Thursday, 12 January 2017

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway



The Old Man and the Sea
-        Ernest Hemingway


          Ernest Hemingway was an American novelist and short story writer. He won Nobel Prize in literature in 1954. Many of his works are considered as the classics of American literature. He committed suicide in the summer of 1961. Old man and the sea is a short novel. This was the last major fiction work by Hemingway. It deals with the struggle of Santiago and a giant fish Marlin.

          Santiago is an old man and trying to catch a fish from last 83 days. He went on fishing and finally he caught a Marlin which is a huge fish. In this story there is a struggle between Sea and Santiago, and Marlin and Santiago. If we observe the situation, we can say that,

Santiago – a man with will power
The sea – Universe/ world
Marlin – Great achievement / opportunity
Sharks – Hurdle in the achievements
         
        There are symbols in the novel like mast which is presented as the cross of Christ and when Santiago is walking with carrying the mast it looks like the Christ is walking with his cross. The second is Marlin which seems as the great warrior and which surrenders after a long fight of two days. Next is baseball and the player Di Maggio which gives strength to Santiago and reminds him his days of youth. In the novel whenever Santiago tries to sleep, the same dream he saw again and again which has lions on beach. Santiago was a fisherman and for him sea and beach was the symbol of freedom and lions were the symbol of pride.
         
     The novel contains themes like Death and defeat, Sin of killing vs. Law of nature, hope and heroism, luck vs. Superstition and honour in struggle. He continuously talks with the fish by saying that,

“Fish, he said, ‘I love you and respect you very much but I will kill you dead”

His conversation with the fish (nature) presents the struggle of life and achieving pride and honour. As he said,

“But man is not made for defeat, A man can be Destroyed but not defeated”

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