Bullfighting

Hemingway draws numerous parallels between bull-fighting and Brett's sexuality. Early in the novel, Brett tells Jake she cannot commit to him, as she will "tromper" him; while this means "to be unfaithful to," it also means "to elude," and it makes sense why she is attracted to Romero: as a great bull-fighter, he is the consummate eluder, deceiving the bulls into thinking they are close to him, then pulling away, much as Brett does with men. Romero also penetrates with his phallic sword both the bull and, as Jake metaphorically describes it, the audience; he begins as the coy, elusive female, then metamorphoses into the violent, dominant male. In one episode, Jake and Cohn also resemble steers (Mike even calls Cohn a steer), young oxen castrated before sexual maturity. Jake resembles the steer that joins the herd of bulls (much as he, as a castrated male, manages to belong to his group of virile friends), while Cohn is like the steer excluded from the group, the pariah who follows around Brett.