Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea

I952

(Cfr. Spiazzi, Tavella, Only Connect, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1997, vol.3, p.1024)

A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Plot

This is a very short novel but it contains all the major themes of Hemingway’s production. It is a twofold narrative developing both on a realistic and mythical level. At the purely realistic level it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, who succeeds in catching an enormous Marlin in the middle of the ocean; then he has to fight the sharks that attack the fish and cannot prevent them from leaving him only a carcass. Thus the quest turns out to be vain, in spite of efforts and hopes.

The central character

The central character is the emblematic male hero who is defeated, even if there is no original traumatic wound, no war as the cause. From the beginning the focus is not only on Santiago the person, but on Santiago as the symbol of human bravery and the incarnation of the hopeless existential struggle of every human being, whatever object moves him. The fact that the fisherman is old underlines that the quest is a life-long business and there is a continuity in the process leading from life to death. Thus the tragedy does not lie in the death of the protagonist, but in the awareness of the ambiguity of life and struggle. Both sea life and the old man’s hardships, as well as his changing psychological insight are described realistically.

Interpretations

This story can be interpreted in two different ways.

• It is a story about hunting. The hunt has made Santiago and the marlin brothers; the suffering of the marlin becomes the fisherman’s and the death of the fish is both the life of Santiago and his own death. Eat and be eaten, kill and be killed are rules of nature; in fact after his victory Santiago has to lose again, because the marlin carcass is attacked by sharks and only the bones will be left.
• It is a story of a man against himself. Victory and defeat are symbolic values. The old man has learnt that nature remains the place of destruction; thus he tries to test and overcome his limit, that is his old age, fighting against his death but reaching inevitable destruction. Nature is not only out at sea, but it is, first of all, inside the human soul since man dies and dispenses death.