Look closely at the start of this chapter for yet another example of the famous and influential Hemingway style. Stylistically, at least, Hemingway never wrote better than during the descriptive passages in this early novel. With regard to his dramatic writing, the scene in which Montoya observes Romero with the drunken English and Americans is also practically peerless. Though he never says a word, it is clear to us precisely what Montero is thinking.
And, of course, the cruel phallic joking continues. "Tell him that bulls have no balls," a drunken Mike shouts. Later, a fireworks technician's fruitless attempts at pyrotechnics are clearly metaphoric: He tries to launch a series of balloons, but
"[t]he wind brought them all down, and Don Manuel Orquito's face was sweaty in the light of his complicated fireworks that fell into the crowd and charged and chased, sputtering and cracking, between the legs of the people."
"I say, I wish one would go up," Brett remarks. Hemingway never ceases reminding us of Jake's terrible condition.
