In the latter half of The Sun Also Rises, bullfighting has such a prominent place that it invites its consideration as an analogy to everything else in the novel: from the multi-casted love-battle for Brett to the ongoing struggle for life after war. One such point of possible comparison is found in the “us vs. them,” inside-outside theme that runs throughout the story. For example, the knowledge of the intricacies of bullfighting, and the lack of such knowledge, mirrors a similar dichotomy concerning war. Jake and Montoya recognize their exclusive, “secret” knowledge of the corrida (136), drawing a distinction between those who are “aficionados” and those who are not, where even some toreros have the passion of “aficion,” while others either have never had it or have given in to commercialism. Only those with aficion truly know and appreciate the tragic ritual of bullfighting (136). Similarly, certain characters are on the “inside” of understanding the war, including Jake, Bill, and the others who have war experience, while others are on the outside (especially Cohn). These differences substantially define the relationships in the story.  

This concern for the purity, or authenticity, of the corrida is also an ironic mirror of Jake’s other basic concerns—namely, of his desires for faith and consummated love. Jake seeks the ideal performance of the ritual of bullfighting, in which the torero aficionado creates order out of chaos by taunting, and finally conquering death. But he seeks this ritualized perfection in a world that seems to lack order and meaningful fulfillment. He perhaps still hopes for such order when, for example, he continues to try to pray despite frustration, but the order is not found within the action of the novel. Similarly, Jake recognizes Romero’s final kill as nearly ideal (222), but this kill mirrors Jake’s frustrated desire for union with Brett. The kill is described in sexual imagery: as a consummation in which Jake cannot share, a consummation that ends in death.