The episode of the bulls and the steers holds symbolic
resonance. We can interpret Jake as a steer, since he, like the
castrated male animals, is impotent. The steers’ function of making
peace among the bulls resembles Jake’s function of keeping peace
among his rowdy friends. Furthermore, the bulls and the steers do
not form a community until one of the steers is dead. Their community
is thus based on death, just as Jake’s friends’ community is based
largely on their shared experience during a horrific war—and on
their mutual social sacrificing of Cohn. The many symbolic layers
within this brief passage demonstrate the richness of Hemingway’s
writing. Despite its apparent simplicity, his prose has tremendous
depth of meaning.
Jake and his friends regard the booming consumerism of
the 1920s with contempt. They dislike the
tourists who converge on Europe every summer with their money and
their arrogance. However, they are obsessed with money themselves.
Jake’s reflections on friendship are marred by metaphors of money,
such as “something for nothing” and “[t]he bill always came.” Moreover,
Jake says that really enjoying life is “getting your money’s worth.”
Money has become a substitute for meaning in his generation, replacing
emotion as the primary structure of human relationships and endeavors. Jake’s
musings reflect a rather cynical view of human nature that is part
of his general disillusionment.
