June

I used to stare at the women carved of stone or the women of paintings

I would stare and admire their bodies

They were imperfect

They were asymmetrical

They were realistic

They were beautiful

This was my first time reading anything by Hemingway. I love how he explained everything just as he saw it, no elaborate metaphors or anything like that. It made it easy to understand. However, there was a deeper meaning underneath. Such as the difficulties faced by the members of the lost generation.

The way Hemingway portrayed the lost generation really taught me something about how the war affected peoples lives and mindsets. In the book, Brett bounces around from guy to guy, always unsatisfied with each, and can’t stick with any of them. Jake struggles to keep ahold of his masculinity after suffering an injury during his time in the war.

The whole time, the character are walking through their lives drunk, unaware of where they’re going and unaware of what they’re running from. This is very characteristic of the lost generation because after the war, so many people had their lives turned upside down and found themselves wandering aimlessly through their lives.

In the book, Romero represents everything good and pure, and everything that jake and his friends are subconsciously searching for. And just like Jake, Cohn, and Mike, Brett takes ahold of him and and causes more conflict among the group. Montoya and the people working for/with Romero were upset to see him with Brett, for they all knew that foreigners would corrupt the young bullfighter.The way Brett cycles through these men, does nothing but further damage their masculinity, self worth, and even other’s opinions of them.