The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea is a short, but rich novel about an old fisherman who, after eighty-four unsuccessful days in a row, hooks the largest fish of his life. Written by Ernest Hemingway in 1951, and published in 1952, the novel was the last of Hemingway’s novels to be published during his lifetime. The book was praised by critics, and became an immediate success. The story was also awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and was a factor in Hemingway winning a Nobel Prize. The story was published after Across the River and into the Trees, a Hemingway novel that was almost universally panned by critics. The Old Man and the Sea bolstered Hemingway’s somewhat tarnished reputation, and reestablished him as an elite American author.

The book is about Santiago, an old fisherman living in a Cuban village. He has gone almost three months without catching a fish. For the first forty days, the old man had a young apprentice named Manolin with him, but the boy’s parents made him find work on another boat, because the old man isn’t making money. The parents said that the old man is “salao,” which is the worst form of unlucky. Although he now works on a more successful boat, the boy remains close with the old man, even to the point of taking care of him. The boy is basically all the old man has.

On the 85th day of his unlucky streak, the old man says goodbye to Manolin at the beach, and rows far out into the Gulf Stream. After he is out into the deep water and has caught a tuna for bait, he feels a large fish on the end of his line. The fish is a large, powerful marlin, and it drags the boat out further into the ocean. Santiago struggles with the fish all night, as he is dragged out to the point where he can’t see the lights o...

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...ring, under the shade of the stern.

This effective use of language is what makes Hemingway a great writer. The second sentence is especially good because of the repetitive use of consonant sounds to start the words.

Hemingway wrote using what he called the iceberg theory. Since seven-eighths of an iceberg is under water, the iceberg theory is the idea that most of what is going on in a story should be below the surface. Although the story is filled with beautiful descriptions of the natural world surrounding the character and the action that is happening, the characters’ emotions and motives aren’t obvious in the narration. Hemingway simply stating that the old man hit the fish “for kindness” tells us a lot more about the man than such a simple phrase should. Hemingway’s economy of words has a powerful effect on the reader and is a testament to his skill.