About those bulls...

I'm going to explain why I think Hemingway chose to have the characters' final place of meeting to be at a bullfighting fiesta. Many people see bullfighting as the perfect display of respect for animals, as well as an extremely graceful sport. Hemingway uses the bullfights to describe the relationship between the characters by showing how they are not what the bullfight is- graceful and controlled. On page 221, Jake says when talking about Pedro that "in his own bulls he was perfect." This is how Hemingway sees the bullfight. He sees them as perfect and uses this to contrast the characters.
While the characters in the novel have trouble getting what they want, the bullfighters gracefully and honorably kill the bull with relatively little trouble. While the characters are cruel to each other and verbally and physically attack each other when they are weak or vulnerable, the bullfighters put themselves in harm's way to give the bull as fair a chance at winning as they have. And finally, while the characters have no control over their situation or, more importantly, themselves, the bull fighters use skill, tact, and grace to control the bull during the fight. These are all ways that Hemingway shows the reader how bullfighting can be the model for relationships. He was obviously a big fan of bullfights. I'm not exactly to that point yet.