By Ma
Biography of Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American fiction writer and journalist. His military experience in the World War I, his witnesses of a few civil wars and his work as a reporter affected his literary writing style. He was famous for novels such as The Sun Also Rises (1927), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and The Old Man and the Sea (1951), which later won both Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He killed himself on July 2, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho.
Plot summary
The Old Man and the Sea narrates a battle between an old fisherman called Santiago and a large marlin. The narrator tells at the beginning, that Santiago has not caught any fish for eight-four days, which is a sign of salao – the worst form of misfortune. His young apprentice Manolin is thus forbidden to fish or to sail with Santiago since he is told that Santiago is an inept fisherman. But still, the boy takes care of his master by bringing him food, preparing fishing gear for him and discussing American baseball in Santiago’s shack.
One day, Santiago tells Manolin that he will sail to the Gulf Stream to fish, assuring Manolin his misfortune will come to an end.
On the next day, the old man sails his skiff to the Gulf Stream, and by noon, he is sure that his bait is taken by a big marlin. Instead of hauling the marlin onto the board, he is dragged by it and that forces him to sail a long distance. For two days and nights, Santiago has struggled and battled with his hand cramps against hunger and thirst. His mentality has also been stretched to the limit. In such time of adversity, he begins to appreciate his opponent marlin – the fish – and even calls it his brother.
On the third day, the fish starts to circle his skiff. Then he suddenly realizes how gigantic it is and is amazed by it. Santiago exhausts his stamina, pulling it to one side and stabbing it with a harpoon. After affixing the fish to somewhere in the skiff, he prepares to return home. The killing initially gives him a sense of guilty but his greed for money conquers him when he thinks of how good a price he can sell it at and the numerous people he can feed with it.
On his trip back home, blood from the marlin attracts few mako sharks. He manages to kill one with his harpoon but he loses it while he did the killing. Then he makes a new weapon by strapping his knife to one end of his oar. Finally Santiago succeeds in slaughtering them, even though his prey has been mostly devoured. The only parts of the marlin that are left are its skeleton, head, tail and back bone. In despair, he feels he has been defeated by the sharks and they has killed his dreams.
Finally the old man reaches the shore, feels burnt out and traipses back to his shack, leaving the marlin and the skiff on the shore. Then he falls into a deep slumber. The next day, other fishermen measures the size of the skeleton of the fish to be eighteen feet. Thinking that Santiago might be seriously injured, they also tells the boy to express their regret for the old man. Manolin is worried about the old man and can not help but cry after finding the sleeping old man only has his hands slightly injured.
When the old man eventually wakes up, Manolin brings him with newspapers and coffee. Pedrico is given the fish head. Both Santiago and Manolin agree to fish and sail together again. The story ends by the old man’s falling asleep again and his dreaming of lions on an African beach.
In the coming entries, I will attempt to analyze the story in detail. You can also try to read this Noble Prize winning story in advance to see whether you share the same perspective as I do, too.
[Featured image: https://jooinn.com/images/the-old-man-and-the-sea.jpg]
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