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Historical influence seen in american literature
In A Different Country Ernest Hemingway Literary Analysis
The old man and the sea story
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Recommended: Historical influence seen in american literature
“Marlin off the Morrow: A Cuban Letter”, was published in the first issue of Esquire magazine in 1933, and written by Ernest Hemingway. The essay details the escapades of a Cuban fisherman dragged out to sea by marlin. By the time he was found, sharks had destroyed the man’s great catch.1 This essay is the basis for the story of the main character, Santiago, in Hemingway’s novella, The Old Man and the Sea.1 Published almost twenty years later, in 1952, The Old Man and the Sea is considered a classic American novel. The story is deceivingly simple, involving an unlucky elderly fisherman, Santiago, who hasn't caught a fish in months. However, many aspects of the story tell of a much deeper message which transcends the years. Santiago embodies universal truths about the character traits of men, including perseverance and commitment, faith and humility developed through adversity.
Man is not made for defeat, he is designed to persevere. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (Hemingway 80) Santiago, an old, scarred fisherman, lives in a hut and fishes in a battered and torn skiff with a sail that was, “patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.” (Hemingway 3) His terrible circumstances and misfortune made him an object of mockery in the eyes of young fishermen and a man to pity for old fishermen, but Santiago knows that with skill, perseverance and commitment, he will prevail. “The lines went straight down... He kept them straighter than anyone did, so that at each level in the darkness of the stream there would be a bait waiting exactly where he wished it to be for any fish that swam there.” (Hemingway 21-22) Santiago was a skillful fisherman. While Santiago is fighting to lure ...
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...mply, “‘They beat me, Manolin ’ He said. ‘They truly beat me.’” (Hemingway 96) Santiago was humbled by his experience against the sea.
Santiago embodies admirable character traits in man which include perseverance and commitment. His faith clearly follows and reflects that of the author, Ernest Hemingway. His pride was challenged and broken into humility. This simple story of an unlucky fisherman remains a classic today because it provides us with a clearer image of Hemingway’s view of man and our struggle against nature and our own shortcomings. Adversity and failure are only wasted to those who refuse to learn from hard-fought battles whether goals are reached or snatched by defeat.
Works Cited
1. http://nedstuckeyfrench.com/essays-in-america/marlin-off-the-morro-a-cuban-letter-by-ernest-hemingway-1933/
2. http://www.timelesshemingway.com/content/beliefsfaq
In this quote Santiago is showing that he is confident and that he knows that there will be one day where he will catch a fish which will give him pride and joy. Hemingway's novella describes Santiago as a very confident man, he describes Santiago as being a very tough and manly person and this quote is proving he has a lot of confidence.
In the literary fiction book The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, Santiago is very alike to the marlin. They are both strong, determined, and great fighters. Even though they share these similarities, they are different, as they have different motivations to win the battle they are fighting.
Earnest Hemingway’s work gives a glimpse of how people deal with their problems in society. He conveys his own characteristics through his simple and “iceberg” writing style, his male characters’ constant urge to prove their masculinity.
Ernest Hemingway once said, “The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places” (“Quotations by Author”). Unfortunately. In his lifetime, this was not the case. Hemingway did not become stronger in the end. He was a broken man, and a substantial amount of his work reflected this part of him.
Poignant circumstances surrounded the composition of this novel, which bring out many of the above points. It is widely recognized that Hemingway was possessed of a turbulent personality and suffered from emotional depression. This was despite the fact that he enjoyed much critical acclaim. The Old Man and the Sea was written after a ten-year hiatus of public and critical approval. This period saw much of his work receive negative criticism in literary and journalistic circles. This affected Hemingway adversely and very deeply (Carey 9). Therefore, Hemingway's personal battle with seeming failure in his life's work and society's attendant criticism parallel Santiago's stoic resolve in the face of his neighbors' disdain. The author's struggles symbolically match those of Santiago and set the stage for the writing of this novel.
In the story Santiago’s bravery is unsurpassed but it is not until he hooks the “great fish” that we truly see his valor and perseverance. Through Santiago’s actions Hemingway teaches the reader about bravery and perseverance in the face of adversity. He demonstrates that even when all is lost and seems hopeless a willful heart and faith will overcome anything. Santiago had lost his “luckiness” and therefore the respect of his village. Through the description of his cabin we also suspect that Santiago is a widower. Although Santiago has had many troubles he perseveres. He has faith in Manolin, in the Yankees, in Joe DiMaggio, and most importantly in himself.
