www.cliffs.com
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA Notes including • Life and Background of the Author • Introduction to the Novel • List of Characters • Critical Commentaries • Character Analyses • Critical Essays • Essay Topics and Review Questions • Selected Bibliography
by Gary Carey, M.A. University of Colorado
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA 68501
1-800-228-4078 www.CLIFFS.com ISBN 0-8220-7150-9 © Copyright 1973 by Cliffs Notes, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
1
www.cliffs.com
LIFE AND BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR Ernest Hemingway's colorful life as a big game hunter, fisherman, and Nobel Prize winner began in quiet Oak Park, Illinois, July 21, 1899. Ernest was the second of six children born to Dr. and Mrs. Clarence E. Hemingway. His mother, a devout, religious woman with considerable musical talent, hoped that Ernest would develop an interest in music, but Ernest was a disappointment. He acquired his father's enthusiasms for hunting and fishing in the north Michigan woods, and it is that phase of his childhood which formed important impressions and is reflected later in such Nick Adams stories as 'Indian Camp' and 'Big TwoHearted River.' In high school, Hemingway played football and also boxed, and it was the latter which was responsible for a permanent eye injury that caused the army to reject his efforts to enlist in World War I. Boxing, however, finally proved to be an asset to Hemingway, for it gave him a lasting enthusiasm for prizefighting, material for stories, and a tendency to talk of his literary accomplishments in boxing terms. Hemingway's writing career began early; he edited the high school newspaper and, after graduation, got a job as a reporter on the Kansas City Star, after he was turned down by the Kansas City draft boards. Hemingway's sights, however, were still set on Europe, and he was at last successful in his attempts to serve the war effort: he joined a volunteer American Red Cross ambulance unit as a driver. Shortly thereafter, Hemingway was seriously wounded at Fossalta on the Italian Piave, and he recalls that life slid from him 'like you'd pull a silk handkerchief out of a pocket by a corner,' almost fluttered away, then returned. It is thought by some literary critics that it was this experience which gave Hemingway an obsession with his own fear and the need to test his courage throughout the rest of his life. After a dozen operations on his knee and a recuperation in Milan, Hemingway returned, with an aluminum kneecap and two Italian decorations, to join the Italian infantry. These vivid experiences later provided background for A Farewell to Arms, the most famous of all the novels Hemingway wrote about war. War--the cruelty and stoic endurance that it requires--forms a major part of Hemingway's writing, beginning with the In Our Time collection of stories published in 1924 to his post-World War II novel, Across the River and into the Trees. In addition to World War I action, Hemingway covered the GreekTurkish War in 1920 and, later, the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Following World War I, Hemingway returned to northern Michigan to read, write, and fish, and then to work for the Toronto Star in Canada. He lived briefly in Chicago (where he came to know Sherwood Anderson), and in 1921, he married Hadley Richardson; the couple moved to Paris and Ernest worked as foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. His newsbeat was all of Europe, and while still in his twenties he had interviewed Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Mussolini. These years--1921-26--are recorded in a posthumous collection of essays, A Moveable Feast (1964). It was Sherwood Anderson who gave Hemingway a letter of introduction to Gertrude Stein, who was living in Paris, and it was that letter which gave Hemingway entrance into the world of working authors and artists who visited her home. It was Stein, in fact, who mentioned a garage keeper's comment, 'You are all a lost generation'--a casual remark, yet one which became world-famous after Hemingway used it as an epigraph to his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises. The term 'lost generation' was instantly meaningful to Hemingway's readers. It signified the attitudes of the postwar generation and especially those of the literary movement produced by the young writers of that time. These writers believed generally that their lives and hopes had been shattered by the war. They
