The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: Solitude, Survival and an Old Fisherman’s Fight with the Sharks
An old man lives by fishing, and most of the time he is alone on the open sea, thinking about his work. The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway’s short novel of solitude and survival.
Author: Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
Title: The Old Man and the Sea (1952)
Format: English hardcover, Hemingway Library Edition, 160 pages
Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1953
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/1476787840 (ASIN 1476787840)
A Fisherman’s Reflections
The book tells the story of an old man who makes his living from fishing, and of his adventures at sea. Even though fishing is his whole life, he has curious thoughts about it, such as the reflection that fishing kills him exactly as it keeps him alive.
A Peculiar Old Man
He is an unusual character: when he eats turtles he wonders how similar their limbs and heart are to ours, yet he eats them all the same to stay strong for the hardest months. Fishing to eat, he reminds us, is not the same as fishing for sport.
Sharks and Conscience
His encounter with the sharks, and his struggle to survive on the open sea, force him to ask whether killing a shark in self-defence is legitimate, and to brood over what he has had to do to survive.
Santiago
The old man is Santiago, a Cuban fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. His only friend is a boy, Manolin, whose parents have made him leave Santiago’s boat because the old man is considered unlucky. On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago sails far out into the Gulf Stream alone, and there he hooks a giant marlin, which drags his small boat out to sea for days. Their struggle, and what happens afterwards, form the heart of the story.
Hemingway in Cuba
Hemingway lived for many years at Finca Vigía, a house outside Havana, and he spent much of his time fishing in the Gulf Stream aboard his boat, the Pilar. The fishing village of Cojímar, where he kept the boat, is often identified as Santiago’s home, and the novella is full of the knowledge he gained from local fishermen. Santiago’s admiration for the baseball player Joe DiMaggio adds a touch of the everyday to his epic struggle.
A Triumphant Comeback
The novella was first published in its entirety in a single issue of Life magazine in September 1952, which sold out quickly, and as a book shortly afterwards. It came after several years in which critics had written Hemingway off, and it restored his reputation. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, and it was mentioned when he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.
A Story Open to Interpretation
Readers have long seen the book as more than a fishing story: a parable of endurance and dignity in defeat, a reflection on ageing, even a religious allegory, with Santiago’s suffering echoing Christ’s. Hemingway himself resisted symbolic readings, insisting that the old man, the sea, the fish and the sharks were simply what they were. Its most famous line sums up its spirit: "A man can be destroyed but not defeated."
This Edition
The Hemingway Library Edition includes material that sheds light on how the book was written, including alternative drafts and other documents from his archive.
It makes a handsome gift for any reader.
The book itself can be read in a single sitting.
Why Read It
The book is about solitude in its purest form, and about survival: an old fisherman who works through every season of the year, because fishing in May is not the same as fishing in September. Short enough for an afternoon, and one to reread.
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