Just like a cesspool
In the first chapter, Hemingway compares the Café des Amateurs with an overflowing cesspool. The comparison has the purpose of highlighting the idea that the people who were at the Café des Amateurs were the most deplorable type of people, drunks and immoral people who were the scum of the earth. Hemingway also highlights the idea that while a cesspool is being emptied from time to time, the people in the Café never change and their character remains the same, no matter the circumstances.
Writing and having sex
Hemingway compares the act of writing with the act of making love to a woman in the first chapter. Then, he sees a beautiful woman entering the cafe where he was drinking and he imagined the woman as belonging to him. While he was watching her, he was also writing his new book, an action that seemed to happen effortlessly. When the woman leaves, Hemingway is left feeling empty, almost as if he just engaged in sexual intercourse. He also compares that feeling with the finishing of a book and through this he highlights the idea that while both processes may be satisfactory, when they end they leave a man feeling drained and without any power to move on.
Metaphor for culture
Hemingway spends a lot of his time looking at paintings and analyzing the works of art exhibited in various museums in Paris. For him, there is a link between art and culture and he sees the museum that hosts these pieces of art as being shrines where art is worshiped. He also stresses the idea that he sees the museum as an important element that cannot be omitted in a cultured society and he uses it here as a metaphor for culture.
Like a painting that can’t be exposed
Hemingway’s mentor expressed her opinion about the pieces of literature written by Hemingway. Stein did not hesitate to express her opinion about Hemingway’s work and when she felt that what he wrote was not good enough, she made her opinions heard. This happened when Stein read Hemingway’s story ‘’Up in Michigan’’, a piece of writing she did not liked. She also told Hemingway that she did not enjoyed that particular piece of writing and even compared it with a painting that cannot be sold or hanged on a wall. Through this comparison, Stein highlighted that idea that she believed Hemingway to not be a competent writer.
A disease
Stein is a woman who is happily involved in a lesbian relationship. Hemingway, who is a heterosexual, cannot understand why someone would be with another person of the same sex. He compares homosexual tendencies with a disease that needs to be cured, thus highlighting the idea that he considers homosexuality as being something unnatural. Despite this, he refuses to tell Stein his opinions, knowing that it will only cause tension between them.
