The Sun Also Rises...Again

"'It's no life being a steer,' Robert Cohn said."

The portion of Book II of The Sun Also Rises that I have read so far deals mostly with the vacation to Pamplona plot-wise.  The primary reason the group goes there is to see the bullfights, which are Jake's passion.  The quote refers to the part of the ritual of the bullfight in which the bulls are unloaded in the days preceding the fight.  As the bulls are released from their cages into the pen, there are steers which stand there and get gored to calm the bulls down so they do not hurt each other before the fight.

My first reaction was that Cohn was the steer, but at second glance, Jake is closer to that role.  Jake is quiet and a more restrained than the other men on the vacation.  Bill is nice and happy most of the time, but occasionally he can erupt on people.  Cohn and Mike fight each other in an animal sort of way.  They are driven by animal instinct more than conscious decisions, whereas with Jake one can tell he has more dignity than the others at times.

Jake is also different because of his attempt at religion.  He is very humble and knows that he isn't the perfect Catholic, but yet paradoxically to admit to one's weaknesses and see oneself truly leads to perfection.  There is something about Jake that makes him different.  He is a simpler man and his taste is emphasized.  He lives a balanced life and finds more rest than other characters do in the novel.  The trip to Pamplona is a retreat of sorts for Jake.  There is an attempt to escape to a simpler sort of existence.  The fishing portion is very calm.  It varies between the imagery of the countryside and the light banter and joking that goes on between Bill and Jake.  The cathedral is a sanctuary for Jake in almost every way.  

None the less, Jake is most passionate about the bulls.  Even the locals attest to his aficion or passion for the bullfights and all the news about them.  Jake can appreciate what is beautiful, he has a critical mind.  For the most part that factors in why he acts the way he does.  He evaluates and observes more than he actually jumps in the fray.  He is the spectator, and in some ways the judge.  The reader sees from his perspective and although Jake does not know everything about the others, he thinks clearly enough that it is fairly easy to follow.  Its not stream of consciousness that's for sure.