The Sun Also Rises Chapter 17 Summary

Summary

Outside the Bar Milano Jake meets Bill, Mike and a girl named Edna who explain that they have been thrown out of the bar because some people inside dislike Mike. A tense, mocking exchange about Mike's reputation and bankruptcy leads Robert Cohn to arrive at the Café Suizo demanding to know where Brett is; when provoked he assaults Jake, who ends up on the pavement and under a table before friends help him up. The evening dissolves into a muddled, detached feeling for Jake as he walks back to the hotel, describing everything as if it were strange and distant.

Jake goes to Cohn's room at Bill's insistence. Cohn is humiliated and weeping, begging Jake to forgive him for his behavior over Brett and announcing he will leave in the morning. Jake is tired and wants only a hot bath. He sleeps poorly and wakes to take Edna to the morning encierro. In the crowd outside the bull-ring he sees the bulls charge through the streets; a man is gored and later dies. Jake returns to town, learns the victim's name and later that the bull was killed in the afternoon by Pedro Romero, who cuts off the bull's ear and gives it to Brett. Back at the hotel, Bill and Mike return, full of talk about the encierro and Edna; Jake notes his sore jaw and the continuing, uneasy social atmosphere among the group.

Key events

1. Jake finds Bill, Mike and Edna after they are thrown out of the Bar Milano
2. Robert Cohn confronts Jake about Brett; a fight ensues and Jake is knocked down
3. Jake visits Cohn, who is crying and says he will leave in the morning
4. Jake goes to the bull-run (encierro) and witnesses bulls charging through the streets
5. A man is gored and later identified as Vicente Girones; the bull is killed in the afternoon
6. Pedro Romero gives the bull's ear to Brett; Jake wakes in the hotel to Bill and Mike returning

Analysis

Chapter 17 tightens the novel's emotional pressure by juxtaposing interpersonal violence with public spectacle. The private blow between Cohn and Jake — a fight born of jealousy and possessiveness over Brett — exposes fragility beneath the men's bravado; Cohn's later collapse into shame and vow to leave shows a contrast between explosive masculinity and private despair. Jake's flat, detached narration after being struck emphasizes his war-wearied stoicism and creates a distance that colors the social life of the group. The encierro sequence functions as a thematic mirror: the crowd's panic, the bulls' impersonal violence, and a man's death underscore the precariousness of life and the thin line between sport and tragedy. Symbolically, the running of the bulls amplifies the novel's recurring ideas of ritualized masculinity and spectacle — the communal enjoyment of danger and the inevitability of bodily harm.

Structurally, the chapter alternates close, cramped scenes (the café fight, Cohn's bedroom) with expansive public scenes (the encierro), shifting the focus from intimate conflict to communal event and back. Hemingway's pared-down, objective narration keeps emotion restrained, letting actions and brief dialogue reveal character. Small details — Jake's desire for a hot bath, the polo shirt, the bull's ear later given to Brett — foreshadow continuing tensions over Brett and hint at how public acts (the bullfight) intersect with private rivalries. The chapter deepens the reader's sense of social friction among the expatriates while embedding their drama in Pamplona's violent pageantry.

Important quotes

““We’ve been thrown out,” Edna said.”

EdnaOpens the chapter with the group ejected from Bar Milano and sets the scene for the evening's tensions.

““I’m going away in the morning.””

Robert CohnCohn, humiliated and weeping after confronting Jake about Brett, tells Jake he plans to leave, showing his despair and shame.

Characters in Chapter 17

• Bill Gorton
• Mike Campbell
• Edna
• Robert Cohn
• Jake Barnes
• Lady Brett Ashley
• Vicente Girones
• Pedro Romero
• Bocanegra
• Sanchez Tabemo
• Montoya
• Charley Blackman