Like Hannah, I was struck by how well the toreros worked as a metaphor for WWI soldiers.  The two groups idealistically gain their glory through the same means:  by facing a wild, destructive force--coming so close that it can easily injure or kill you--and coming out unharmed, maintaining poise and grace throughout.  However, if Romero reminds Jake and his friends of the youth that they had lost, then his counterpart Juan Belmonte must be equally revealing.

Belmonte, much Jake and his friends, are past their prime.  Belmonte once held the darling position now occupied by Romero, when he was famous for how perilously close he always came to being killed by the bulls (218).  However, when Belmonte returns to relive his 'glory days', Jake notes that he cannot do this.  Valuing his life, Belmonte picks out smaller, calmer bulls to fight.  Although this precaution likely saves his life, Belmonte and his audience finds that "it did not give him a good feeling.  It was the greatness, but it did not make bull-fighting wonderful to him any more" (220).  Like Jake and company, Belmonte has changed too much to go back to his youthful, more reckless days of struggle and near-death experiences.  Instead, he can only play the part of a warrior and exaggerate the danger he puts himself in.  This, of course, is not effective:  that past is gone, and nothing can be done to recapture them.