Rather than a series of scenes, the first chapter of The Sun Also Rises consists mainly of exposition, or background — information we need to know in order to understand and appreciate the story to come. Most of this background takes the form of characterization. Strangely, however, the character described is not the novel's hero but his foil, the man who will serve to highlight the protagonist's strengths and weaknesses by contrast.
Thus, we learn almost nothing explicit about Jake Barnes himself. Instead, Jake tells us about his tennis partner, Robert Cohn. Apparently, Cohn is insecure, self-conscious, perpetually broke, and a dabbler in the arts. He allows himself to be controlled by the women in his life — his mother, his wife, and his lover.
Note that Jake's résumé-like recitation of Cohn's experiences and accomplishments makes no mention of service in the armed forces. Though it is not quite clear yet, the time frame of this novel is the years just after World War I; significantly, Cohn did not participate in the fighting.
Meanwhile, we are learning about Jake himself via the ways in which he describes his friend. "I mistrust all frank and simple people," Jake tells us. The following remark about Cohn exposes Jake almost immediately as cynical, even bitter: "As he had been thinking for months about leaving his wife and had not done it because it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself, her departure was a very healthful shock." Jake is also competitive to an unappealing degree. Note the cattiness in the remark "He wrote a novel, and it was not really such a bad novel as the critics later called it. . . ." Jake tells us that Cohn is self-conscious, but the fact that Jake begins his own story by describing someone else speaks volumes about the narrator's insecurity. For reasons that will soon become clear, Jake declines at first to tell his own tale.