Defeat, according to the Larousse Chambers English Dictionary, is when you are overthrown in a battle, you lose a game and therefore you don’t win: you don’t gain or reach your goal. As we can see Santiago, in spite of the fact that he persevered and struggled, starving, for three days lost the battle. He couldn’t get to his main goal. But , exactly what was his goal, one may ask? He wanted the fish, he was not fishing as a hobby or sport; he planned to sell the fish and get some money to eat, it was his way of surviving. Santiago’s only way of income was fishing and he knew that. He mentions: “ He was a fish to keep a man all winter.”(page 111). Santiago had plans for him already but failed to accomplish them. Some will argue that he won because he gained spiritual victory. This , in a way, is true; but fishing is his job and only way of living. If the case had been different and Santiago was only fishing for his personal entertainment, which wasn’t, it could be seen as a new experience or story to tell. But it wasn’t. Santiago needed the fish and lost it. He wasn’t happy or joyful about it, as we will later on discuss.
“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. The unconquerable spirit of mankind resonates within this quote by Santiago, the main character of The Old Man and the Sea. The Old Man and the Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1951 (cite).
“Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated” (Hemingway, 78). There is much support for this encouraging quote by Santiago, the main character in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. Former President Richard Nixon said “defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does” (Biography.com Editors), affirming that man cannot be defeated unless he allows it.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, pits his strength against forces he cannot control. We learn from Santiago's struggles how to face insurmountable odds with bravery and courage. Though we find an indifferent and hostile universe as Santiago's stage, his unwillingness to give in to these forces demonstrate a reverence for life's struggles. Santiago's struggle is for dignity and meaning in the face of insurmountable odds. His warrior-like spirit fights off the sharks full-well knowing the fate of his marlin. Santiago loses his marlin in the end, but his struggle to keep it represent a victory because of the dignity and heroism with which he carries out his mission. However, as Santiago acknowledges, he is almost sorry he caught the marlin because he knows the animal and he have a great deal in common as fellow beings in nature. However, he only caught the marlin "through trickery" (Hemingway 99). Santi...
The old man and the sea is a novella about an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin fish. Throughout the novella, Santiago is portrayed in different perspectives. He is tough and refuses to give up at any time. He withholds the will to continue and the courage to overcome what is believed to be the impossible. His persistence and confidence, his absolute determination and his unique way of accepting the reality makes him a noble hero.
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 had swung his third strike. As we look further into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, we can analyze the criticism and complications of the character Santiago. He is portrayed as a faulty Jesus, an unrealistic and inhuman man, and again still a hero to those who cannot find happiness in their life.
Hemingway uses simplicity language to convey the strength of emotions in his novel. “The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him,” (10) Manolin is the devoted pupil of Santiago.Hehas learned the art of fishing from Santigo. He has been with him since the afe of five. The boy is fully attached to Santigo. He loves the old fisherman sincerely and selflessly. Not only the disciple-teacher relationship exists, but the sone-father relation between them. “There are many good fisherman and sam great ones. But there is only you.” (23) In this dialogue, it is shows how much the old man means to Manolin and proves he respects
In Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’, the mythic breed of masculinity is very much at work through the protagonist of Santiago. The story of Santiago’s violent and epic struggle with the marlin can be directly linked to the author’ s life in how he lived in Key West, Florida and Cuba in the 1930s where he fished the Gulf Stream and Caribbean. Hemingway’s characteristic male oriented novella continued in the ‘Old Man and the Sea’ as it tell the story of an old fisherman who seeks to prove his worth in his trade after a drought of eighty-four days without a catch. His pride and hubris lead him to go out to sea further than he ever had, in order to catch a fish of great worth. His conspicuous bad luck or saloa, has emasculated him and has forced him to prove himself to the town people and to himself that he is not a fisherman devoid of talent. Santiago bears many traditional masculine traits in how he views his task at hand and the struggles he endures. He views the sea as a type of arena for survival of the fittest to which he belongs, placing him, as one man, against nature. His entrenched belief in triumph of the individual to prove ones worth based on skill and technique is reflected for his admiration for the baseball superstar Joe Dimaggio. His macho daring will serve to massage his ego and to revitalise his reputation and to re-lift his spirit in his last few numbered days. The novella can be seen as patriarchal and chauvinistic through Santiago and its apparent lack of female characters. The only representations of females are shown through a description of a pair of marlin, a mention of Santiago’s deceased wife, whom he does not display in his hut anymore, and the feminisation of the sea. It can be argued that the...
Existentialism makes its appearance when Santiago chooses to pursue the marlin, stay with it the entire way, and fight tooth and nail at the end. “My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people,” is how Santiago explains his actions to challenge the fish (Hemingway 50). He mentions how he was born to be a fisherman, and by chasing the marlin, he will give his life the meaning for existence. Santiago also insists on staying with the fish until one of them is dead, which exemplifies his will to fulfill his goals in life. He endures obstacles such as nausea, cramps, and sleep deprivation because he does not want to give up and surrender his fate.