Compare Jake's and Robert's views of life in Chapter 2 of The Sun Also Rises. Why does Robert think South America will cure his dissatisfaction?How...

Robert has a very romantic view of life. He is very easily
influenced, especially by the things he reads in books; "The Purple Land" in particular
makes him long for adventure, and instills in him the desire to travel so as to
experience life to the fullest before he dies. Jake, on the other hand has a much more
practical outlook on the world. He understands that one place is pretty much like
another, and that fulfillment comes from within.

Robert
thinks that South American will cure his dissatisfaction because he has read about it in
the book "The Purple Land." That book presents South America as "an intensely romantic
land," and Robert wants to experience its reputed wonders before his
death.

Robert is a reactor; his interests and goals are the
results of stimuli that come from outside of himself. As Jake explains, Robert had had
"a rotten time...in college" and had married on the rebound, and had taken up with his
current love interest, Frances, on the rebound from being dumped by his first wife. When
he finds that women are attracted to him, he is "quite changed;" no longer "so simple,
and...not so nice." He is influenced by what he reads to an uncommon extent, and decides
he must go to South America, because a writer has presented that land as one that is
amazingly romantic.

Jake's interests and goals, on the
other hand, seem to have been developed through experience and a practical mind, and,
perhaps, a good dose of disillusionment. He does not jump around from one objective to
another as much as Roberts does; he has seen the world and has decided that "all
countries look just like the moving pictures." Jake is devoted to his newspaper work,
and likes the town he lives in, and enjoys visiting Spain in the summers. Jake knows
that "you can't get away from yourself by moving from one place to another," and so is
more stable in his interests and goals. There is also an element of resignation in his
outlook; it is as if he has seen and done everything, like Robert still yearns to do,
and has found the experience lacking.