Bull Fighter Brett

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Bullfighting Brett Throughout Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises the motif of bullfighting is very prominent. It is a central part of the story but is also a symbol of how Brett lives. Although Brett is very similar to a bullfighter in how she chooses to deal with the men in her life, she is not the greatest of all the bullfighters though, and it is this inferiority which brings Brett to her demise as a matador. The first mention of bullfighting in the book is from coincidentally from Jake while they are still in Paris. It is coincidental because Hemmingway places meaning of Brett in his mention of bullfighting. Brett is the person whom Jake cares most about; she is who he finds to be the only person that lives “all the way up.” She is the main focus of Jake at the time which this conversation takes place, he cares for and thinks of nothing more than Brett. She is not Jake’s only passion though; his second greatest passion is bull fighting, it is found that he is an aficionado, the most passionate and esteemed of bullfighting spectators. Hemmingway combines the two greatest cares in Jake’s life when Cohn is babbling about world travel and ‘living life all the way up” and Jake comments “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.” (p18) This is the first time Hemmingway makes a connection between Brett and bullfighting. Hemmingway makes a clear comparison of Brett and a bullfighter later in Pamplona at actual bullfight during the fiesta. This comparison is found perfectly in Jake’s explanation of the bullfight to Brett. Brett’s interactions with her men are strikingly similar to those of the matador and his bulls in many ways. At a fight with Pedro Romero performing in the ring, Jake tells how he explained the sport to Brett, and Hemmingway uses this to subliminally compare Brett’s habits with men to the sport of the matador. The
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