C'est mon propre résumé.
Fiesta : the sun also rises. (summary)
Ernest Hemingway
BOOK 1 (Paris)
Chapter 1.
*story : Robert Cohn an rather unlucky man, lives in Europe with his wife Frances who’s very possessive (first she exploited him).
*keys to analysis : long portrait + introduction of the characters.
Chapter 2.
*story : Cohn’s novel is finally appreciated in America and he leaves his wife when he returns. He’s been changed by success.
Robert really wants to go to South America.
*keys to analysis : reliability of the narrator’s personal statement ?
“I’m sure he had never been in love in his life” ?
Theme of bullfighting.
Chapter 3.
*story : Jake, Jacob meets a girl (Georgette) and has dinner with her, then they all go dancing. (Cohn , his wife Bradock and his wife). A group a boys dance with Georgette. Jake then meets Brett and goes away with her in a taxi. Cohn was very interested in Brett.
*keys to analysis : theme of the war and the wounds
Cohn behaves like the gentleman of the book he read.
Chapter 4.
*story : Brett and Jake go around in a taxi, they are attracted by each other but though their relationship prove not to be simple. (they kiss each other), then they go back to the coffee where Zizi introduces Brett to the count. Then Jake goes back to his flat. He feels blue and has a lot of thinking. Brett comes back late because she wanted to see him. She confesses being in love with him. They kiss again and she goes away.
*keys to analysis : solitude at night and moral pain of being wounded.
Chapter 5.
*story : Beginning of a normal day for Jake. Then he and Cohn have dinner together and a conversation about Brett. Cohn is very inquisitive about her, and also very touchy in general.
*keys to analysis : Cohn’s changing behaviour. “I shouldn’t wonder if I love her” => He would never have thought of anybody but his wife before (going to America for his book advertisement).
Chapter 6.
*story : Jake waits for Brett at the café and meets Harvey. Cohn arrives and start arguing with Harvey, who is mean to him. Then France whom Cohn was waiting for comes. She asks to talk with Jake alone and tells him about their problems (Cohn doesn’t want to marry her and is going to leave her). Follows a huge quarrel between Cohn and Frances, to which Jake witnesses.
*Keys to analysis : though he gets interested in other woman Cohn has apparently lost one of his features (conceit) he had brought back from America.
=> Female emancipation
Cohn seems to be affected by Frances’s talking and for the first time since the beginning of the novel talks rudely.
Chapter 7.
*story : Brett and the count visit Jake. Brett tell Jake she loves him but that though she going to go the following day. She is engaged. They drink champagne and have some talk. Then the three of them go to a restaurant. Then they go to dance. Brett and Jake go to her hotel but she doesn’t let him in. Jake goes back to his flat.
*keys to analysis : Irony from Jake about the count’s values. (it sounds like a praise but it’s not).
BOOK 2 : (it deals with Spain)
Chapter 8.
*story : Bill arrives at Jakes. He tells him a story that happened in Budapest with a nigger boxer. They meet Brett who was in a taxi and she invites them to meet her future husband later in the afternoon. Michael is very excited.
*keys to analysis : Bill is a very high coloured guy.
=> (part of a commentary) “Road to hell paved with unbought stuffed dog”
>He has lots of humour. Themes : boxing is omnipresent + taxidermy.
Chapter 9.
*story : Michael and Brett come in Spain with the others. (Michael ask if they could). Jake and Bill travel together. The rejoin Cohn and all three go in his hotel.
*Keys to analysis : Brett most probably had an affair with Cohn. She marries gentlemen but has affairs. He was only interested in Frances, but what she said about him only caring for mistresses may be true.
Chapter 10.
*story : the bus service is off so they’ll go to Pamplona by car. There are lots of tensions and anti-Semitism at the hotel. Jake and Bill form a group. Cohn begins to be excluded. Bill really hates Cohn.
*Keys to analysis : Jake’s reliability about what Cohn said about the cathedral
rising of the tensions. Jake dislike for Cohn (explains the narration , he has it from the beginning etc … )
Jake comes every years => lots of clues (the tickets + he knows the places)
è cyclic
Chapter 11.
*story : Bill and Jake go to Burguete to fish. They stay at a inn and the weather is very cold with a lot of wind.
*keys to analysis : meeting of a fellow ; it’s not a compatriot but an old man who has been in America ; recurrent theme though.
Chapter 12.
*Story : bill tells Jake ironical jokes and they go fishing. Jake catches six trout. They stay five more days at the inn and meet and English man with whom they play bridge.
*Keys to analysis : bill is very ironical. What is irony despises. ; Cohn is laughed at by Bill and Jake.
