Group B blog post

In the most recent reading from "The Sun Also Rises", Hemingway begins to explore the bullfights in Pamplona. When Jake, Bill, Robert, Brett, and Mike arrive at the bullfight, Jake admires the fight, specifically the skill of Romero, one of the bullfighters. The way that Romero is described shows the value that Jake gives to people that he deems to have a true talent.

In class, we discussed that Jake is very bitter and jealous of specific aspects of his friends. In comparison to this bitterness, I found his attitude towards Romero to be very interesting. Jake seems to be genuinely impressed by Romero's talent, and Jake admires and respects this skill. For a comparison, Jake is unable to respect Robert's boxing ability. I found two potential explanations for this fact. First, Jake might not respect Robert's ability because he has never seen it. Jake witnesses Romero fight the bull, and can see that he does so with elegance and skill. Jake may simply not believe Robert because he feels that Robert is embellishing his boxing stories. Another potential explanation comes in the fact that Jake does not personally know Romero. He may be able to cope with Romero's skill because he does not have to spend any time with him personally.

Comments

  1. Alison LillaNovember 12, 2018 at 3:59 PM

    I never thought about how Jake dismisses Robert's boxing skills before. I do tend to think with Jake's negative attitude he would find a reason to dislike Romero if they were friends, either he'd notice a quality he didn't want (such as with Mike and Bill being drunks), or like with Cohn where he'd try to find a reason to dislike him that would validate Jake in some way.

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  2. Ben MyersNovember 22, 2018 at 3:53 PM

    Jake seems to like whoever everyone else likes, and dislike whoever everyone else dislikes. He is one of the many men chasing Brett, and the competition between these men seems to motivate him to pursue her even more. Robert isn’t admired by anyone, and Jake isn’t strong enough to stand up for his “friend.” The fact that Robert is pursueing Brett doesn’t help.
    Romero is different, he came to this festival to see great bullfighters, and he feels obligated by social pressure to admire Romero’s talent like everyone else. Jake’s opinion of Romero changes when Brett begins to flirt with him.

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