The Waiter Scene, & France vs Spain

 As we've established, as a narrator, Jake doesn't express many emotions. He gives a bland, matter-of-fact description of what's happening around him, and often excludes himself from the picture he paints. As a result, us readers are forced to read between the lines to understand his emotional state, or to wait for the occasional lapse of his stoic demeaner. 

My favorite of these lapses is when Jake's opinion on a certain French waiter gets a little too heated, and betrays his so far repressed emotions concerning the events in Spain. In this scene Jake is sitting in a café in France, and over tips a waiter he offended to earn back the man's "friendship." The successful interaction causes him to go on this tangent: "It felt comfortable to be in a country where it is so simple to make people happy. You can never tell whether a Spanish waiter will thank you. Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money."

In my opinion, that speech was one of the saddest moments in the entire book. Jake's strong reaction is clearly the result of him losing the friendship of Montoya, after he betrayed him by helping Brett get with Pedro. Earlier, Jake acknowledged Montoya's coldness to him in his matter-of-fact way, but never elaborated on how that made him feel. But now, a country away, he celebrates how easy it is to gain a shallow friendliness with the French waiter, betraying the grief he feels due to losing the rare, hard-earned relationship he and Montoya shared. 

The contrast between French and Spanish waiters Jake mentions reveals how he regards the two countries as a whole. As he puts it, "Life was so simple in France." In Paris, he worked, drank, and slept. With the exception of Brett, nothing was truly significant or dangerous, and he felt secure in his routine. Spain was different. At first Jake doesn't expand much on his feelings for the place, but his actions speak for themselves. He goes there every year, for the bullfights. For such an apathetic man, it's significant that he would choose to return to a place annually. The bullfights are there, and Montoya. Bullfighting is the one thing in his life Jake expresses true passion for, and Montoya is someone he can share that passion with, a contrast to his predominantly shallow friendships in Paris. For him, Spain isn't a place for drinking and dancing, but somewhere he can feel some of those emotions he tries so hard to repress, in a contained setting. Pamplona is a spiritual place for him. 

And so, when he invites his friends to come with him, he's giving them access to a place near to his heart. In the end, that doesn't go well. There's fighting, love quadrangles, and he ultimately gives in to Brett and betrays his principles. His happy place is twisted into something unpleasant, and his discomfort with emotions resurfaces. Because as nice as those feelings are, they make him vulnerable, and clouds the lens he views the world with. As Jake puts it, "In Spain you could not tell about anything".

Upon Jake's return to France, his satisfaction at how easily his waiter's affection is won shows the pull he feels towards a cold, safe life in Paris. But, his decision to return to the land of heartbreak and hardship shows that he isn't ready to completely abandon the messier parts of his life. The Sun Also Rises is a story about a man trying to come to terms with himself, and the two countries represent the exterior he presents, and the interior he's trying to protect.