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
2
www.cliffs.com
had been led down a glory trail to death not for noble, patriotic ideals, but for the greedy, materialistic gain of power groups. The high-minded sentiments of their elders were not to be trusted; only reality was truth and that was harsh: life was futile and often it was nothing, meaningless. The Hemingways were divorced in 1927, the same year that he married Vogue writer Pauline Pfeiffer. In 1928, the Hemingways moved to Key West, Florida. The shocking event of 1928 for Hemingway was the suicide of his father, who had been ill with hypertension and diabetes. It wasn't until 1940, however, that the idea of suicide was reflected in his writings--through the thoughts of Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls. This novel, published in 1940, grew out of Hemingway's personal interest in the Spanish Civil War of the thirties. While still a foreign correspondent in Paris, Hemingway had watched the Spanish political situation developing under the reign of Alfonso XII. He had visited Spain during the summer of 1931 after the overthrow of the monarchy and had predicted that civil war would erupt in 1935. When it came, in 1936, Hemingway began writing and making speeches to raise funds for the Loyalist cause; later, in 1937, he went to Spain to cover the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Many other young men from the United States and other countries joined the Spanish Loyalist forces in defense of democratic ideals, but the war was won by the dictator, Francisco Franco. In 1940, Hemingway and Pauline were divorced and he married writer Martha Gelhorn; they toured China, then established a residence in Cuba. When World War II began, Hemingway volunteered his services and those of his fishing boat, the Pilar, and served with the U.S. Navy as a submarine spotter in the Caribbean. Then, in 1944, he found himself as a forty-five-year-old war correspondent barnstorming through Europe with the Allied invasion troops--and sometimes ahead of them. It is said that it was he who liberated the Ritz hotel in Paris, and that when the Allied troops arrived, a guard was found posted at the entrance with a notice, 'Papa took good hotel. Plenty stuff in the cellar.' Following his divorce in 1944, Hemingway married Mary Welsh, a Time magazine correspondent. They lived in Venice after the war but finally returned to Finca Vigia (Lookout Farm) near Havana, Cuba. In 1950, Across the River and into the Trees appeared, but it was not a critical success. One of the reported comments was that Hemingway was finished. His 1952 work, The Old Man and the Sea, restored Hemingway's stature, and he was awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize. In January of 1954, Hemingway was off for one of his many African hunts and was reported dead after two airplane crashes in two days. He survived, despite severe internal and spinal injuries and a concussion, and read the numerous newspaper obituary notices, noting with great pleasure that they were favorable. That same year, Hemingway received the Swedish Academy's Nobel Prize for Literature, 'for his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of modern narration, as most recently evidenced in The Old Man and the Sea.' A few years later, Hemingway was sixty and there was his birthday photograph in a national magazine. White-bearded and still full of vigor, Hemingway was booting an empty beer can high in the air along a road near his Ketchum, Idaho, home. But he was not happy, and during 1961, he was periodically plagued by high blood pressure and mental depression. He received shock treatments during two long confinements at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, but they seemed to be of little value. He died July 2, 1961, at his home, the result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Looking back, one senses that there were always two Hemingways. One was the adventurer--the grinning, bearded 'Papa' of the news photographs; the other was the Hemingway who was the skillful, sensitive author--he who patiently wrote, rewrote, and edited his work. In discussing The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway is said to have read through the manuscript some two hundred times before releasing it.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
3
www.cliffs.com
Hemingway, the colorful legend, was also the author who said, 'What many another writer would be content to leave in massive proportions, I polish into a tiny gem.'
