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Song Thamvorapol
Matthew Bishop
English 1204

Ernests Repression as seen from The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a book written by one of the most influential writers of all

time, Ernest Hemingway. Ernest was born in the United States in 1899 and served the

country as a Red crosss ambulance driver in Italy during WWI. Being in multiple frontlines

gave him experiences that few will ever have opportunity to and a sight to see the world

differently. And it was when he returned from the war after he was severely wounded that his

turning point began. He started writing novel since then with all those experiences he had got.

His numerous novels were what he used in order to express his idea as a Modernist and

experiences from the battlefront, but it was not until 1952, years after his previous book, that

the book, The Old Man and the Sea was published (Thomas, 2006). However, war did not

give him only the good experiences as it was not possible for him to not see the all

bloodshed, but also bad experiences that normal people shouldnt have seen. These bad

experiences were repressed by Ernest himself, but were bought back sometimes as seen in his

writings. Ernest Hemingway used the main character within the book, The Old Man and the

Sea to express unique and certain behavior in which might be the result from the repression

of the author himself from his past experiences of hardship from before, during and after the

war.

First of all, as the event happened within the story was that Santiago went on to fish

for days and nights with the one fish he caught, but despite being able to finally catch a

Marlin, he was unsuccessful at keeping it safe from the shark at the end. Santiago being able

to catch marlin is like Ernest having reach the patient, but the fact that the marlin is getting

eaten by the shark also implies the authors failure to save someone life at the time when he

served for the Red Cross. It showed that the Santiago had finally caught the fish as he said,

There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over (p.96). And that the
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ERNESTS REPRESSION AS SEEN FROM THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

marlin had been eaten by the shark on page 103, saying: He took about forty pounds. This

demonstrates the despair and disappointment of the old man that were unable to save

something that is right in front of him. According to Agnes von Kurowskys statement within

Stewart Matthews (2000) paper, Hemingway was worried about his leg. He was afraid

theyd amputate (p.202). The patient was actually Ernest himself when he was severely

wounded by the mortar during World War I. Although he managed to keep his leg, the truth

that he almost lose his leg and the trauma that he once faced didnt fade away from his mind,

thus he tried to repress and keep it deep within his mind. As mentioned, its now clear that the

fact he almost losing something he wished of saving, the leg, is as related to Santiago losing

the fish he was trying to save.

Santiago tried to think about the tougher situation he had gone through back in the

days when he was a strong fine man when he was weak or tired from the fight with the fish to

encourage himself into continuing his task. It was at this moment that the old man felt so tired

after a day of hard fight against the fish that he thought back to when he was having an arm

wrestling with the great negro from Cienfuegos which ended up with the old man crowning

the champion. Upon his exhaustion, Santiago said, If you are not tried fish, you must be

very strange (p.67) before thinking back to those times. According to Taylor Kerns (2014),

Reflecting on the twenty-four hour arm wrestling match instead of addressing the fact that

his once incredibly resilient body is faltering could be seen as a form of denial or repression

(p.4). It can be seen here that Santiago think of this certain event instead of focusing on what

his body was capable at that time to repress all the pain he was facing and to have courage to

continue on fighting with the fish.

Last but not least, the old mans way of thinking that rely solely on the result had

motivated him to try his best to catch the fish and prove his worth to both himself and the
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ERNESTS REPRESSION AS SEEN FROM THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

boy. It can be related to Ernests late life that believed solely on concrete things which is the

result, not the action. Not having caught any fish at all for almost three months in the sea

when other boats and the boys boat were able to catch loads was the situation Santiago was

facing a the time. As this kept going, his anxiety started to kick in. He didnt care about what

he was able to achieve in the past and told the boy of what he will be doing on his latest sail;

saying, I told the boy I was a strange old man, Now us when I must prove it (p.66). He

was into the idea of modernism after the event of World War I and with that he believes in

concrete things that can be touched or noticeable. As a result, he came out with the idea of

action versus the result in which he considers the action to be useless and that the result is

what important. Therefore his previous achieve were useless and the only thing that matter

was the present one. According to Poe Georges (2014) paper, Hemingway came up with a

theory himself and argued the fact that if people realized they could overtake the generals,

the war would probably be over, for it was the generals who wanted to ghtnot the enlisted

men (p.60). Its clear that Ernest realized the cause of the war; however, not being able to do

anything from the fact that he didnt have the power to had it into repressing that thought and

this it emphasized on the result that the war didnt end like how normal wished it to end, but

all upon ones with power. Thus normal people actions were useless.

To sum up, the experiences that Ernest faced while on his duty as an ambulance driver

during World War I had traumatized him. Therefore, repression was the way he chose in

order to bury those experiences in mind. As you can see on the novels that he had written in

which were based upon his real experiences at war. The Old Man and the Sea was one among

them and that Ernest implied his real self through the certain behaviors of the main character,

Santiago, in the story. Those behaviors showed sign of repressed trauma and that was of

course of Hemingways repression.

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ERNESTS REPRESSION AS SEEN FROM THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Bibliography
George, P. (2014). THE HADLEY YEARS IN PARIS. .
Kerns, T. (2014). Fathoms Deep: On Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea as a Map to
Gender Identity Struggle .
Putnam, T. (2006). Hemingway on War and Its Aftermath. Retrieved from Prologue
Magazine:
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/spring/hemingway.html
Stewart, M. C. (2000). Ernest Hemingway and World War I: Combatting Recent
Psychobiographical Reassessments, Restoring the War. .