Bullfighting In Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises

The most dominant motif in The Sun Also Rises is bullfighting. This can be seen as a religious or spiritual experience, which will be the focus of this essay.

In the novel, Jake travels to Spain with his friends. More specifically, to a small town in Navarre called Pamplona, which is known for its annual festival of San Fermín. This festival is strongly linked with the “Running of the Bulls”. The term is the literal translation of the Spanish word for bullfighting “Corrida”, but it also describes what happens each morning of the feast: the bulls run through the streets of the ton toward the bullring. This so-called fiesta is held in honour of Saint Fermin, who is the co-patron of Navarre. The fact that it’s organised to commemorate a saint, means that the festival is set up for religious reasons.

If we take a closer look at the bull itself, we can see a connection between the animal and religion. The devil is theologically described as large, black, horned, with cloven hooves, hair, a tail, etc. He is, in short, a bull. The bullfighting can be seen as the bullfighter trying to defeat the devil. When we look at the characters, we notice that even though most of them say they are Catholics, they’re all quite bad ones. Jake even admits this in chapter 10 stating “I was a little ashamed, and regretted that I was such a rotten Catholic” (Hemingway, 103). It seems like he finds religion in the bullfights instead. He admires them a lot and is even called an aficionado, a term used for “one who is passionate about the bull-fights.” (Hemingway,