INTRODUCTION TO THE NOVEL The Old Man and the Sea is very similar to Hemingway's 'On the Blue Water,' a story published in Esquire in April 1936. Like The Old Man, the short story concerns an old fisherman who battles a giant marlin for three days and nights. Hemingway had heard from a longtime friend about such an incident actually happening, and ever since he had published the first version, he had considered the possibility of expanding the tale. In January 1939, Hemingway began seriously planning revisions, telling this time what the old man thought during those days and nights. He hoped to include it in a volume containing already published war stories, plus two other new stories. Hemingway was very optimistic about the success of the volume and especially about the story of the fisherman. He was anxious to return to Cuba to absorb atmosphere and sail out in a skiff to check details. He did return to Cuba a few weeks later, but he did not work on the story of the fisherman; instead, he began work on a new novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was not until after Christmas, 1951, that Hemingway began anew on his story of the old Cuban fisherman. It was virtually finished by mid-February, and the entire text appeared in the fall in a single issue of Life magazine. The magazine sold over five million copies within forty-eight hours. The book itself had advance sales of 50,000 copies and was immediately proclaimed a masterpiece. Malcolm Cowley wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that the novel was 'as nearly faultless as any short novel of our times.' Hemingway's writing, he said, had the quality of being familiar and yet perpetually new-the essence of classical prose; and critic Edward Weeks, in the Atlantic, cited the story's 'clean thrusting power.' Hemingway, speaking about his writing, said (reminiscent of the old fisherman) that 'a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.' This Hemingway did, as Robert Davis in a New York Times review noted: Hemingway, he said, had the 'strength and craft and courage to go far out, and perhaps even far down, for the truly big ones.' The Old Man of American Letters was not 'finished,' as the critics had once said; he had triumphed over them all, producing a classic worthy of the Nobel Prize, which he was awarded in 1954. The Old Man and the Sea is a small volume, but it is full of challenging thoughts for even the casual reader. This is a powerful story of a lonely, wise old fisherman who conquers a magnificent fish, endures the heart-breaking loss of it, and rises gallantly above his defeat. He is a hero in deed and spirit, a defeated but valiant man who has the courage to try again. Furthermore, this is the touching story of companionship--the deep love and respect that a young boy and an old man hold for each other. The more sophisticated reader, familiar with Hemingway's life and attitudes, catches glimpses of Hemingway as he may have thought of himself in his later years when he was widely called 'Papa' and his image was that of a mellowed adventurer, but one still filled with heart and fire. Santiago, the old fisherman, though old, still dares to try, persists in doing the very best he can--and succeeds only to lose. He loses the battle with the sharks and his prize fish, but he wins a victory for himself because he knows that he fought well and that he has the courage to try again.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
4
www.cliffs.com
LIST OF CHARACTERS Santiago An old Cuban fisherman.
Manolin A young boy; Santiago's closest friend.
Martin Owner of the Terrace; he gives Manolin food for the old man.
Pedrico He receives the head of the marlin to use in his fish traps.
Rogelio A young boy who once helped Santiago with his fish nets.
The Marlin An eighteen-foot catch; the largest fish ever caught in the Gulf.
Los Galanos Scavenger sharks that destroy the marlin.
The Mako Shark Sleek killer of the sea; known for its eight raking rows of teeth.
CRITICAL COMMENTARIES The novel, of course, has no chapter divisions, but for the sake of discussion and easy reference, appropriate titles have been given to the various scenes. ABOUT THE OLD MAN AND THE BOY The novel's opening sentence is terse and direct: the main character is described and the situation is stated. Yet Hemingway does not even give us the name of the old man whom he is writing about. He tells us simply that the man is old, that he fishes for a living, but that for eighty-four days he has caught no fish, which is a long time for a fisherman to catch no fish; it is almost three months. Our first impression, then, of the main character of this novel is that he is a failure. In fact, we soon learn that most of the men of the village do not regard him even as a man. They believe in a code which is based on fate; and fate, it seems, has denied fish to the old man because he is too old now to be either a real fisherman or a real man. He is useless, and, more important, he is unlucky. For this reason, he is somewhat of an outcast in the village. The old man's only strong link with the village is a young boy. Hemingway pairs up youth and old age-these two contrasting extremes, these poles of a man's life. The boy is important to the old man because he believes in the old man; moreover, the old man believes in himself--despite fate, and despite the opinions of the other men. To most of the other fishermen, the old man is salao, which is Portuguese
