In 1923 a young American journalist came to Pamplona for San Fermín. He ran with the bulls, watched the bullfights, and three years later published a novel set there. Within a few years, the whole world wanted to see the festival. His name was Ernest Hemingway.
Learn from Songs · Festivals: Summer in Spain · Part 3 of 4 · C1–C2
Hemingway and the Bullfighter
Part 3: how one American writer made Pamplona famous. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, his short story of an ageing matador, “The Undefeated”, and the long debate over bullfighting, with a country song by Luke Bell. Hemingway’s style (short sentences, repetition, understatement and the “iceberg”), would for characteristic behaviour, and the language of balanced argument and concession, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
DEMETRIA
So he made San Fermín famous?
SOPHIA
More than anyone else. And he wrote about bullfighting all his life, with a style so plain that it changed how people write in English. Tonight we read about him, about one of his short stories, and about the debate he walked into. Our song is a country ballad.
PHILO
A writer who loved what many people hate. We must be fair.
Before you listen: the song
Pamplona, 1923–1926, and after
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) was an American journalist and novelist. Wounded as a volunteer ambulance driver in the First World War, he lived in Paris in the 1920s, and first visited Pamplona in 1923. His novel The Sun Also Rises (1926) follows a group of young British and American expatriates, damaged by the war, from Paris to the fiesta of San Fermín. He went on to write A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, set in the Spanish Civil War, and The Old Man and the Sea, and won the Nobel Prize in 1954. His non-fiction book Death in the Afternoon (1932) is a long study of bullfighting, which he saw as a tragic art.
“The Undefeated” (1925) is one of his best short stories. Manuel Garcia, an ageing matador just out of hospital, begs a promoter for one more fight. He is given a poor, late-night slot, he is badly gored, but he refuses to give up, and at the end, on the operating table, he insists that he was going good. Hemingway never tells us what to think: he shows us, in short, plain sentences, and leaves the feelings under the surface. He called this his “iceberg theory”: the dignity of a story comes from the seven-eighths that is not written.
The debate. Bullfighting is defended by many Spaniards as an ancient art, part of their culture, and an important source of jobs; it has been praised by painters from Goya to Picasso and poets like Lorca. Its critics argue that it is the public torture of an animal, and opinion in Spain has been changing: the Canary Islands banned it in 1991, Catalonia banned it in 2010 (the ban was overturned by Spain’s Constitutional Court in 2016), and in 2024 the Spanish government abolished the national bullfighting prize. Our song: “The Bullfighter” is by the American country singer Luke Bell, who sings it in the old storytelling style of country music.
Describe honestly, judge carefully, and let the reader think.
Listen and read
PHILO
Listen to Luke Bell. Who is the song about? How does the singer tell the story: with feelings, or with facts? Then read the summary of “The Undefeated” above.
SOPHIA
Compare the two ways of telling a story. Then answer Section A.
📖 Listen to the song: “The Bullfighter”, by Luke Bell.Find the recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “The Bullfighter”, Luke Bell.Read the lyrics →
Hemingway’s style: show, don’t tell
MARCOS
He walked into the ring. The sun was hot. The bull came. He did not move.
SOPHIA
Short sentences, simple words, repetition, and no explanations of feelings. Compare: He was terrified but determined (telling) with His hands were shaking. He did not move. (showing). This understatement is the “iceberg”: the reader feels what is not said.
Would for characteristic behaviour
DEMETRIA
Every year he would come back to Pamplona. He would sit in the same café and would talk to the same matadors. That’s just what he would do!
SOPHIA
would + verb for typical, repeated past behaviour. With stress, WOULD can criticise: He would say that, wouldn’t he? = it’s typical of him.
Balanced argument and concession
PHILO
Admittedly, it is an old tradition. Granted, it provides jobs. Even so, critics maintain that tradition cannot justify cruelty. While it is true that Goya painted it, it does not follow that it should continue.
SOPHIA
admittedly, granted, it is true that… but, even so, nevertheless, it does not follow that. Concede the strongest point of the other side, then make yours. This is how to argue fairly at C1–C2.
Sophia’s comparison: the gladiator, and the Torah on animals
SOPHIA
In Rome, people pay to watch men fight animals and each other in the arena, and the crowds adore the bravest fighters. Some of our philosophers say it teaches courage; others, like Seneca, say it makes the spectators cruel.
PHILO
And the Torah says: you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and if you see your enemy’s donkey lying under its load, you must help it up. Even the animals are owed mercy. The debate is older than Hemingway.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| short sentences, repetition, understatement | Hemingway’s style | He did not move. |
| show, don’t tell / the iceberg | leave feelings under the surface | His hands were shaking. |
| would + verb | typical past behaviour | He would sit in the same café. |
| admittedly, granted, even so | concession | Admittedly, it is an old tradition. |
| it does not follow that | challenging an argument | It does not follow that it should continue. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. When did Hemingway first visit Pamplona?
2. Which novel is set partly at San Fermín?
3. Who is Manuel Garcia in “The Undefeated”?
4. What is the “iceberg theory”?
5. Which region banned bullfighting in 1991?
6. When did Hemingway win the Nobel Prize?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. Every year he come back to Pamplona. (typical behaviour)
8. , it is an old tradition. (I admit)
9. Even , critics maintain that tradition cannot justify cruelty.
10. It does not that it should continue.
11. His style is full of : he says less than he means.
12. Show, don’t .
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “Admittedly it is old tradition, so it must continue.”
14. “He would sit in the same café every morning.”
15. “Granted, the festival brings visitors. Even so, it is controversial.”
16. “He was very very scared and very very brave.” (Hemingway style?)
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Iceberg writing. Rewrite a dramatic moment from your own life in Hemingway’s style: short sentences, no adjectives of feeling, only what could be seen and heard.
Discuss. 1. Should bullfighting be banned, protected or left to change by itself? Argue both sides fairly. 2. Can a great writer make us admire something we think is wrong? 3. Is it better to show or to tell?
Write (240–280 words, C2 essay). “Tradition is not a sufficient reason to keep a custom.” Discuss, using concession and the language of balanced argument.
Now play the gamebook: an ageing charioteer, one last race, and a young scholar who must tell the story.Play the gamebook →