The Sun Also Rises Chapter 17
Jake meets Mike and Bill, as well as Bill’s friend Edna. Edna mentions that she has a busy task trying to keep Bill and Mike out of bar fights. Mike has been getting into fights since he had run into some people he had owed money to before he had become bankrupt. Robert approaches the group at a cafe where they are drinking and demands that Jake tell him where Brett has gone. Jake refuses, but Mike tells him that Brett is with the bullfighter, Pedro. This angers Robert, as he feels that Jake has set her up with Pedro. He calls Jake a pimp. Jake is furious and is tired of Robert’s behavior, so he swings a punch at Robert. This turns into a brawl. Robert, being a one-time college boxer, knocks Jake out cold, and knocks Mike to the ground as well.
When Jake regains consciousness and does not appear to be seriously injured, he heads back to the hotel. There, Bill tells him that Robert wants to see him, and Jake complies. He finds Robert in his room, crying. He is upset and expresses his sorrow for hitting Jake. He says that Jake is his only friend. He asks for forgiveness. At first, Jake refuses, but eventually gives in, forgives Robert, and even shakes Robert’s hand.
A man is gored by a bull in the morning. The spectators seem to care very little, being far more concerned with getting to the stadium. Later, Jake discusses the death with a waiter, who expresses his displeasure with the sport. He laments the fact that a man has been killed, all for this pointless sport of bullfighting.
Later, Bill and Mike go to Jake’s room. They tell Jake that last night, Robert went to Pedro’s room, and beat him quite badly. Towards the end of the fight, Pedro got one good hit in. He threatens Robert that he would kill Robert if he hadn’t left the town by the following morning. Brett angrily scolded Robert. As told, Robert ended up in tears after beating Pedro. He then begged Pedro to forgive him and shake hands, but Pedro got one more good hit to connect.
Mike reveals that Brett’s promiscuous behavior bothers him. He doesn’t like that she has affairs with “Jews and bullfighters.” He is drunk as he says this, but continues to drink, as a way to numb his pain over Brett. Brett had retorted that the British aristocracy has made her this way. Mike describes her miserable first marriage to a man who was paranoid, abusive, and unstable.
As Bill is leaving, Jake brings up the spectator who was gored earlier in the day. Bill was entirely unaware of it.
Analysis
Mike’s decline is evident here, and the reason for his heavy drinking becomes clear. Brett’s promiscuous behavior is eating him alive, despite his best efforts to tolerate it. He is crumbling under her behavior and is becoming yet another casualty that Brett leaves in her wake.
Robert also reaches rock bottom, driven to physically attack people by his frustration over Brett. He damages Jake with a knockout punch, and presumably damages their friendship, possibly irreparably, despite Jake’s begrudging, but possibly just polite, the forgiveness of Robert. Robert’s attack on Pedro is brutal. The young bullfighter is beaten severely. Robert feels remorse, even as the attack is taking place, demonstrating the confusion that Robert experiences. He knows that he has destroyed many things, and accordingly plans to leave.
The waiter who discusses the tragedy of the man who was killed bemoans that his death was, “all for sport, all for pleasure.” This also represents the plight of the men in Brett’s life, especially Mike. Her pursuit of men as little more than sport and pleasure leaves many casualties.
