Irreplaceable Friends

Chapter XVIII is the last chapter in Book II. It is in this chapter that the action begins to wind down; the fiesta finishes, the bullfights are over, and members of the crew have left. The last sentence of this chapter caught my attention quickly. Jake reflects, "The three of us sat at the table, and it seemed as though about six people were missing." When I read this line on page 228, it immediately clicked with me because I find it very easy to apply to real life. A group of friends is not complete without each member. When even one person is absent, their place is hard to fill. It truly does seem as if multiple people not present. With more then one person missing as it is in The Sun Also Rises group, it is even harder to fill that space because it seems so cavernous. Jake, BIll, and Mike truly did care for Cohn and Brett even though they were the 'troublemakers' of the group. Cohn is the obnoxious friend everyone knows and Brett is the full-of-herself friend who is used to getting what she wants. The relationship of this group actually reminds me of the show Friends; each character on the show is extremely unique and different. They each add a certain flair to the show, and if a character is missing in an episode, something just seems not quite right. In The Sun Also Rises, the missing two create a fragmented group, which creates a feeling of incompletion in the novel.