Seeing Humanity in Sea Creatures in "The Old Man and the Sea"

In Hemingway’s novel, the battle between a person and nature is predominantly shown through Santiago’s desire to catch a Marlin while overcoming obstacles set by the ocean, such as fluctuating temperatures and dangerous Mako sharks. Although these physical barriers impacted the old fisherman greatly by causing him to sustain wounds, he overcame these complications through his unbreakable will and desire to capture the formidable Marlin and return back to Havana with his prize. While fishing for the Marlin, Santiago consistently talks with the sea creature whom he considered an equal and emphasized his determination to overcome nature through his prayer. Not once, but many times he prayed: “Christ, I did not know he was so big. I’ll kill him though…in all his greatness and his glory, I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures” (Hemingway 66). This promise repeated numerous times through Santiago’s struggle, clearly presents the strength of the old man’s mind and his will to win the battle. Likewise, in the movie Life of Pi a young boy is faced with many challenges from the ocean when he is forced to survive while combating the dangers of nature and attempting to control the animals that were placed in his raft. Once again, this conflict

In the novel The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, there is a fish that the old man finally catches after 84 days, but is consumed by Mako shark’s in the process of reeling it in. Santiago, the old man, had a strong connection with the marlin even though he only saw him for a short period of time. They taught each other many things through a tug and war type of play. Catching a marlin fish was a goal of Santiago that he had been attempting to fulfill for a decent period of time, and after being persistent and patient, slowly but surely he was able to succeed. Many symbols in Hemingway’s novel have their own counterparts in my own life, which include a goal, hope, and idolization.

During the time period Hemingway was writing The Old Man and the Sea, fear was present in society, e.g. The Red Scare. The fearless perseverance of the novel’s main character, Santiago, contrasts the feelings of Americans during the forties. Through reverse psychology, the valiant actions of Santiago in his perils with the marlin he was fishing, alleviated some of the unease present in American minds. The instilled the thought process of not blanching what is possible. Santiago narrates his moral correction along the lines of the same topic, “Now is no time to think [fear] what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.” The quote elucidates Hemingway’s opinion of apprehension and how he found no place for it throughout the sixty-one years of his life. Events concurrent with the lives of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in their personal lives and the views of the public gave way to the formation of the plots in The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea. The structure of both novels adds to the claim: Fitzgerald and Hemingway are two of the best modernists in their

In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the literary device of metaphors. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the ocean to symbolize life, and to depict the role that individuals play in life. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lions to signify people who live their lives as active participants. The tourists in the novel represent the individuals, who in observe their lives and are not active participants. In the novels that Ernest Hemingway writes, he uses metaphors to reflect his life experiences and opinions. The ocean in The Old Man and the Sea is a metaphor, which represents Hemingway 's personal view of life. Hemingway believes that in life everyone must find their own niche and uses the metaphor of the ocean and the

Have you ever thought about how everything that you’ve accomplished and learned in your lifetime can eventually be forgotten about once you pass away? That all the knowledge you’ve consumed will no longer be passed around to help others? Ernest Hemingway explores this topic in his novel, The Old Man and the Sea written in 1952. Set in Cuba near Havana, the novel revolves around Santiago and his struggle to catch a marlin, the biggest fish he’s ever dealt with. Santiago’s only companion is Manolin, a young boy who Santiago taught how to fish.

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea we are introduced to two individuals who share different opinions on nature and the marvelous creatures that make up the world around them. In this paper, I will explore the differences between Captain Ahab and Santiago. In Moby Dick, we are introduced to Captain Ahab and his personal quest to avenge the personal loss he suffered at the jaws of what he considered to “evil” while Ishmael recounts “ Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things;

Ernest Hemingway combined three of the most random symbols into one of Literature’s well known books. The Old Man and the Sea has several symbolic meanings hidden in its pages. The old man can be seen as a Christ or Christian figure. The marlin is compared to as greater than his opponent. Joe DiMaggio is also compared to the old man because of their similar backgrounds. Santiago is also seen as weak by the other fishermen, but by the end of the novel they had an unspoken respect for the old man who caught the marlin, worked like Christ, and loved what he

Taylor Kreuscher September 6, 2014 The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Heming depicts an unlucky skilled fisherman named Santiago and his journey of catching a marlin. Santiago had not caught a fish for eighty-four days yet he caught a marlin on the eighty-fifth day. However, Santiago struggled to bring the marlin in and was lead on a five day journey.

Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea is the quintessential “Hemingway Hero”-a type of fictional character created by Hemingway in all of his books whose basic response to life appealed very strongly to the readers. The Old Man begins the narrative with all the elements of such a hero despite his senescence and poverty. He shows strength, determination, and dedication to himself despite his struggles. Santiago relates back to readers as a strong failure who picks himself up repeatedly.

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea has engendered some lively debate in literary circles. Critics have concentrated on everything in the novella from the verity of Rigel's early evening appearance over Cuban skies in September (Weeks 192) to William Faulkner's judgment that Hemingway discovered God while writing The Old Man and the Sea (Bradford 158-62). Yet the most insightful commentary has gravitated invariably toward biblical, natural, and classical imagery in the novel. These images turn an otherwise simple fishing tale into a sublime narrative of human endurance. A reading that examines these images will serve to clarify the hidden significance in

The Old Man and the Sea has man tensions, ambiguities, and ironies that arise within the work which the work uses towards a particular theme. There are several themes that unify into one resolution. The Old Man and the Sea can be interpreted to discover how it functions as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic object. This would be how the structural purpose of the text could be explored. The first step to this process is to find a confusing, unclear section within the text.

Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway

Many of Ernest Hemingway’s stories are either literally or figuratively based on his life experiences. The Old Man and the Sea is a novella written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Bimini, Bahamas, and published in 1952. It was the last major work by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. Its writing was influenced by his life around him. This is shown through the way the novella is written and key events and parts within it. The Old Man and the Sea can be interpreted as an allegory of Hemingway’s life and career at the time he wrote it.

“Hemingway’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).

Throughout the book, The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway uses a writing style known as stream of consciousness which entails using uninterrupted thoughts and feelings of the main character. This writing style shows through the character Santiago while he is at sea. Santiago talks to himself which essentially correlates to how he feels at that moment. The usage of the technique stream of consciousness engages the reader into how the character feels during that moment making the reader connected to the character. Hemingway uses this technique to its fullest in the novel when the author shows Santiago talking to himself about DiMaggio and to then eventually thinking that he wanted to be the marlin.