The Sun Also Rises

Jake finds Bill, Mike, and Edna. Inside the bar, Edna has broken up several altercations involving Mike and Bill, who want to fight Englishmen. Bill departs. At a different café, Cohn asks Jake about Brett’s whereabouts. Jake says he doesn’t know, but Cohn doesn’t believe him. Jake insists he doesn’t have to tell Cohn “a damn thing” (194). Mike tells Cohn that Brett’s gone off with Romero. Cohn tells Jake to validate this story, and Jake tells him to go to hell. Cohn calls Jake a pimp and repeatedly punches him, knocking him out. Cohn leaves, and Mike assists Jake. Edna tells Jake that Cohn also knocked down Mike.

When Jake walks away alone, everything around him looks different. The feeling reminds him of a childhood experience in which he was kicked in the head during a football game. He returns to the hotel and sees Bill, who tells him Cohn wants to see him. Jake begrudgingly goes to Cohn’s room. Cohn lies on the bed, crying. He begs for Jake’s forgiveness and says he plans to leave in the morning. He says he lived with Brett in San Sebastian and can’t stand the way she treats him now. He again askes Jake to forgive him and Jake says, “Sure. It’s all right” (198).

In the morning Jake wakes with a headache but remembers he told Edna he’d take her to see the running of the bulls through the street. He doesn’t manage to meet up with Edna, but he knows she is with Bill. He finds a spot next to a fence and watches the runners and the bulls pass by. One man is gored.

Jake goes to a café and tells the waiter about the man who was gored. The waiter doesn’t understand why people run with the bulls. The waiter finds out that the gored man has died and shares this information with Jake. The man was a young farmer who had a wife and children. Later that day, Romero kills the bull that killed the farmer. As part of a custom, Romero gives the bull’s ear to Brett.

That afternoon, Jake goes back to his hotel room and lies down. His jaw is very sore. Bill and Mike enter his room. They watched the bulls enter the corral and attack spectators. They tell Jake that, after Cohn knocked him out, he went to Romero’s room, where he found Brett. He then brutally beat up “the poor, bloody bull-fighter” (205). Cohn broke down and tried to shake hands with Romero and Brett. Romero kept getting up and trying to attack Cohn, but Cohn kept knocking him down, though he couldn’t manage to knock him out. Eventually Cohn would no longer hit Romero, and he let Romero punch him as hard as he could.

Mike starts drinking even harder than he has been. His hands are shaky. He leaves and says he will try to sleep. Through the wall, the others can hear Mike; he’s ordering more beer and brandy to his room. Jake tells Bill that a man was gored to death.

On the last day of the fiesta, the party still goes strong. At a café, Brett walks up to the group. She lifts a beer and her hand shakes. She tells them that Cohn has badly hurt Romero. Still, he will be able to fight. Mike gives her grief about her relationships with Romero and Cohn. He tips over the table, and all their food and drinks crash to the ground.

Jake walks off with Brett. She asks him to go to the fight with her. They go into a chapel, so she can pray for Romero, but it makes her nervous and they leave. She expresses how happy she is about Romero.

They go back to the hotel. She walks straight into Romero’s room without knocking; Jake goes into Mike’s room. He sees empty bottles next to the bed, and Mike looks “like a death mask of himself” (214). Mike slurs words and goes to sleep.  

Jake and Bill have lunch. Brett joins them and they go to the bullring. They sit ringside and watch the preparation for the fights. Down in the ring are three fighters: Romero, Belmonte, and Marcial. Even at a distance, Romero’s face looks “badly marked.” The president takes his seat. Romero takes off his cape and passes it up to Brett.

Belmonte, a legendary fighter who is famous for working close to the bulls and has recently come out of retirement, is the first to fight. When he fights post-retirement, Belmonte insists that his bulls are not too big and do not have particularly dangerous horns. The crowd sees him as a cheater, and they jeer him. The crowd’s disappointment with Belmonte makes them feel more favorable toward Romero. It seems that, whenever possible, Romero works in front of Brett, but he doesn’t look up at her.

Romero does his first quite directly below Jake and Brett. During the quite, the three bullfighters “take the bull in turn after each charge he makes at a picador” (220). Belmonte and Marcial each have their turns. Romero has his turn and gracefully draws the bull. It charges, and the picador stabs the bull’s shoulder. Romero offers the bull his cape and the bull again charges. They repeat this process, and Romero continues to work close to the bull. Romero knows that the bull has poor vision, as does the crowd, but he makes up for this defect by turning in a mesmerizing performance, using his body instead of the cape to draw the bull close to him. Foreigners in the crowd who aren’t aficionados think that Romero is scared, but Jake understands that Romero is in full control. The bull charges for a last time, and Romero kills it.

Romero’s last bull is a good one. He handles it expertly. The crowd feels entranced by his performance, and they don’t want it to end. Romero kills the bull on his terms. He gives its ear to Brett. Romero tries to escape through the adoring crowd, but they hoist him up and carry him away through the gate. Jake, Brett, and Bill go back to the hotel. In the dining room, Belmonte enters. He remains quiet. 

Jake and Bill go to a café to drink absinthe. The last hours of the festival draw huge crowds of drinkers and dancers. Fireworks are being prepared. They talk about Cohn, who has left Pamplona. Jake feels “like hell” and Bill gets him to drink many absinthes to “get over (his) damn depression” (227). Jake gets very drunk. He goes back to the hotel. He enters Brett’s room, and Mike tells him that Brett has left on the train with Romero.

Jake goes to his room. The party continues, but it doesn’t mean anything to him. Bill and Mike come to get him; he pretends like he’s sleeping, so they leave him alone. Jake gets up and goes to the balcony and watches the dancers. He goes downstairs and meets Bill and Mike and it “seems[s] as though about six people (are) missing” (228).