Local Color

Chapter X is completely about the location change; the landscape, customs, language, food, and interactions are all different now because of the traveling. The group leaves France and travels to Spain to go on a fishing trip with Cohn. The chapter basically gives an extremely, extremely, extremely long, detailed version of the events happening once Jake, Bill, and Cohn begin their journey across Spain to their fishing spot. It is in this detailed account that we see the special attention Jake places on informing the reader of the setting. He places much importance on the landscape of Spain and customs of the Spanish people. At the start of the chapter, Jake tells the reader about the "very clean Spanish town...on a big river," "a nice Spanish cathedral, nice and dim, like most Spanish churches," and the "yellow, sun-baked color" houses, giving us an idea of a typical Spanish town. As they travel, he gives us an idea of the many types of Spanish countryside, stating "in the Basque country, the land all looks very rich and green," while in the Spanish frontier "there was a little stream and a bridge...and a general store and an inn" (pgs 96-100). He saves his description of what he calls true Spain for the end of his travels saying "there were long, brown mountains and a few pine forests and far-off forests." He continues to give specifics of the local color by describing customs such as how the "bulls pass along the [back street] when they run through the back streets early in the morning on their way to the ring" and "every village had a pelota court." It is important that the reader recognizes that the location is changing because this will add certain aspects and differences to Jake's story.