I consider the "abnormal" world that Hemingway imagines in The Sun Also Rises as, mainly, a contrast between the significance of the ritual of the bullfight, and the lack of traditional "panaceas" for the author's "Lost generation."
Hemingway begins the novel by showing the "normal" life of the postwar Europe, where "lost” people reject traditional religious and moral values, and have not found anything to substitute for them; where people have to have medals "fixed up" for them and where conventional heroes are referred to as "faggots". It is a "sick” generation where even Jake, the novel's protagonist, has been emasculated by the war and made incapable of manhood. In his world, "there was much wine, an ignored tension and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening" (p.146). Here, the author is preparing the reader for the contrasted "abnormal" world of the bullfight where there are real heroes with real medals and the participants in the fight recognize and accept their roles with dignity. Those in the ritual foresee the opponent's reactions and are even prepared for them, avoiding sudden movements that will weaken their performance. They are healthy and have control over the emotions and never do anything as mechanically as Jake is used to doing. Their world is tangible and real - not unobtainable and ethereal.
In Book II, Hemingway takes the reader out of the "sterile" environment of Paris to the beautiful and unspoiled countryside of Burguete where Jake fishes, releases tension and gets ready for the ritual of the bullfight. He finally reaches Pamplona, which is also making all the arrangements for the "fiesta". Here the author introduces the reader to his concept of "morality", so that he /she can understand how "moral" people felt before and after the bullfight. Thus, when Jake is in bed he thinks: "Mike was unpleasant after he passed a certain point. I liked to see him hurt Cohn. I wished he would not do it, though, because afterward it made me disgusted at myself. That was morality; things that made you disgusted afterward. No, that must be immorality" (p. 149).
Jake's confusion concerning "morality" and "immorality" reflects his culture's confusion and refusal to follow traditional values (often based on ethereal concepts which make people feel "disgusted" for actions in their actual lives). Thus, the 'moral' atmosphere just before the bullfight is based on Jake's feeling good and not questioning that feeling: "The next two days in Pamplona were quiet, and there were no more rows" ( p. 149 ). Later, he concludes that "we all felt good and we felt healthy and I felt quietly friendly to Cohn. You could not be upset about anything in a day like that" (p. 151). Finally, after Romero's first fight, they had again that "feeling of elation that comes after a good bullfight" (p. 164).
If we consider Hemingway's idea of morality as 'doing things that make you feel good afterward,' and we do not speculate over the questionable morality of such a bloody ritual, we can say that the most "moral" character of all was Romero, someone from the "abnormal" world. On the other hand, Jake usually felt "immoral" afterward, such as when he liked to see Cohn hurt and he played the role of intermediary between Brett and Romero. Jake is, therefore, like an existentialist, for he is trying to learn how to live in the world with dignity, as a bullfighter. He admires the bullfighter not as God, but for being an authentic heroe.
Although the bullfight is a ritual and there is a "spiritual brotherhood" among the "aficionados", their heroes are 'tangible'. When Montoya first meets Jake, he smiles at him: "… as though was something lewd about the secret to outsiders, but that it was something that we understand" (p. 131). And, when Jake is introduced to some other ‘aficionados’, he notices "...rather it was a kind of spiritual examination" and "...there was this same embarrassed putting the hand on the shoulder, or a "Bueno hombre". But nearly always there was the actual touching. It seemed as though they wanted to touch you to make it certain" (p. 132). Like Jake, those people need to believe in what was "tangible", within reach, heroes they can carry around the arena and not ethereal ideas. At the ring, everything reminds the reader of a religious ritual, but the boys carry around one of their making and for his making.
Besides the "spiritual brotherhood", the "aficionados" are the only ones who can understand the bullfight for its artistic and moral significance. Here, we identify Hemingway's concept of aesthetic as being his preference for the simple form of art, where the meaning of the unadorned actions are implicit. The 'aficionados' know that there are no "tricks and no mystifications" in a real bullfight. As Jake wants to change Brett into an aficionado, so Hemingway wants to initiate the reader into the world of his ritual. Jake teaches Brett, on the second day of the fight, how to admire this form of art, even showing her how to recognize the real bullfighter from the decadent ones who make killing the bull an anticlimax. He writes that he explained Brett "how Romero took the bull away from a fallen horse with his cape and turned him, smoothly and suavely, never wasting the bull. I made her see how Romero avoided every brusque movement and saved the bull for the last when he wanted to." (p.167). Jake calls Brett's attention to the absolute purity in Romero's movements: "Romero never made any contortions, always it was straight and pure and natural in line. The others twisted themselves like corkscrews..." (p. 168). Jake considers that the fight "became more something there was going on with a definite end and less of a spectacle with unexplained horrors" (p.167). He tries to teach Brett to consider the act of the horse as just a part of the whole ritual which does not interfere in its aesthetics. Jake also teaches Brett to admire the aesthetical movements of the bull and not only his beauty: "Look how he knows how to use his horns. He's got a left and a right just like a boxer" (p.139).
