An American, from Kansas City, Jake Barnes, is working in newspaper agency in Paris. He was fighting in the World War I and was wounded there. It was such a terrible wound that made him impotent and he felt he didn't belong to the world he was living in. What he was actually feeling can be seen from the speech of the liaison colonel who came to visit him in hospital in Italy. Jake says:

" I was all bandaged up. But they had told him about it. Then he made that wonderful speech: " You, a foreigner, an Englishman" (any foreigner was an Englishman) " have given more than your life. ."

Jake wished to have this speech hung on the wall in his office. It was funny to him and he didn't want anyone to pity him. Because it was enough, for him to...