The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's classic novella The Old Man and the Sea is centered around an old

man, a Cuban fisherman named Santiago, who endures the menacing sea to catch a fish; a fish that

plagued his mind and undoubtedly became his heart's focus. Throughout his encounter with the

marlin, the old man faced various difficulties, difficulties of the mind that wrestled with his aged

body. As in the old man's struggle, Kid Rock explains in the lyrics to Only God Knows Why, of

the battles that evolve in the mind and heart that find the strength to go on. His song paralleled

Hemingway's novel by harnessing the listener and reader to understand that a man can be

destroyed but not defeated.

The novel begins with Santiago and a boy; a boy that becomes a son figure who brings

him strength. This young boy helps keep Santiago's spirits up when he has nothing, and even the

thought of him makes Santiago smile. Hemingway shows this when he writes that the old man is

out on the water for days, all alone, trying to catch the giant marlin. He continuously thinks of

the boy as the one who gets him through the hardest times, "The boy keeps me alive"

(Hemingway 106). The strength of Santiago through the boy happens to parallel a verse in the

song Only God Knows Why, "I watch my youngest son and it helps to pass the time. . ." (Rock

1). This holds true throughout the novel when Santiago thinks of the boy while he is out on his

skiff, tired and hungry; thoughts of the boy help to give him strength and "pass the time" (Rock

1).

Shortly after Santiago catches the fish, he realizes how far he has gone out, and how much

work it is going to take him to get home. He says, "I shouldn't have gone out so far"

(Hemingway 110). Again, a parallel can be made with another line from Only God Knows Why.

Rock sings, "It's been so long since I've been home, I've been gone, I've been gone for way too

long. ..." (Rock 1). Both of these passages express how far they are from home, admitting that

they both have gone out too far, and been away from home for too long.

At the end of the story, it is clear to the reader that the old man has been defeated, but not