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
5
www.cliffs.com
slang for 'very unlucky' or 'cursed with bad luck.' Interestingly, since the boy, Manolin, was reluctantly transferred to another boat, he has caught fish. Still, however, he and the old man are joined--by friendship and faith. What is it that the old man and the boy have faith in? The answer to this question contains one of the major ideas of this novel. The old fisherman and the boy value human relationships above materialism. The boy's father and many of the other fishermen put material considerations first: a man must catch fish--otherwise he has no money; otherwise he is not a man. Manolin wants to accompany the old man again because he has done what his parents wanted him to do: he has 'made some money.' Now he wants to return to follow old Santiago. The relationship, as many critics have suggested, is very much like that between Christ and one of his disciples. Yet Hemingway is even clearer than his symbol-oriented critics: 'The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.' Note Hemingway's straightforward explanation. He offers us no ambiguous or mystical embellishment of the relationship between the two fishermen; he states a simple fact, plainly, in terms we immediately understand. Manolin's love for Santiago is spontaneous and natural. In a village of simple fishermen, Santiago is an oddity. Many a young boy might avoid a very old fisherman, especially one whom the village considered tainted with bad luck. Not Manolin. He is sensitive enough to realize that the old man may be different but that he is wiser and more humane than most of the other men. Santiago talks to Manolin as though Manolin were an adult; he does not patronize the boy. He readily teaches him all the 'tricks' he has learned about fishing. Most of all, he offers Manolin a philosophy about fishing and about living. The two fishermen talk to each other easily; there is a sense of deep, personal understanding between them. Yet the relationship is unusual; a man is expected to have male friends his own age. Santiago does not; his closest friend is a boy. Youth and old age do not usually understand one another so well, much less respect and trust one another. The difference in this case is that the boy does not act like a boy. Nowhere do we see him being boyish, carefree, and irresponsible. Manolin's concern for Santiago is that of one human being for another human being. Ironically, he is more of a man--in the humanistic sense--than his father is. Despite this fact, however, both Santiago and the boy are viewed by the men of the village as not really men--the old man because he is old and catches no fish, the boy because of his age. The situation is one of dramatic irony. To the community, Santiago and Manolin are not men; to us, they are. Santiago and Manolin are men because of their codes of honor. Each of them is an idealist, for whom fishing is more than an occupation. For them, fishing is not merely a way of making money: it is a way of life. They are conscious of the moods of the weather; they are sensitive to sunrises, the far hills, the contest between man and fish, and between man and the sea. Their philosophy, or code, is based not on competition with one another, but on love, loyalty, and respect. Within Santiago's code, what passes for failure in the world is, in fact, a kind of victory. He is not defeated by what other men would be defeated by. The usual definition of 'defeat' is not a part of the code of the old man and the boy. Hemingway tells us, for example, that the sail of the old man's boat looked like 'the flag of permanent defeat.' This parallels what the village thinks about the old man. But what Hemingway is aiming for is an investigation of what really constitutes defeat and failure. Failure, to a strong man, is not failure merely because a man is so labeled by other men; defeat is not defined by catching no fish for eighty-four days. Defeat is relative; it is defined within one's personal code of values--not by the community. When we begin to investigate Santiago's code of values, perhaps it is best to start with the old man's name. 'Santiago' is derived from San Diego, or Saint James, the patron saint of Spain, a man who was a fisherman and who was defiantly independent. Note also how Hemingway has created Santiago for us: he is thin, gaunt even; he has deep wrinkles, discolored blotches, and deep-creased scars. Hemingway is emphasizing Santiago's age to show us that he is indeed old and worn; to all appearances, he seems to be a
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
6
www.cliffs.com
