The Sun Also Rises(Chapters 10 & 11)

Chapters 10 & 11 Summaries

Chapter 10 starts with Bill, Robert, and Jake all at the train station together. After meeting Robert and catching up, Jake calls for a car to bring the three of them to Pamplona. While being in the car together Robert is very nervous. He hopes that Jake does not know about Brett and him flying to San Sebastian together. Though Jake does know and hopes that Robert will say something about it because it has been bugging him for quite sometime. After a long and painful car ride, Jake, Bill, and Robert all go out to have a drink before Brett and Mike arrive. When there in the bar, Jake starts a conversation about how he does not believe Brett and Mike will arrive later that night. Robert of course disagreeing with Jake, tells him that they should be all arriving on time. Bill and Jake both get very irritated with Robert and Robert can tell that they are. So Robert gets very angry and he foolishly wagers a hundred pesetas that they will arrive on time. Jake not refusing his offer, takes the wager in excitement. Bill then tells Jake that he can't stand it when Robert thinks he is superior and so called becomes "Jewish”. Then after being irritated with Bill and Robert, Jake picks up his bullfighting tickets, and leaves the bar. After walking around for a hour or two, Jake stops at a cathedral to pray, but he finds his mind wandering to much. After trying and trying to pray, Jake heads back and meets Robert and Bill. After finding them, Jake goes with Robert to the train station to meet Mike and Brett. However, Mike and Brett are not on the train, so Jake and Robert return to the hotel. Right when Jake and Robert get to the hotel, Jake receives a telegram from Brett and Mike telling him that they have stopped in San Sebastian because Brett is very sick and cannot continue on their trip. After reading the telegram, Jake felt proud because he was right and Robert was wrong. Though having the evidence, Jake does not hand it over because he wants to annoy Robert. Though he does tell Robert that they sent a telegram to him saying that they are still on there way. Robert feeling proud, turns down the suggestion of Jake's, asking if he wanted to go fishing in a small town called Burguete instead of waiting for Brett and Mike. Jake asks why he does not want to go and Robert tells him that he will wait for Brett and Mike to arrive. Then right before Jake and Bill were about to leave, Robert admits to Jake that he wrote to Brett suggesting to meet together in San Sebastian. Leaving the hotel furiously, Bill tells Jake that Robert had confided in him about his one on one date with Brett. Bill also tells Jake that he thinks that Robert is nice, but is so mean and vain to people that he is very close to. Then in chapter 11, Bill and Jake board a crowded bus to ride to the small town of Burguete. The bus is filled with Basque peasants, people who inhabit a region shared by France and Spain in the Pyrenees Mountains. The Basques were drinking wine from wineskins on the bus. They offer their skins to Bill and Jake, who in turn share their bottles of wine with eachother. While riding the bus, Jake looks out the window and he notices that the Spanish countryside is very beautiful, and it is cool to see everything on the top of the bus where Bill and Jake were sitting. After seeing that Jake and Bill did not know how to drink the wine, the Basques teach them the proper way to drink from a wine-bag. After they learn how to drink out of the bag, the bus stops. Bill and Jake loved how much fun they had on the bus with the Basque peasants, so they buy some more drinks from them. After having two drinks already, some of the Basque passengers buy them more drinks. Once the bus starts again, an English-speaking Basque engages with Bill and Jake in a friendly conversation. Once they arrive in Burguete, Bill and Jake decide to find a hotel first. When they find one near by the fat innkeeper charges them a high price for their room because it is “the big season.” It turns out that Bill and Jake are the only people in the hotel. When they learn that the wine is included in there stay at the hotel, they drink several bottles. After only a couple more drinks, Jake decides to go to bed.

Chapters 10 & 11 Personal Comments

Chapters 10 & 11 I feel were very dull and boring to read. I think that they were not detailed enough and were very confusing to understand. I thought that the characters would go and do something together and then all of a sudden they would go and do something totally different. I did not understand most of the pages in these chapters and I had to re-read a lot of the pages because they jumped from one topic to another. I thought that adding the character Bill was not a great idea of Hemingway's because I think that he was just used to support Jake and make Jake look like the better person than Robert. I believe that Bill was not that important and he could have been cut from the novel. Overall I did not enjoy reading these two chapters and I feel that they could have been a lot better and more detailed.