Analysis of "Pamplona in July" (SUMMER READING)

Title: Pamplona in July

Author: Ernest Hemingway

            I had read The Old Man and the Sea a few years back, and thought it was one of the best books I had ever read. There is something about Ernest Hemingway's understated style that allows his narratives to draw the reader in even more deeply. This narrative was no different, Hemingway lays out the scene and it just comes to life inside the reader’s head. This was written for the “Toronto Star Weekly” in 1923 as an exotic travel article, at a time when most people never left the town they were born in. Hemingway's essay describes he and his wife's experience of the ten day Bull fighting festival held in Pamplona. Every time he referred to his wife he would call her Herself. Hemingway writes, “Maera is Herself’s favorite bull fighter.” This was an interesting element of the piece whose purpose I still do not understand. Hemingway starts this piece out as an exciting narrative of a far off destination. However by the end it had turned into a persuasive argument that bullfighters are the most amazing athletes, and that bull fighting is the most amazing sporting spectacle. Hemingway even gives up on competing these men for his own wife, “The only way most husbands are able keep any drag with their wives at all is that, first there are only a limited number of bull fighters, second there are only a limited number of wives who have ever seen bull fights.” This essay gave ordinary people a window into the culture surrounding the primary sporting event of another nation. Hemingway’s utmost respect for the Bull fighting and those who have the courage to take part in it is the most apparent takeaway from this essay. After reading this essay almost 100 years after it was written I know now that I too will someday make it to Pamplona for the first two weeks of July.