man ready to be written off as a has-been. He is old and, too often, societies dismiss the old as useless. (This, indeed, happened in Hemingway's own situation; the critics, prior to the publication of this novel, unanimously agreed that he was 'finished.') Santiago bears scars and the scars are not fresh. But Hemingway does not consider Santiago's scars as disfigurements. Scars are marks of honor, emblems of triumph. The scars, Hemingway says, are as 'old as erosions in a fishless desert.' Here one should note the unusual conjunction of 'fishless' and 'desert,' a description which intensifies the idea of Santiago's failure as a fisherman. The old man's physical features have been worn away like the land, and this image emphasizes the idea of Santiago's age and also of his character. Like the land, he is old but he survives, despite the erosion. His eyes are perhaps the key to his soul; they are blue, like the sea, and 'undefeated.' In spite of misfortune, the old man retains the will to continue and the courage to try and transcend what is believed to be impossible. PREPARATIONS While Santiago and Manolin are sitting together at the Terrace, Hemingway moves his perspective; he shows us more thoroughly what some of the other fishermen think of Santiago. Many make fun of him; they think that Santiago is a silly old man because he will not admit defeat and will not admit that he is a failure. (We are reminded of the old knight Don Quixote; he too was mocked for his ideals and for his belief in himself.) Those few men (old fishermen) who do not make fun of Santiago feel pity toward him, but they disguise their feelings in small talk about the currents, how deep they dropped their lines, what they saw while fishing, and so forth. This small talk about fishing, however, besides showing us how a few of the fishermen treat Santiago, serves another purpose. Hemingway uses this scene (and that of the butchered marlin from the successful catches) in order to achieve verisimilitude, a sense of truth. Hemingway himself fished many times for marlin, he saw sharks hoisted on a block and tackle, and he savored the fishy tang of the livers being cut out. As readers, we respond to these simple and vivid, realistic details. In a way, this is almost photographic realism as Hemingway shows us the world of Santiago's fishing village and, at the same time, what a man must do if he is to be considered successful and manly. Returning to the old man and the boy, one of the first things we notice is that their conversation is rather sparse. Neither of them feels a desperate need to talk. Santiago is not driven to recall wistfully, monologue-like, 'the good old days' when he caught many fish; Manolin does not ramble on about inconsequential matters. True, they do talk of the past, but what they discuss concerns both of them. They talk of Manolin's early days of fishing with Santiago. This talk is not empty nostalgia. They are recalling their heritage of fishing--in a sense, strengthening their devotion to one another and, more important, strengthening our belief in them. Here is proof of how 'the old man had taught the boy to fish' and why 'the boy loved him.' Manolin's memories are vivid. He recreates for us what he heard--the tail slapping and banging, and the noise of the clubbing; what he felt--the 'whole boat shiver'; and what he smelled-'the sweet blood smell all over me.' Manolin has rich, sensuous memories. He is very lucky to know Santiago; both of them are keenly alive and can share their excitement about fishing. Manolin realizes how wise and remarkable Santiago is; he is continually ready to acknowledge the old man's excellence, anxious to express his affection and his discipleship to his master. But note that the old man does not think of himself as a master. Santiago stresses the equality of their relationship when he notes that because the boy once bought him a beer, he is 'already a man.' And Santiago is right, as we have already discovered. Manolin is no ordinary village boy. In his years, Manolin may be a boy, but his concern for Santiago and his values are mature. The words which Manolin and Santiago use are honest and ordinary. Indeed, because the words are ordinary, Hemingway is able to differentiate between true pride and false pride. Santiago is a humble
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
7
www.cliffs.com
man; he is not too proud, or ashamed, to answer this young boy with complete and simple truthfulness. He doesn't have to lie or boast about his fishing successes; he doesn't try to impress the boy or convince himself that he really is a good fisherman. What he says about himself as a fisherman is true and is said honestly, as a fact. True pride is what Santiago has and knows he has; false pride is shame. Santiago is without shame. He does not damn the currents or blame the winds for his not catching fish, nor does he believe that he is 'cursed' with bad luck. He keeps on fishing, confidently. He knows that he is a good fisherman; he will catch fish again. Hemingway is saying here that humility and pride may coexist in the same person at the same time; perfect humility does not entail the absence of all pride. There is nothing wrong with true pride. One does not have to flail oneself with inferiority in order to achieve true humility. This distinction represents one of the basic moral values supported by this novel, and this moral value is related to the distinction previously noted between true success and false success. False success is what many of the other fishermen and Manolin's father have. It is catching fish with no pleasure, for money only. True success in fishing is enjoying the contest--win or lose--of man and fish. This behavior is Santiago's success, a concept Manolin understands. In addition, Santiago is optimistic by temperament. His optimism is rooted in faith and confidence in the future and in himself; and it is also rooted in common sense: tomorrow, he says, is going to be a good day because of 'this current.' He knows the sea; for this reason, he wants to get far enough out while it