In all those passages mentioned above, and when Jake writes about the day he was introduced to Romero, we can also recognize the sexual significance of the bullfight where the "matador" is all manhood, beauty, perfection, excitement and 'fulfillment': "He was standing, straight and handsome and altogether by himself, alone in the room with the hangers on as we shut the door" (p. 163). Here the bullfighter is the prototype of Hemingway's idea of sexuality and masculinity. The matador is not only young but also firm, erect, a rebel against authority, defiant against death, healthy and capable of dominating and 'subjugating' the other. The sexual significance of the bullfight is also visualized when Jake says that they have steers in the "corral" to receive the bulls and "keep them from fighting, and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like the old maids trying to quiet them down". The steers are there to "receive" the "excited" bulls but like "old maids" run around the corral. Like Jake, the steer cannot do anything, just make friends.
Jake admires Romero not only for his masculinity but also for his love for the bulls and for Brett. Jake envies this man who would control even himself in the rings:
"Never once did he look up. . . .Because he did not look up to ask if it pleased he did it all for himself inside and it strengthened him, and yet he did it for her, too. But he did not do it for her at any loss to himself" (p. 216). Jake could not do that. Near the end of the story, he sends Brett a telegram and he thinks about his decision: "That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring him her back. And sign the wire with love” (p. 239).
However, at the very end, when Jake and Brett meet each other in Madrid after Jake had ‘washed’ himself in San Sebastian and they go for a ride through town, the reader can notice Jake's reaction to all that. When Brett tells him that they could have had a great time together, he agrees saying: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (p. 247). At this point, he finally realizes he does not have to be a steer or even the horse in his own ring. He understands he can be more active and not only a spectator in his own life: he can prevent from happening things that will represent a loss to his own self or will not strengthen his own being. He realizes that the "horrors" of his life should not prevent him from appreciating his own art of struggling for life and to recognize and feel things that make life tolerable and even worth living, such as going back to Spain and floating on the water of San Sebastian beach when he "saw only the sky, and felt the drop and lift of the swells" (p. 237). Now that he has found "how to live in the world" maybe he "learned from that what it was all about" (p. 148). Brett seems to have found her morality too, after the bullfight, since she decides to send Romero away, because their affair will do him no good and can destroy his career. She does not want to be "one of those bitches that ruin children" (p. 243). She confesses that "one feels rather good deciding not to be a bitch".
And she adds: "It's a sort of what we have instead of God" (p. 245). These two people could finally bring from the "abnormal" world of bullfight, values they had problems in finding in their own lives.
MARIA CRISTINA WERNECK
English 389 July 29, 1992
Hemingway begins the novel by showing the "normal" life of the postwar Europe, where "lost” people reject traditional religious and moral values, and have not found anything to substitute for them; where people have to have medals "fixed up" for them and where conventional heroes are referred to as "faggots". It is a "sick” generation where even Jake, the novel's protagonist, has been emasculated by the war and made incapable of manhood. In his world, "there was much wine, an ignored tension and a feeling of things coming that you could not prevent happening" (p.146). Here, the author is preparing the reader for the contrasted "abnormal" world of the bullfight where there are real heroes with real medals and the participants in the fight recognize and accept their roles with dignity. Those in the ritual foresee the opponent's reactions and are even prepared for them, avoiding sudden movements that will weaken their performance. They are healthy and have control over the emotions and never do anything as mechanically as Jake is used to doing. Their world is tangible and real - not unobtainable and ethereal.
In Book II, Hemingway takes the reader out of the "sterile" environment of Paris to the beautiful and unspoiled countryside of Burguete where Jake fishes, releases tension and gets ready for the ritual of the bullfight. He finally reaches Pamplona, which is also making all the arrangements for the "fiesta". Here the author introduces the reader to his concept of "morality", so that he /she can understand how "moral" people felt before and after the bullfight. Thus, when Jake is in bed he thinks: "Mike was unpleasant after he passed a certain point. I liked to see him hurt Cohn. I wished he would not do it, though, because afterward it made me disgusted at myself. That was morality; things that made you disgusted afterward. No, that must be immorality" (p. 149).
Jake's confusion concerning "morality" and "immorality" reflects his culture's confusion and refusal to follow traditional values (often based on ethereal concepts which make people feel "disgusted" for actions in their actual lives). Thus, the 'moral' atmosphere just before the bullfight is based on Jake's feeling good and not questioning that feeling: "The next two days in Pamplona were quiet, and there were no more rows" ( p. 149 ). Later, he concludes that "we all felt good and we felt healthy and I felt quietly friendly to Cohn. You could not be upset about anything in a day like that" (p. 151). Finally, after Romero's first fight, they had again that "feeling of elation that comes after a good bullfight" (p. 164).
If we consider Hemingway's idea of morality as 'doing things that make you feel good afterward,' and we do not speculate over the questionable morality of such a bloody ritual, we can say that the most "moral" character of all was Romero, someone from the "abnormal" world. On the other hand, Jake usually felt "immoral" afterward, such as when he liked to see Cohn hurt and he played the role of intermediary between Brett and Romero. Jake is, therefore, like an existentialist, for he is trying to learn how to live in the world with dignity, as a bullfighter. He admires the bullfighter not as God, but for being an authentic heroe.
