Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea": An Analysis
Everyone has an arch enemy. Batman had the Joker, Superman had Lex
Luthor. But without their enemies, they would be unimportant, just like anyone else. One could say that they needed their enemies, that their enemies were almost friends. Similarly, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, is a love story about the relationship developed over the years between a man and his lifelong friend and foe, the sea. Within the following paragraphs, it will be proven that the man needed the sea, that the two respected each other, and were very close.
The old man respected the sea, unlike some of the younger, richer fishermen. They referred to the sea as a man. "...spoke of her as el mar which is masculine." (p.30) This was considered improper to the older fishermen, as it was spoken of like a place or a contestant. The old man always referred to the sea as a female, like a mother. "He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her." (p.29) He saw the sea as a woman, a woman that gave or withheld favors. She was unpredictable beacuse "The moon affects her as it does a woman." (p.30) The sea was like a second home for the man, who fished every day. La mar provided the man with food, a living, an enemy, and a friend.
When he was out on the sea fishing, he was at home. The sea, la mar, was like his mother. The fish in the ocean were like his brothers and sisters.
When he heard the dolphins playing in the night he thought, "They are good...they are our brothers like the flying fish." (p.48) He had almost reeled the giant marlin in when he realized what he was doing. "You are killing me, fish. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful...thing than you, brother." (p.92) Even as he ate the fish that he would catch, or as he killed scavengers trying to get the marlin, he was apologizing or talking to his "family".
The old man saw the sea as a person, as a woman, and the fish were people, also. Thinking that way, he kept an open dialogue with his surroundings.
Throughout the several days in which he tried to catch the marlin, he constantly spoke to it. He had just eaten a fish to get his strength back when he said, "How do you feel, fish?
...that the old man survived those long days at sea, and even caught the marlin successfully. Santiago’s credibility as a fisherman and survivor are restored. In this way, he is resurrected as a new, respectable man.
Seafarer” is a monologue from an old man at sea, alone. The main theme in The Seafarer is
From the very first line, the speaker associates the "femme" with the Sargasso Sea, and this
‘The Sea’ followed a different people and it also gave the reader some back story on things and people that were brought up through the book.
The main arguments in this source is the old man 's dependents on the boy, feminizing the sea and the respectful engagement of its feminine presents, and Interspecies kinship—brotherhood between man and animals, as well as with nature. The purpose of this source is to show the reasons why the old man feels defeat with old age. This source relates to The Old Man and the Sea because many times throughout the novel when Santiago was in the sea, he wished Manolin was there to help him because he has a rough time doing some things nowadays, but his old age still does not stop him from catching that
Another major factor influencing the medieval view of the ocean is the ideology of the Desert Fathers. The desert fathers were holy men that lived in the near east, who became disillusioned with the materialistic culture of the time and wandered out into the desert as hermits. They were seen as heroes in their time and were revered as wise men. They were sought out by people wanting guidance and gradually became famous for their way of life. They went out to the desert for solit...
“The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.”
In the first line of the poem, Heaney says Lady with the frilled blouse and simple tartan skirt. At first, it simply appears that he is describing her clothes. Tartan, however, has a second meaning of a small ship. Therefore, before Heaney even mentions the sea, he compares the lady in the poem to a ship. In the next line, he uses several words related to the sea and ships, such as rode,anchored,rocked,balance,and unmoored.î
Her life, however, not only ended in the sea, but began in the sea. The ocean refers
out on the water for days, all alone, trying to catch the giant marlin. He continuously thinks of
The Old Man and the Sea takes in place in Havana, Cuba and the fishing waters off the coast of Havana. The Spanish names, Santiago and Manolin, are typical in Cuba. Cuba is mostly Catholic so this accounted for Santiago's devotion to Jesus Christ. The year seems to be around the 1930's and 1940's because Santiago is a big fan of Joe DiMaggio who played during these years. In the 1930's and '40's, the city of Havana was booming with population and business. Seafood is one of the most popular foods in Havana so to meet the rising demand of fish, many young boys learned how to be fishermen as Manolin did.
One might say we are presented with two fish stories in looking at Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, a marlin in the former and a whale in the latter. However, both of these animals are symbolic of the struggle their hunters face to find dignity and meaning in the face of a nihilistic universe in Hemingway and a fatalistic one in Melville. While both men will be unable to conquer the forces of the universe against them, neither will either man be conquered by them because of their refusal to yield to these insurmountable forces. However, Santiago gains a measure of peace and understanding about existence from his struggles, while Ahab leaves the world as he found it without any greater insight.
Brenner, Gery. The Old Man and the Sea- The Story of a Common Man. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1991.
Santiago went through many turmoil’s in his life and his story is one of wisdom in defeat from the lengthy time of which he could not catch anything to that of his loss of the marlin to the sharks after such a lengthy battle to catch it then attempt to bring it back to shore. Now I could go on and on like any other paper about all the symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea but no matter what I did while reading it, in almost every aspect it screamed out to me as an impersonation or reflection of Hemingway’s own life in a multitude of ways that no one can deny. The Old Man and the Sea was an allegory referring to the Hemingway’s own struggles to preserve his writing i...
... middle of paper ... ... For the seaside woman is truly a balance of all the women before her. “Her eyes had called him, and his soul had leaped at the call.