is still dark so that he can come in when the wind shifts. This is prudence--one of Santiago's 'tricks,' learned after many years of fishing. Again we see that Santiago does not merely fish. Before, the discussion concerned moral values and materialism; here, the matter concerns the physical act of fishing: Santiago does not merely sit in a boat and drop his line. He uses strategy; he is cunning, readying himself for a new contest. As we noted earlier, Manolin reacts with concern for his old friend--that is, deciding to trick the boss of the 'lucky' boat to work far out also (thus he would be there to help Santiago if necessary). Santiago speculates about the other fisherman's bad eyes, his blindness. Here, consider this possibility: the other fisherman's physical blindness being a counterpart of a certain moral and spiritual blindness. Santiago has fished for many more years, yet he is not blind. His eyes are, in Hemingway's words, 'the same color as the sea' and are 'cheerful' and 'undefeated.' Some critics have complained that Santiago and Manolin are 'too good to be true,' that they are (because of their not being considered 'men') ready-made anti-heroes. Anti-heroes they are, but each of them has his flaws. Concerning Manolin, he has doubts about the old man. He does not believe that Santiago is invincible; he does not worship him uncritically. At present, he worries about the old man's having the strength to haul in a big fish. It was wise of Hemingway to have this young boy worry about his old friend. Manolin is no blind disciple. Moreover, his worrying is proof of his deep concern. Further, Hemingway is using Manolin's concern to emphasize the difference in his age and in Santiago's. The man and the boy may share the same code values, but the old man has lived long. He answers the boy honestly, saying that he has learned many tricks. The boy's doubt, then, is founded upon his inexperience. Santiago's faith in himself comes from all that he has learned during his long years as a fisherman. Besides the physical preparations which Manolin and Santiago make for the trip, Hemingway includes an attitude of the old man's so as to remind us of what he will be taking with him spiritually. Santiago is confident that nobody will steal his fishing gear; he believes in human nature's basic goodness and honesty. But he does decide to remove 'needless temptations' (his gaff and harpoon gun). We respond to this wise prudence; one of Santiago's most attractive characteristics is his combination of being simultaneously optimistic and also realistic. Once the old man is home, we discover more things about him from the interior of his shack. First of all, the door is open; Santiago is friendly and generous. The shack is small (the mast is nearly as long as one room) and is made of tough bud-shields from a type of 'royal palm' tree. His furniture is spare and basic--a bed to sleep in, a chair to sit in, a place on the floor for charcoal cooking, a couple of holy
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
8
www.cliffs.com
pictures, and a shelf in one corner. Hemingway uses these details of the interior of Santiago's shack to show us more clearly what kind of a man Santiago is. First, we realize that there is nothing superfluous in the shack. Santiago is satisfied with simple, ordinary, material things, and he keeps his small home clean and orderly. We gather that he is Roman Catholic and that he is a widower. In a sense, it is a rather empty shack. There is not even an empty tin can used to hold flowers nor is there a calendar. Santiago sleeps here, eats his few meals here; otherwise, he is on the sea. In his boat, riding the waves is where he feels most alive. Still, however, it is necessary to see Santiago at home, to see the threadbare place where he eats and sleeps. His shack is basic and simple, just as is Santiago's code. And there is dignity in the orderliness of the shack, just as there is dignity in the old fisherman. Besides their mutual code of honor, another thing that binds Santiago and the boy together is baseball. Santiago loves baseball--almost as much as he loves fishing. Talk about baseball--who's winning and who's losing--continues throughout this novel and is much more than idle conversation. The game of baseball and the great outfielder Joe DiMaggio are often parallels to Santiago himself and Santiago's code for living. When Santiago talks of baseball and DiMaggio, listen carefully to his philosophizing. Living is a game, with rules; sometimes one loses, sometimes one wins. DiMaggio has a flaw--the bone spur in his heel--yet he seems almost to play better because of his determination not to allow this bad luck to conquer him. For the boy, Manolin, baseball is mainly just a game. The old man's enthusiasm has infected the boy, who is anxious to know the results of the games, but, we realize, as Santiago talks to him of winning and losing and about the almost legendary DiMaggio, Manolin is absorbing important attitudes toward life. The old man believes that the Yankees will win this particular baseball game, but Manolin does not have the old fisherman's deep confidence; he fears that the Yankees will be beaten by the Cleveland Indians. Santiago's confidence, it should be noted, is not based on the power of the team itself. Santiago favors the Yankees primarily because of DiMaggio, the son of a Sicilian fisherman. DiMaggio, Santiago