Summary: Chapter XVIII
Cohn leaves Pamplona. Brett meets everyone else at a café.
She reports that Romero looks quite bad after his beating but that
he plans to bullfight anyway. Mike sullenly remarks, “Brett’s got
a bullfighter. She had a Jew named Cohn, but he turned out badly.”
Brett draws Jake away from the café as Mike overturns the table,
dumping beer and food all over the floor.
Brett suggests that they go into a church because she
wants to pray for Romero, but she becomes nervous and wants to leave
not long after they enter. They return to the hotel. Montoya bows
to Jake and Brett but does not smile. Brett retires to Romero’s
room, and Jake checks on Mike. Mike is languishing on his bed in
a drunken stupor, his room a mess. Bill and Jake eat lunch before
they meet Brett for the last bullfight.
Romero sends his cape to Brett for her to hold during
the fights. Belmonte, one of the three bullfighters, has come out
of retirement to fight. His reputation for working dangerously close
to the bull is legendary. The crowd thus expects more from him than
he could ever achieve, even at the height of his career. The crowd
jeers at him and insults him. However, they love Romero’s calm,
smooth style and natural talent. Romero faces the bull that killed
the man running in the street that morning. He leads the bull with
a grace that appeals to the crowd. After he kills the bull, its
notched ear is cut off. He gives it to Brett. Jake and Bill drink
in a café afterward. Jake is depressed, so Bill urges him to drink
three absinthes in a row. He finds Mike sitting in his hotel room
in the process of getting drunk. Brett has left Pamplona on a train
with Romero.
Summary: Chapter XIX
“Oh, Jake . . . we could have had such
a damned good time together.”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
The next day, Mike, Bill, and Jake share a car to Bayonne.
They get drunk and drive to Saint Jean de Luz to drop Mike off.
Jake says goodbye to Bill at the train station in Bayonne. Jake
spends time making friends in Bayonne by tipping people generously.
He takes a morning train to San Sebastian for a few days of relaxation.
Not long after his arrival, however, he receives two telegrams,
one forwarded from Paris and one forwarded from Pamplona. Both are from
Brett. She wants him to come to the Hotel Montana in Madrid because
she is “in trouble.” He immediately makes arrangements to leave
San Sebastian and meet her.
When Jake arrives in Madrid, Brett greets him with a
kiss. She has sent Romero away. She sent for Jake because she was
not sure if she could make Romero leave, and she did not have money
to get away. Romero offered her money, but she would not take it.
He was ashamed of her at first and wanted her to grow her hair so
she would look more like a woman. He wanted to marry her so that
she would never leave him. But she forced Romero to leave because
she did not want to ruin him. She adds that she wants to go back
to Mike. She and Jake go to a bar and have three martinis each before
having lunch in a nice restaurant, where Jake drinks three bottles
of wine. He then orders two more bottles of wine and downs a couple
of glasses. Brett asks Jake not to get drunk and assures him that
he will be “all right.” They get a taxi to drive around town. Jake
puts his arm around her, and Brett says, “Oh, Jake . . . we could
have had such a damned good time together.” Jake replies, “Yes,
isn’t it pretty to think so?”
Analysis: Chapters XVIII–XIX
Belmonte the bullfighter is a symbol of the entire Lost
Generation. He has no purpose in his current time and place, and
his important accomplishments are behind him. He achieved great
fame in his younger days, and many consider him among the greatest
bullfighters. When he retired, the legends about his prowess and
bravery grew. When he comes out of retirement, however, the same
legends work against him. He can never live up to the image that
has sprung up around him. Thus, the crowd turns on him, and he becomes
bitter and indifferent in the ring. His plight shares many similarities with
that of Jake and his circle of friends, people who all seem to be passing
time until the ends of their lives rather than living with any sense
of purpose. The Lost Generation feels a similar kind of bitterness
and indifference for much the same reason—the same cultures and
nations its members served in the World War I have now abandoned
them.
