Death in the Afternoon

Bullfight Aftermath

“Aficion means passion. An aficionado is one who is passionate about the bull-fights.” (136) Ernest Hemingway, as well as his main character Jake Barnes, are both aficionados. Hemingway first attended the festival of San Fermin in 1923 with his first wife Hadley, and “it became one of the reigning passions of his life.” He participated in a few amateur bull-fighting competitions, but ultimately decided he was best served as a writer. In 1932 he published the non-fiction Death in the Afternoon, about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting. It is also “a deeper contemplation on the nature of fear and courage.”

The fiesta of San Fermin was originally in October (the saint’s feast day is 10 October), but in 1591 it was officially changed, from 7 July to 14 July, beginning at noon the day before with the chupinazo-the shooting off of rockets that signaled the beginning of the fiesta. “At noon on Sunday, the 6th of July, the fiesta exploded. There is no other way to describe it.” (156) Hemingway doesn't really involve the moral issues of bullfighting in The Sun Also Rises, other than Jake's concern for Brett: he tells her not to watch the horse after it has been gored by the bull. Bill also decides, with a sense of tragedy and irony, that it "Must be swell being a steer." (138) In bullfighting, if the torero succeeds, the bull is killed. If the bull defeats or injures the torero, he is studded and new bulls are bred from him. It is an archaic, cruel practice to many, but the tradition remains in Spain and Mexico.

“The fiesta was really started. It kept up day and night for seven days. The dancing kept up, the drinking kept up, the noise went on. The things that happened could only have happened during a fiesta. Everything became quite unreal finally and it seemed as though nothing could have any consequences. It seemed out of place to think of consequences during the fiesta. All during the fiesta you had the feeling, even when it was quiet, that you had to shout any remark to make it heard. It was the same feeling about any action. It was a fiesta and it went on for seven days.” (158)

The Sun Also Rises brought a great deal of attention to the festival in Pamplona, and Death in the Afternoon is considered the utmost authority on Spanish bullfighting extant. Hemingway’s style is very sparse, but when he writes about the fights, the toreros, the preparations for the festival and everything that goes with it, his sentences are filled with passion and adjectives-it might even be called flowery. Hemingway was a true aficionado: “after his suicide in 1961, two tickets to the upcoming Pamplona bullfights were discovered in his desk drawer.”