a sense of what that means, here is an excerpt from Flynn's novel:

"She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer...and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth...while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding."

We talked about Brett being somewhat androgynous in class, but I would argue that her masculine qualities stem from this Cool Girl persona. Obviously video games were not as popular in the 20th century, but there are glaring similarities between the Cool Girl and Brett's character. She is considered "one of the guys" because her drinking habits match or exceed theirs. But even when she is drunk, Brett maintains a level of flirtiness and composure that Mike, for example, does not have. In fact, most of the male characters in the novel get rowdy, rude, or sloppy at some point while under the influence. But Brett remains witty and carefree, with "curves like the hull of a racing yacht," as Jake reminds us. 

The problem is, Cool Girl does not actually exist; she is a figment of male imagination. Hemingway attempted to bring this Cool Girl to "life" in the form of Brett. But because Cool Girl is not real, this personification does not work because you cannot develop her into a 3-Dimensional character. Her existence depends on there being males in her life. When she is distressed, it is about her boy troubles, when she is happy, it is because she is falling in love. I sympathize with Brett because she had the potential to be a powerful character, with the same personality development we see in the male principle characters. In other words, she deserved an author who recognized the importance of developed female characters and that Cool Girl does not count as one.