Chapter 16-18: The Sun Also Rises
Bulls: The uncastrated male oxen. They are the animals the bull-fighter kills in the ring. The bulls are
strong-willed and violent, and it is the job of the steers to calm them down.
Steers: The young castrated male oxen. These friendly animals are placed in the corral to calm down the
bulls. The steers are defenseless, and the bulls are often aggressive, killing them. Trapped, the steers do
not have any chance if a bull decides to charge them. Mike likes to joke that Cohn is a steer, because of
the way he follows Brett around.
Ch. 15
Pg. 159: Brett is not permitted in the church because she is not wearing a hat—
“Some dancers formed a circle around Brett and started to dance. They wore big wreaths of
white garlics around their necks. They took me and Bill by the arms and out us into the circle.
Bill started to dance, too. They were all chanting. Brett wanted to dance but they did not want
her to. They wanted her as an image to dance around.” How does this contrast religion?
Pg. 162: Robert Cohn as an outsider—“In a backroom Robert Cohn was sleeping quietly
on some wine-casks. It was almost too dark to see his face.” What’s everyone else doing?
Pg. 166-167: How is Pedro Romero described? How does Brett feel about him
after seeing him in the ring?
Pg. 171-173: Describe Romero’s movements, what does Jake tell us about them?
“Romero’s bull-fighting gave real emotion, because he kept the absolute purity of line in his
movements…” (171). Jake narrates the bull-fight for her “so that it became more
something that was going on with a definite end, and less of a spectacle with unexplained
horrors” (171). Could this be a metaphor for something else?
Ch. 16
Pg. 174: “The bad weather was coming over mountains from the sea.” What is the
tone of this statement?
Pg. 175-176: What are Montoya’s fears regarding Pedro dealing with an American
Ambassador?
Pg. 180: There are a couple things going on here...How is Montoya feeling about
Pedro’s new friends? What is going on between Mike and Cohn? “Why don’t you see
when you’re not wanted?”
Pg. 186-191: Brett, Jake, and Pedro: “I hate this damn suffering” (186).—a statement
that might apply to everyone? Even when Jake tells Brett he loves her, what does
she tell him instead? “I’ve always done just what I wanted” (188). But does she always
get what she wants? “He looked at me. It was a final look to ask if it were understood. It
was understood all right” (190). What happens?
Ch. 17
Pg. 194-195: Robert and Jake…what does Robert call Jake?
Pg. 196-197: Jake—why does everything seem so new to him? “Walking across the
square to the hotel everything looked new and changed. I had never seen the trees before. I
had never seen the flagpoles before, nor the front of the theater. It was all different. I felt as I
felt once coming home from an out-of-town football game. I was carrying a suitcase with my
football things in it, and I walked up the street from the station in the town I had lived my whole
life and it was all new…” (196). When was the last time things probably felt brand new
to Jake? Why does he need a “deep, hot bath, to lie back in” (197)?
Pg. 197-198: What’s Robert asking for? Why might what he is wearing be
important? What does he ask Jake to do? “It isn’t any use…I guess it isn’t any damn use”
(198). What’s no use? Do Robert’s actions mirror another scene relayed to Jake by
Mike and Bill?
Pg. 202: What does Romero give Brett and what might it signify?
Pg. 205-206: What does Cohn finally do?
Pg. 207: What do we learn about Brett? Does this help explain anything about
her?
How is Mike dealing with everything in the chapter?
Ch. 18
Pg. 216-219: Characterize Belmonte—what might he represent? “He no longer had
his greatest moments in the bull—ring. He was not sure that there were any great moments.
Things were not the same and now life only came in flashes. He had flashes of the old greatness
with his bulls, but they were not of value because he had discounted them in advance when he
had picked the bulls out of their safety…” (219).
Pg. 225: What does Romero give Brett…again? What does she do with the first
one?
Pg. 228: “The three of us sat at a table, and it seemed as though about six people were
missing”. Who is missing?