Although the bullfight is a ritual and there is a "spiritual brotherhood" among the "aficionados", their heroes are 'tangible'. When Montoya first meets Jake, he smiles at him: "… as though was something lewd about the secret to outsiders, but that it was something that we understand" (p. 131). And, when Jake is introduced to some other ‘aficionados’, he notices "...rather it was a kind of spiritual examination" and "...there was this same embarrassed putting the hand on the shoulder, or a "Bueno hombre". But nearly always there was the actual touching. It seemed as though they wanted to touch you to make it certain" (p. 132). Like Jake, those people need to believe in what was "tangible", within reach, heroes they can carry around the arena and not ethereal ideas. At the ring, everything reminds the reader of a religious ritual, but the boys carry around one of their making and for his making.
Besides the "spiritual brotherhood", the "aficionados" are the only ones who can understand the bullfight for its artistic and moral significance. Here, we identify Hemingway's concept of aesthetic as being his preference for the simple form of art, where the meaning of the unadorned actions are implicit. The 'aficionados' know that there are no "tricks and no mystifications" in a real bullfight. As Jake wants to change Brett into an aficionado, so Hemingway wants to initiate the reader into the world of his ritual. Jake teaches Brett, on the second day of the fight, how to admire this form of art, even showing her how to recognize the real bullfighter from the decadent ones who make killing the bull an anticlimax. He writes that he explained Brett "how Romero took the bull away from a fallen horse with his cape and turned him, smoothly and suavely, never wasting the bull. I made her see how Romero avoided every brusque movement and saved the bull for the last when he wanted to." (p.167). Jake calls Brett's attention to the absolute purity in Romero's movements: "Romero never made any contortions, always it was straight and pure and natural in line. The others twisted themselves like corkscrews..." (p. 168). Jake considers that the fight "became more something there was going on with a definite end and less of a spectacle with unexplained horrors" (p.167). He tries to teach Brett to consider the act of the horse as just a part of the whole ritual which does not interfere in its aesthetics. Jake also teaches Brett to admire the aesthetical movements of the bull and not only his beauty: "Look how he knows how to use his horns. He's got a left and a right just like a boxer" (p.139).
In all those passages mentioned above, and when Jake writes about the day he was introduced to Romero, we can also recognize the sexual significance of the bullfight where the "matador" is all manhood, beauty, perfection, excitement and 'fulfillment': "He was standing, straight and handsome and altogether by himself, alone in the room with the hangers on as we shut the door" (p. 163). Here the bullfighter is the prototype of Hemingway's idea of sexuality and masculinity. The matador is not only young but also firm, erect, a rebel against authority, defiant against death, healthy and capable of dominating and 'subjugating' the other. The sexual significance of the bullfight is also visualized when Jake says that they have steers in the "corral" to receive the bulls and "keep them from fighting, and the bulls tear in at the steers and the steers run around like the old maids trying to quiet them down". The steers are there to "receive" the "excited" bulls but like "old maids" run around the corral. Like Jake, the steer cannot do anything, just make friends.
Jake admires Romero not only for his masculinity but also for his love for the bulls and for Brett. Jake envies this man who would control even himself in the rings:
"Never once did he look up. . . .Because he did not look up to ask if it pleased he did it all for himself inside and it strengthened him, and yet he did it for her, too. But he did not do it for her at any loss to himself" (p. 216). Jake could not do that. Near the end of the story, he sends Brett a telegram and he thinks about his decision: "That was it. Send a girl off with one man. Introduce her to another to go off with him. Now go and bring him her back. And sign the wire with love” (p. 239).
However, at the very end, when Jake and Brett meet each other in Madrid after Jake had ‘washed’ himself in San Sebastian and they go for a ride through town, the reader can notice Jake's reaction to all that. When Brett tells him that they could have had a great time together, he agrees saying: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” (p. 247). At this point, he finally realizes he does not have to be a steer or even the horse in his own ring. He understands he can be more active and not only a spectator in his own life: he can prevent from happening things that will represent a loss to his own self or will not strengthen his own being. He realizes that the "horrors" of his life should not prevent him from appreciating his own art of struggling for life and to recognize and feel things that make life tolerable and even worth living, such as going back to Spain and floating on the water of San Sebastian beach when he "saw only the sky, and felt the drop and lift of the swells" (p. 237). Now that he has found "how to live in the world" maybe he "learned from that what it was all about" (p. 148). Brett seems to have found her morality too, after the bullfight, since she decides to send Romero away, because their affair will do him no good and can destroy his career. She does not want to be "one of those bitches that ruin children" (p. 243). She confesses that "one feels rather good deciding not to be a bitch".
And she adds: "It's a sort of what we have instead of God" (p. 245). These two people could finally bring from the "abnormal" world of bullfight, values they had problems in finding in their own lives.
MARIA CRISTINA WERNECK
English 389 July 29, 1992
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