I.

Title

The Old Man and The Sea

II. Author

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a
writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United
States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian
army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian
Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United
States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon
sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.

During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate

Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also
Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an
American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter.
Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the
background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among
his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the
Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman's journey, his long and lonely struggle with
a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat.

Hemingway - himself a great sportsman - liked to portray soldiers, hunters,

bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set
against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope
and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for
understatement are particularly effective in his short stories, some of which are
collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-
Nine Stories (1938). Hemingway died in Idaho in 1961.

III. Times and Milieu

19th Century (1952)

In rural Cuba of the 1930's and 1940's the traditional fishing culture began shifting to
the material progress of a fishing industry. Hemingway began writing The Old Man
and The Sea at his home near Havara and takes place in September 1950. However,
this novel reflects a universal pattern of socioeconomic change.
 IV. Analysis

PLOT

The old man and the sea is a novel about a fishermen, who faced struggles and great
catch on his life on his 84 day, still he was unlucky and didn't catch any fish then he returned
empty handed. Manolin, Santiago's apprentice was loyal to him until one day; Manolin's parents
didn't allow him to be with Santiago again. Despite of what his parents said, still he go with
Santiago. He helps the old man tote his gear to his ramshackle hut, secures food for him, and
discusses the latest developments in American baseball, especially the trials of the old man’s
hero, Joe DiMaggio. The first part of the novel shows the loyalty of Mandolin to Santiago.

On his 85 day, he goes beyond the islands shallow coastal water and venturing the Gulf
Stream. On that day, a big fish takes bait and Santiago knows that it was a marlin. He started to
pull the fish bit it was too big and he cannot pull, instead the fish begin to pull the boat. Though
he was unable to tie the line fast to the boat for fear the fish would snap a taut line, the old man
bears the strain of the line with his shoulders, back, and hands, ready to give slack should the
marlin make a run. The fish pull the boat all through that day and another day. It swims steadily
northwest until at last it tires and swims east with the current. The entire time, Santiago endures
constant pain from the fishing line. Whenever the fish lunges, leaps, or makes a dash for
freedom, the cord cuts Santiago badly. Although wounded and weary, the old man feels a deep
empathy and admiration for the marlin, his brother in suffering, strength, and resolve. This scene
shows the bravery and pride of Santiago as well as with the marlin.

On the third day, Santiago manages to pull the Marlin in close enough to kill it with a
harpoon thrust. It was already dead so he put the fish into his boat and while sailing he said that
it was the biggest fish that he catch. His excited with the price it will bring to the market. He is
more concerned that the people who will eat the fish are unworthy of its greatness. As Santiago
sails on with the fish, the marlin’s blood leaves a trail in the water and attracts sharks. The first to
attack is a great mako shark, which Santiago manages to slay with the harpoon. Santiago fought
against the shark but in the end, they devour of the marlin’s precious meat, leaving only skeleton,
head, and tail. Santiago chastises himself for going “out too far,” and for sacrificing his great and
worthy opponent.

This scene manifests again the pride of both Santiago and the sharks. Santiago arrives
home before daybreak, stumbles back to his shack, and sleeps very deeply. He got frustrated on
what happened. The next morning, a crowd of amazed fishermen gathers around the skeletal
carcass of the fish, which is still lashed to the boat. Knowing nothing of the old man’s struggle,
tourists at a nearby café observe the remains of the giant marlin and mistake it for a shark.
Manolin, who has been worried sick over the old man’s absence, is moved to tears when he finds
Santiago safe in his bed.

The boy fetches the old man some coffee and the daily papers with the baseball scores,
and watches him sleep. Manolin really expressed his love for Santiago as his mentor. When the
old man wakes, the two agree to fish as partners once more. The old man returns to sleep and
dreams his usual dream of lions at play on the beaches of Africa.

CHARACTERS
 The main character in the story is an old man named, Santiago, an aged fisherman. He is
pitted against the creatures of the sea and it was viewed as the man’s battle against the natural
world but the writer would like to express that this was the story of man’s place within nature.

Manolin the apprentice of Santiago was a young man who gives highlight to the character
of Santiago as a person and a fisherman. Manolin was thoughtful to Santiago. It was shown in
the scene where in he give Santiago a food and updates him to the football score though his
father didn’t allow him to be with Santiago again since people says that Santiago brought a bad
luck. He is a companion who feels nothing but love and devotion. As the old man’s apprentice,
he also represents the life that will follow from death. His dedication to learning from the old
man ensures that Santiago will live on.

Another character that can be seen in the novel is the marlin an eighteen feet fish that
Santiago caught. Since this was huge, Santiago can’t pull it in and later on he fell down with the
marlin, and later on the marlin was destroyed by a shark Both the shark and Santiago displayed
the qualities of pride, honor and bravery and both are subject to the same eternal law: the must
kill or be killed. Santiago’s struggle does not enable him to change man’s place in the world but
rather it enables him to invest his most dignified destiny.

THEME

 Life
 Death
 Pride and
 the honor in struggle

This world is filled with challenges and struggles like the prey and predator in the sea,
death are inevitable for them. Thus, Hemingway’s portrait that in this world, death is inevitable,
but the men will nonetheless refuse to give in to its power. Accordingly, man and fish struggle to
death, just as hungry shark will lay waste to an old man’s trophy catch. The novel also says that
pride is the source of greatness and determination. It also motivates him to bring the marlin to the
shore. Santiago wants to kill the marlin because it will bring his heroic transcendence of defeat
pride and it became his greatest source of strength. This novel also suggests that victory is not a
prerequisite for honor. In the novel, Santiago’s character was parallel to the crucifixion of Christ.
He sacrifices his life for the sake of other people.

V. Literary Merits

Artistry and Style:

The author used third person point of view which gives the readers the point of views of
every character that is present in the novel. With this, the readers will not be left confused or
curious of how other characters think.

Intellectual Beauty:
 The story has depicted something about life lessons. The readers will learn from the
novel that victory is not a prerequisite to a man’s honor, pride can be the source of greatness and
determination and behind a man who is honored, is a struggle he overcame.

Suggestiveness:

There is an emotional appeal depicted in the story which can make us feel deeply and can
stir up our thoughts.

Spiritual Value:

Santiago can be paralleled to Jesus Christ’s crucifixion when Jesus sacrifices his life for
others. It is because of Santiago’s trait where he greatly empathizes with the Marlin’s life as his
brother in suffering, strength, and resolve.

Permanence/Universality:

The novel reached its permanence and universality because of its relevance in a real life
situation. The story tells about the fundamental truths and universal conditions in life. Everyone
can relate and reflect into it for it also uses simple words.

Gerolyn Del Pilar

Liezel Praxides