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Copywork
About This Passage
These opening lines do two things at once, and copying them slowly lets a student feel both. First, they introduce Cohn through the narrator's dry, almost teasing voice: 'Do not think that I am very much impressed' tells us as much about how the narrator measures people as it does about Cohn. Second, they reveal the real reason behind Cohn's boxing. He did not love the sport — he learned it 'painfully and thoroughly' to fight off the smallness and shyness he felt after being treated as an outsider at Princeton because he was Jewish. Notice how Hemingway tucks a painful truth inside a calm, matter-of-fact sentence, so the weight underneath the plain words sneaks up on the reader.
Robert Cohn was once middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn. He cared nothing for boxing, in fact h...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in your own words. Walk through how the narrator first introduces Robert Cohn, why Cohn taught himself to box after being treated as an outsider at Princeton because he was Jewish, how he drifted into editing a magazine and then over to Europe, and how a forceful woman named Frances quietly came to rule his life.
Discussion Questions
- Cohn 'cared nothing for boxing' and even disliked it, yet he pushed himself to learn it 'painfully and thoroughly' — why might his reaction to being treated as an outsider at Princeton because he was Jewish drive him so hard through a sport he never enjoyed?
- Cohn 'never fought except in the gym,' yet in this chapter just knowing he 'could knock down anybody who was snooty to him' gave him real comfort — why might that quiet feeling of being able to defend himself matter more to Cohn than any actual fight he could win?
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Vocabulary
Item 1
A feeling of safety and ease that calms worry or fear.
Item 2
Feeling lower, weaker, or less worthy than other people.
Item 3
To act against something so as to cancel out its effect.
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Critical Thinking
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