The old man and the sea door Ernest Hemingway

Manolin: a young man. He is a learner. Santiago teaches him how to fish. But because Santiago doesn’t have much luck, Manolin’s parents have commanded him to fish with fishermen with better luck. Manolin takes care of Santiago, he carries his fishing gear and he gives Santiago food and drinks. At the end of the story he gets the spear of the marlin.

Marlin: the marlin is the 5.5-meter-long fish that fights with Santiago. He is a strong and big fish, and Santiago has respect for him. The fish has a great fighting spirit, a big spear and has beautiful colour and stripes in the sun. He is so big that Santiago can’t get him in the boat, so he ‘swims’ alongside the boat. His carcass gets eaten by sharks when the old man reaches back to the coast.

Form

The story is narrative. The narrator sees what happens. He hears what the old man says and what he thinks. The story is told in short sentences. And there is a lot of monologue. For example, when the old man is talking to his own left hand. The story is mainly told by telling. There is not much to show anyway. Besides the fish their appearances it is just the sea and the water that the narrator can show. The narrator tells us what Santiago does and thinks and says.

Theme and moral

In the book a lot of themes come along. I think one can be summarised in the moral phrase ‘never give up’, or perhaps ‘keep hoping’.

- Perseverance: the old man keeps on going, he does never give up. He is determined to catch the fish, he says he will keep going until one of them dies. However, the fish has an equal determination and endurance as Santiago has. He has resolution.

- ‘"Fish," he said softly, aloud, "I’ll stay with you until I am dead." He’ll stay with me too, I suppose, the old man thought and he waited for it to be light.’

- Isolation: the old man is lonely. His wife has passed away and he has a lot of bad luck. He only has the boy. He himself says a few times that he is isolated. On the sea when fighting the fish, he is all alone as well. Because he has bad luck he is forced into solitude, but he finds company in the creatures of the sea. He calls the fish his brothers.

- ‘He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.’

- ‘He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now. But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm. The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.’

- ‘The fish is my friend too," he said aloud. "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.’ -- The man feels uneasy having to kill the fish, as it will push him further into isolation on the sea.

- Respect and reputation: He got respect for his physical strength when he won from the negro. But he doesn’t need respect of others to feel validated. He is also very noble. Santiago has a lot of respect for the fish he is fighting. He has respect for other people their skills, for example Joe DiMaggio and his baseball skills. The boy has respect for the old man. When reading the book, it came to my attention that the man is not at all arrogant, when he is fishing for the marlin he doesn’t feel superior. On the contrary, he keeps saying that the fish would easily be able to escape. The old man only has his tricks and intelligence.

- ‘’Que va.’ the boy said. ‘There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only you.’’ (Que va = no way)

- ‘For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion and there had been a return match in the spring. But not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from Cienfuegos in the first match. After that he had a few matches and then no more. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing. He had tried a few practice matches with his left hand. But his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it.’

- ‘For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion and there had been a return match in the spring. But not much money was bet and he had won it quite easily since he had broken the confidence of the negro from Cienfuegos in the first match. After that he had a few matches and then no more. He decided that he could beat anyone if he wanted to badly enough and he decided that it was bad for his right hand for fishing. He had tried a few practice matches with his left hand. But his left hand had always been a traitor and would not do what he called on it to do and he did not trust it.’

- ‘You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.’

My opinion

The book itself wasn’t that interesting. Of course, I started to root for the old man, I really did hope he would catch the fish. I wanted him to succeed after he had put so much time and effort and determination into catching the fish. Logically I felt bad for the man that after all they had been through the fish got eaten by so many sharks. The sharks in a way were the common enemy of the old man and the fish. Perhaps the author wanted to tell the reader that the journey matters more than the goal. I liked that the old man kept being so down to earth. He doesn’t place himself above anyone or anything. Because the book is just about the man fighting the fish on sea, the narrator tells the reader what the old man is thinking. The old man puts perspective on everything. I admire that.

At the end of the book, when the boy tells him he must rest and that they will fish together when he is back to full strength, the old man says to the boy that they must bring the things he missed when fighting the marlin. ‘We must get a good killing lance and always have it on board.’ This might have something to do with experience. One learns through experience.

I find it more interesting to read analyses of the books afterwards. You learn a lot from analyses, things you yourself would never had noticed.

‘Ultimately taking people beyond themselves. Together, these images and allusions suggest a theme of transformation and a larger spiritual dimension possible in the human condition: Human beings can summon imaginative vision, as well as physical endurance, creating the capacity to withstand and even transcend hardships. The old man his image is his love for the young boy Manolin.’

‘Whether drawing his inspiration and confidence from religion, baseball, games of chance, memories of his own youth, his love for Manolin, or something else, Santiago knows how to keep alive in himself and others the hope, dreams, faith, absorption, and resolution essential to withstand suffering, transcend it, and ultimately transform one's self.’

‘Just as this realistic story tends toward allegory, Santiago and Manolin, as specific individuals, also can be seen as archetypal characters (universal representations inherited from the collective consciousness of our ancestors and the fundamental facts of human existence). Santiago is mentor, spiritual father, and the old man (viejoin Spanish) or old age; Manolin is pupil, son, and the boy (chico in Spanish) or youth. Many of their conversations have an element of ritual (such as the little fictions they engage in to preserve the old man's dignity — the food he says he has in his house, their talk of using the cast net they both know Santiago had to sell, their talk of borrowing some money for a lottery ticket, and so forth). Their conversations also have the rhythm and structure of a catechism or religious instruction. Manolin is Santiago's last and deepest human relationship; his replacement in the natural order; the one to whom he wishes to entrust his skill as a fisherman, the transforming power of his vision, and his memory.’

It is remarkable how a book of just a hundred pages can have so many deeper layers.

Although I wasn’t very impressed by the book, which tells the story of an old man and the sea, after reading analyses etc. I’m impressed by the amount of meaning a simple story like this can have. I recommend reading this book, IF you read the analyses afterwards as well.