In The Sun Also Rises, Jake spends the entirety of the book in either Spain or France. Although he resides in Paris, much of the plot occurs in his vacation spots of the fishing lake and Pamplona. Jake lives very differently in Spain than in Paris, which is reflected in both Hemingway's choice of words and Jake's actions.
In Paris, Jake seems very stressed. Although he and his friends seem to party every night in clubs, Jake is troubled by various things, especially Brett. Although the two of them share a special emotional connection which they interpret as love, they are unable to be with each other as they are unable to satisfy all of the other's needs. Furthermore, Jake seems rather put off by Cohn. There's the entire scene at lunch where Jake tells Cohn to "go to hell" offhandedly but Cohn takes it too seriously, annoying Jake. Adding on to the details and style of speech in the first chapter telling Cohn's backstory, it is clear that Jake does not like Cohn too much. Furthermore, as a narrator, Jake spends a lot of time talking about the actions of his friends and the world around him rather than his role and actions in the novel while he resides in Paris, perhaps another sign of his stress.
His stress in Paris is especially obvious after he comes to Spain. During his fishing trip with Bill, Bill tries to teach Jake 'irony.' It takes Jake quite a while to figure out how this new coping mechanism works, but eventually we see that Jake manages to loosen up in his speech. In addition to that, how Jake describes his surroundings changes. There is more of a focus on himself and less on the others like the Paris section of the novel, perhaps an indication of Jake opening up more. A second cause of Jake relaxing is probably that Brett is not present (at least until Pamplona), and that he can have casual and heart-to-heart chats with Bill, who he clearly considers a close friend, unlike Cohn.
Did you all notice any other differences in Jake's behavior?
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