Bullfighting - Death in the afternoon

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Bullfighting - Death in the afternoon

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Bullfighting, Spain

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Abstract

“Furthermore what the crowd honors is the victor, tossing him flowers and gifts, which he gracious returns, so that it may become a victory of all those watching him and recognizing themselves in it” (Barthes, 2007). This is a very interesting paragraph from ‘bullfighting' by Barthes. It proposes that bullfighting is never fait because the bulls can never win, and that the joy in the ‘sport' comes from realization that man is greater that beast. This paper will analyze this paragraph using two opposing books for reference, ‘death in the afternoon' by Ernest Hemingway and ‘on bullfighting' by A. L Kennedy.

Bullfighting is a popular sport in Spain and some Latin countries in the Americas. It involves teasing a bull into confronting a man, and the man ‘escaping death' and finally killing the bull (Kennedy, 2001). However, this is merely a psychological trick, where the huge beast is unable to defeat the ‘small' and ‘defenseless man. This proposes that the adrenaline rush is the main drive. Whether the actual sport justifies the hype is another thing all together. There have been different opinions about the sport over the years. These opinions are captured by A. L Kennedy and Ernest Hemingway in their respective books.

Introduction
Bullfighting
Earnest Hemmingway
Conclusion

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[...] According to Kennedy, some people do not find this appealing. She described cases where she witnessed tourists leaving the arenas because they could not take any more of the violence. To continue her viewing, she has to take pills to prevent herself from vomiting. This hardly paints the picture of a desirable sport. There is a consensus between the two authors that bullfighting is not really a sport. According to Earnest Hemmingway, bullfighting is not really a sport since there is no equal contest between the bulls and men. [...]

[...] However, in the end, they both tend to agree with Barthes that this is not really a sport. There is only one expected outcome, the death of the bull or horse. According to Kennedy, some people do not find this appealing. She described cases where she witnessed tourists leaving the arenas because they could not take any more of the violence. However, the view of this paper may be biased by the cultural values of contemporary times and the declining aesthetic value of violence. References Barthes, R. (2007). [...]

[...] What is sport?. New Haven: Yale University Press. Hemingway, E. (1932). Death in the afternoon. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Kennedy, A. L. (2001). On bullfighting. New York: Anchor Books. [...]

[...] This proposes that the adrenaline rush is the main drive. Whether the actual sport justifies the hype is another thing all together. Kennedy describes the experience as resembling sex' (Kennedy, 2001). There is a lot of hype but the actual act ultimately fails the expectations. For example, the build up to the fight proposes an epic ending, only for the bull to be stabbed and thus slowed down. At one point, the animal that was expected to be raging is powerless and weakened to the extent that it is unable to defend its self, thus leaving a feeling of anticlimax in the viewers. [...]

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