This novel describes a group of American youth living in Europe after World War I, expressing the despair of some young intellectuals after the first World War. The heroine Britt is an Englishman. He lost his family in the war. The hero Jack Barnes is an American journalist who lost her erotic ability due to spinal injuries in the war. Jack and Britt are really in love, but they can't combine. The war has left them traumatized physically and mentally, and they feel confused and weary of their lives. Two men and a group of men and women went to Pamplona, Spain, to take part in the bullfight to pursue spiritual stimulation. In Spain, Britt rejected the bitter pursuit of the Jewish youth Robert Cohen, but was fascinated by the nineteen year old matador Romero. However, after a period of time, the relationship between Britt and his family was very different. She finally came back to Barnes, and although both sides knew that each other would never really be together. The novel also describes an American writer, Robert, who thinks he has a heroic spirit and has a romantic fantasy of his life. He pursued Britt, but Britt did not like him, and felt that his ideas of life were obsolete and vain.
Jack lost spinal cord in the first World War and lost his ability. He was a journalist in Paris after World War II, and he fell in love with A Shi, the English lady, Brett. He pursued pleasure and mental stimulation blindly, and kept seducing other men while he was in love with Jack. Cohen, who rejected the bitter pursuit of Cohen, fell in love with the matador, Romero, who was only nineteen years old. However, no matter how bright the toss, Jack always told her she was true to the core, the trick to play, as her listeners each love story, even in a love affair with Romero after the failure to rescue her from down, again the unconditional acceptance of her. However, when it comes to love, whatever his unwavering loyalty, he can meet her spiritual desire, he never fell in love with the person you. As a society, he drifted in the life stream. He is a newspaper in the overseas staff, popularity is good, either for work or for a friend, he is normal to fulfill their duties and obligations. But they could not cover up his feeble feelings.
At first, there was no understanding of the role Cohen played in the sun as usual. He is not a person should be ignored, first is a Cohen biography, he made clear: at the old schools of Princeton University, was a former university boxing champion - strong, a wealthy Jewish family of innocent people, thick, especially for women or heart of the women were abandoned. Or by the woman in hand. It looks nothing wrong, an ordinary member of the middle class, but no worth write a great deal about. See later found no signs with his book the hero and that decent friends always like the misfits, the barn was good with the bulls to isolated bullock. Then I suddenly realized that Cohen existed as a reference that had not been traumatized. The wounded, is eaten war suffering, as Barnes was castrated war is a direct symbol.
Hemingway said that his writing is merely a reflection of the tip of the iceberg, and I think to understand this sentence, should start from the angle of his writing techniques, because the text is an abstract expression, because of this, many factors writing will also include narration, description, thinking, comment and so on, for example Tolstoy, Kundla and Hemingway as a writer, just do narration and description, he for scenes of life, environment, dialogue and atmosphere are presented which are restrained, he did not comment, nor to analysis of the so-called "mental world" figures, but he wanted to tell us the content has implied a huge iceberg in the sea under this approach, like the movie, which is probably why Hemingway's works are mostly adapted into film and television drama.