“faggot” => anti-homosexual words
expatiate => lost touch to the soil ; writes nothing worth publishing even in newspaper (H did the two and did well) => irony
Jake feels good “it feels good”
=> rare
Chapter 13.
*Story : The receive a letter from Mike and a telegraph from Cohn. They are all going to the hotel Montoya on Wednesday, => it’s Wednesday
before going Bill, Jake and Harris have a drink in a pub.
Harris seems sad and make them a present. Then they go to Montoya hotel.
They find Brett, Mike and Cohn. Brett is disagreeable towards Mike. Then they go to see the bulls. Mike tells Cohn he isn’t wanted. We learn he has slept with her. Then they have dinner and do as though nothing had happened.
*Keys to analysis :
-theme of real passion for bullfighting
-Brett is admired when she walks in the street; + “circe”
-anti-Semitic words
-Brett says alcohol is “poisonous” <= first time such an idea appears
-Jake feel good at the dinner (because of wine he says => vicious circle again ; he is in the good part of it for the moment)
-“things you can’t forecast” => Jake knows them
narration subtlety
Chapter 14.
*story : Jake is drunk. He goes to the bed an reads a book. While doing this he thinks about the goal of life. Jake and Brett go to a church. Although Cohn has followed them, this doesn’t trigger any quarrel. Everybody seem to feel good, nobody is drunk.
// with Burgete
*Keys to analysis : Jake says “in five years I thought it will seem just as silly as the other philosophies I’ve had”
“that was morality ; things that made you disgusted afterwards. No, that must be immorality” è Jake has lost touch with moral
he seeks an answer at the meaning of life : “I all wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about. “
“Cohn was never drunk” è maybe he doesn’t need to, he doesn’t suffer from life. In the beginning he did , but the fiesta heals it. He must be in the first part of the depression when things still have an effect. The other are at advanced stages è in the beginning Jake says : “I have already tried all that Cohn”
book è “reading in an oversensitized state of my mind I would remember it as though it had really happened to me”
seeking sensations and experience
Chapter 15.
*story : The Fiesta explodes. People are very nice, cheerful and generous and there is a lot of drinking. Bill and Jake meet Romero.
*keys to analysis : Brett is admired by the dancers (see seminar) Cohn is excluded. He sleep ; he has probably drunk too much. Bill says Cohn has a superior Jewish air. => last lines : only the bull-fighting days are narrated
only when there is action, what interests Jake => bull-fighting, it could be seen as a partial narration.
Mike “she is falling in love with this bullfighter” <= forecasting element
Chapter 16.
*Story : it rains, the weather is not fine at all, though the Fiesta goes on. Montoya tells American ambassadors are interested in Pedro Romero. Romero talks about his work simply. Then they all have a drink together with Romero and the Spanish critic. Mike is drunk and insults Romero. Jake pacify the situation. Romero and the critic go out. Then Mike insults Cohn. Jakes once more pacify things, taking mike out. Then they all go to another Café. Mike and Bill go with Edna (Bill’s friend). Jake and Brett talk together. Both confess they hate Cohn. They look for Romero. Jake let them alone. è purposely (look of Romero etc … ). Then they go away together.
*Keys to analysis : Mikes insults => “bulls have no ball” : so it’s easy to defeat them; or analogy with Romero ; “Bret is dying to know how he can get into those pants”=> tight so maybe the fit because he has no balls either.
Jake once more acts as a pacifier ; Anti-Semitism ; Cohn has classes => possibly Jewish features
Writer theme : bill says : “I think writing is lousy” ; “I’m ashamed to be a writer” mike // praises in a way : “I’m not one of you literary chaps” , “I’m not clever but I know when I’m not wanted.”
“the ladyship wants a drink” “how you know things” è they are conscious that they keep on drinking
Chapter 17
*Story : Bill and Jake fight in a pub. Cohn shows up and asks for Brett. As nobody answers him he knocks Jake and Mike off. Jake goes back to the hotel. Cohn wants to see him to apologize. The next day a man is killed by a bull during the rush to the bull-ring. Pedro Romero kills that same bull in the afternoon and gives its ear to Brett. (è prolepsis happens in chapter 18) Mike tells Jake Cohn knocked Romero off too. Also we learn how Brett got her title, and that the man was mean. Mike says he is going to the bed but orders a lot of alcohol.
*Keys to analysis : “it all seemed like some bad play” Jake seems depressed again. “I felt I have no knees” => he may have thought it was also because of his wounds. “the kind he had worn at Princeton” => Cohn is back to his former state.
+ “don’t call me Jake” : Jake now releases his anger towards Cohn, the fight being a trigger.
