Entry #9

Throughout the book, I have been given the impression that Jake and Robert Cohn are friends. Cohn even goes so far to call Jake his best friend, but I had been given the impression that Jake did not exactly share those same feelings.

"Why I felt that impulse to devil him I do not know. Of course I do know, I was blind, unforgivingly jealous of what happened to him. The fact that I took it as a matter of course did not alter that any. I certainly did hate him. I do not think I ever really hated him until he had that little spell of superiority at lunch..." (page 105).

This section affirmed my thought that Jake was getting fed-up with Cohn. He intentionally tortured his "best friend." I don't think that these two ever really seemed like best friends. Instead I though that Cohn just didn't have many friends and Jake was one person who was actually nice to him. This seems like a horrible life to me. He has what seems like an awful girlfriend, some friends who don't actually like him, and he is not happy with what he is doing and has done in life. Maybe all that partying and drinking has factored into all of this, but that's just speculation.