has read, is suffering from a bone spur in his heel, and the old man gains strength from the idea of DiMaggio's performing with the grace of a champion despite the pressure of his affliction. The ideal of DiMaggio's courage, then, gives Santiago spiritual strength. But what of the old man's physical strength? At this point, we should note that Manolin is sensitive to Santiago's poverty. After all, what does an old fisherman eat when he hasn't caught any fish to sell or eat himself for almost three months? Yet it would be awkward if Manolin talked of Santiago's empty cupboard. It is empty; Santiago knows it and Manolin knows it. Manolin wants to help and he does so, using his sense of humor. We have seen this happen before, this gentle bantering, this game of teasing between the two friends. The pot of yellow rice and fish is an old joke; Hemingway tells us that they discuss this yellow rice and fish very often. The humor helps them both to endure the old man's bad luck. Their friendship is strengthened because they can smile about the same things. The description of the old man, asleep in his chair, is important for two reasons: first, Hemingway reemphasizes Manolin's compassion for the old man. The boy takes the old army blanket and wraps it over Santiago's shoulders to keep him warm while he sleeps; second, and more important, Hemingway draws us a rich portrait of the old man. Note these details: the shoulders are very old but still powerful; the neck is still strong. The head is old, and here Hemingway uses the word 'though' to bring out the contrast between the head and the youthful, strong shoulders. The lifeless face with the eyes closed suggests the idea of deep sleep, even physical death, for Santiago is very old--this point Hemingway never wants us to forget. Also, Santiago is barefooted, simple, natural, and, again underscoring Santiago's age, Hemingway shows us Santiago's shirt, patched many times and faded, like an old sail. The description has the qualities of a muted oil painting. During the supper conversation, notice that once again Manolin continues his fatherly attitude toward
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
9
www.cliffs.com
Santiago, urging him to keep the blanket around him so that he will not get cold. Hemingway records in detail the meal which Manolin has brought to his old friend, telling us also that the boy remembered to bring two sets of knives, forks, and spoons 'with a paper napkin wrapped around each set.' The scene is short, but because of Manolin's preparations for the meal, Hemingway reveals the respect and love which the boy has for Santiago. When the baseball theme is reintroduced, one of the most important things we learn is that Santiago is not depressed to learn that the Yankees lost the game; his enthusiasm for the Yankees is not diminished because it does not depend on the team's winning all the time. Santiago still has his private hero, the great DiMaggio, a symbol of success against almost impossible odds. Santiago spends much time thinking about this son of a poor fisherman; his years of speculation and meditation about Joe DiMaggio remind one of a medieval hermit, meditating about the life of a heroic saint or the mysteries in the life of Christ. Through his thoughts of DiMaggio, Santiago achieves a measure of self-identification in, and with, his hero. Thus his private image enables him to realize powers in himself that might otherwise have remained locked deep within him. He would like to take him fishing because he feels DiMaggio could easily understand his and the boy's values and attitudes. They, in turn, could share DiMaggio's greatness and significance. As the boy and the old man talk of great baseball players, of who the greatest team manager is, the discussion very naturally turns to who is the greatest fisherman. The boy says to Santiago that there are many good fishermen and some great ones, but 'there is only you.' This is not flattery. It is simple recognition of the old man's uniqueness and value. This is also a profoundly Christian view of the uniqueness and value of the individual. The old man shrugs off this remark but is inwardly pleased by the compliment. His own opinion of himself is completely realistic: he may not be as strong as he thinks, but he knows many tricks and he has resolution. The key word here is 'resolution,' meaning will power, perseverance, staying-power, fortitude--in short, 'guts.' The old man's preparations for sleep are described, as Hemingway has done before, in sharp, tight details. It is dark (they ate with no light on the table); Santiago rolls up his trousers to make a pillow, putting a newspaper inside for the sake of solidity. He rolls himself in the blanket and sleeps on the other old newspapers that cover the springs of the bed. The description is short but strongly emphasizes the old fisherman's indomitable spirit of self-reliance. Were it not for this, the scene would be depressing because of the old man's extreme poverty. But Hemingway is trying to make the reader admire the man; he is not trying for pity here. The description is hard, economical, and in keeping with the old man's simple character. Avoidance of pathos and, especially here, of a too heavy and solemn tone is one of Hemingway's strengths as a writer. In the description of the old man's dream, Hemingway reveals his own deep and intuitive