“I guess it’s no use, I guess it’s not any damn use” “what” “everything”.
“his voice was funny” => contempt “he was crying without making noise” => improperly + polo mentioned again.
“lies down face in the trampled mud” è Cohn lies face down in the bed
H explains the like between things è shot how bad a thing was
The same parallel lies in the book.
The waiter è another point of view is introduces : “Bulls are animals. Brute animals”
Children … è H means life is precious and has to be enjoyed
“We learned in the newspaper” about the man’s identity è PROLEPSIS
Chapter 18.
*Story : Last day of the fiesta, very Intense : Everybody is mixed together.
Jake and Brett walk together. Everybody gathers in the bullring. Romero and Belmonte fight bulls. Romero is marked by the fight with Cohn. It’s vsible (his face shows it), it does well though. He gives Brett the killer-bull’s ear and is carried away by the crowd. Jake and Bill eat near of Belmonte (see keys).
*Keys to analysis : “Her head up as if the fiesta were staged in her honour”.
ð Brett , divinity
Mike says Cohn hasn’t hurt him, he has just knocked him off è he always diminishes and denies Cohn’s performances.
The go inside a Church but it makes Brett nervous.
Brett was back to her former mood (the one she had before having Cohn as a lover).
Racism against German => German head
“the German”
Intensity of the fiesta :
Belmonte’s characterisation : imitation of himself
Ø he’s getting old
èè Revenge on Cohn.
Romero is physically damaged, not mentally.
// bull = revenge on Cohn (cleaning is reputation)
// of the prolepsis (face in the sand)
dance around the Bull è celebration of Romero’s victory over the bull > Cohn too
èè Belmonte // the others
hard-boiled eggs // soft-boiled ones
Ø he has lost
-“tough-looking , buisnesman big meals” => “he ate very little”
-“he didn’t say a thing” // “answers to questions”
è end of the Fiesta
-night , covering , cloudy again , etc => bitterness
“the absinthe made everything seem better”
è “it was pleasantly bitter”
last evening : evening = last period of the day > accumulation of ending symbols suggesting a deep bitterness.
è System : fiesta > drinking > fun > bitterness > depression > feast
as far as the Fiesta is concerned è biggest fun ever è awful depression è tighter than I remember having been.
Six people missing (calling of the circle) > he unconsciously wants to party again > circle
BOOK 3 : (it deals with Spain and Paris)
Chapter 19.
*Story : Bill and Jake plan to go to Bayonne with Mike.
They go to Biarritz to have a drink. They have a ride toward Hendaye. They drive Mike to Saint-Jean-de-Luz and Bill takes his train at Bayonne to Paris.
Jake tips people in Bayonne (donner un pour-boire) and than goes back to Spain : San Sebastian. Jake feels better (see keys). He receive telegrams from Brett who wants him to come a the Montoya Hotel, saying she is in trouble. He goes there and then she tells him she let Romero go. They go to a bar and speak. Brett has changed (see keys) and doesn’t want Jake to get drunk. They go for a walk in Madrid. They take a taxi. è END scene in the taxi
*Keys to analysis : all that shows the fiesta is finished
Jews => used for non-Jews on account of financial discussions.
Mike : “One never gets anywhere by discussing finances.
Mike is broke.
Paris’ life’s description ; “sound basis” : (based on money)
=/ Spain he doesn’t like it as much
cyclical : at Bayonne and San Sebastian he goes at the same hotel he has already been to.
Jake feels better : he swims (he hadn’t even at Burgete) , he takes care of his job (good sign) , and also drink less alcohol è lemon juice , the proportion is smaller.
The cyclists è not as honourable as bullfighters. Arrangements for money. Not to make it less dangerous etc … by this H asserts bullfighting’s position.
+ negative description of their behaviour.
The manager è praise of Paris and bike-races
The one-arm soldier acts a bit like a memento on Jake, reminding him of his wounds.
“San Sebastian all shot to hell” (telegram from Brett) è he is well when alone
è Ending symbol : the railway every tracks end here > Jake’s escape ends there > so does the story & the novel.
Romero as wiped Cohn out as far as Bret is concerned : he has gone out of everybody’s mind.
“It makes me feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch” ; “it’s sort of what we have instead of God”
“don’t get drunk Jake” , “don’t”, she said “you’ll be alright”
èè She has changed
She has a new line now. The solution isn’t drinking anymore but being reasonable, not being a bitch anymore.
§ of the taxi is very similar to the one in chap 4
but “we sat close against each other”
=/ avoid
“sharply white” => he isn’t tight
“isn’t it lovely to thing so” => lovely
positive view on the overall
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