understanding of the way this old fisherman's mind works. Being old, he dreams of his youth. He has had a tough and, despite occasional excitement, a fairly prosaic existence; therefore he dreams of a long-ago African voyage. Note the colorful adjectives and the appeals to the sense of smell that give us an impression of the exotic sights, shapes, and smells of that voyage. Note too that earlier, when the old man had offered to talk about Africa, Manolin had preferred to discuss baseball. In his dream, Santiago compensates for Manolin's wanting to talk about baseball. In the dream, the smell of the land breeze from Africa merges with the smell of the land breeze here on Cuba. These smells serve as a link between fantasy and reality, as well as between youth and age, dreaming and waking, land and sea, home and abroad. This dream device is very effective, and its effectiveness continues as the dream becomes more private, more representational than symbolic. We are once more reminded that the old man is indeed very old; storms and women and challenging fish are no longer his--those are dreams of youth. As an old man, he dreams of easy, pleasant things. This dream is one of the great dreams in modern literature. It has a poetic quality, as well as dramatic effectiveness, and there is in it a sense of age, tranquility, an absence of striving and
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
10
www.cliffs.com
conflict, grandeur, spiritual maturity, and strange detachment The peace that pervades the dream will be Santiago's strength for his battle with the gigantic fish. The sense of quiet continues as Hemingway draws back and we see the outlines of the old man and the boy in the moonlight of the early morning. The conversation is brief. The gear is placed carefully on the skiff. The old man and the boy feel good. Santiago lets Manolin go to fetch sardines and fresh baits; he has let Manolin do this since Manolin was five years old. Contrast this attitude with that of the other, almost-blind fisherman who always carries his own gear himself. Note also Santiago's drinking habits: he drinks slowly--the coffee he takes as a duty, not a pleasure. After lifting the skiff and launching it by sliding it into the water, the old man and the boy part, each going his separate way. The adventure with the sea and with the great fish now begins. THE VOYAGE OUT The start of this solitary voyage is dramatic: the old man begins his journey in darkness; he can hear the sound of the other boats moving out, but he cannot see them. Santiago leans forward, Hemingway tells us, against the 'thrust of the blades in the water.' The words 'thrust' and 'blades' are incisive; they propel the old man forward, cutting him off from the land and from his friend Manolin. He is alone and he knows that he is going 'far out.' Other fishermen fish in teams, but not Santiago. For many days now, he has fished alone. Now he leaves once again, alone. There is a sense in this dramatic prelude that Santiago is journeying now to catch a fish worthy of him. If almost no one else believes in him, he himself does, and he is off to catch a great fish because he knows that he can do it. Yet as noted before, Hemingway refuses to elevate this voyage into a distinctively metaphorical 'mission.' Thus he imbues his narrative with much atmosphere and local color. He diverts our imagination with realistic recollections of long-tailed, phosphorescent sea weed, the sudden steep walls of the ocean floor, and the swirl of the ocean's many fish. We are given, as it were, a brief lesson in ocean life when Hemingway refers to the concentrations of shrimp and bait fish and the schools of squid in the deepest holes and those that rise close to the surface at night where 'all the wandering fish fed on them.' The new day slowly comes alive--not because Hemingway tells us so, but because he shows us Santiago feeling and hearing the dawn. The 'trembling' of the flying fish quickens the old man's senses to the changing of time. Note especially the onomatopoeic effect of 'hissing' and the alliterative effect of 'stiff set wings' with 'soared' and 'darkness' in the phrase describing the flying fish leaving the water and 'the hissing that their stiff set wings made as they soared away in the darkness.' Hemingway is not usually thought of as a writer who employs figures of speech, but here he uses them purposefully; here the onomatopoeia and alliteration evoke the sounds heard by Santiago as he rows out. Then, from the feel and sound of the almost-dawn within Santiago, Hemingway takes us even deeper inward. We learn that the old man is very fond of the flying fish and that he is sorry for the birds, especially the small terns that are always flying, 'almost never finding.' (This compassion of Santiago's is set against the cold and severe estimate of the old man by the village.) But besides his compassion, Santiago is, like many solitary men, philosophic. He asks himself Why: Why does God permit avoidable suffering to small, delicate birds? Why is the ocean capricious and, occasionally, cruel--then kind? The problem of 'why the innocent suffer' is raised here, as it is raised in the Book of Job. Neither work has full, satisfactory answers, however, to this question. Perhaps there is no simple answer; at least the suggestion here is that a person does not need answers--one needs only faith. This Santiago has: he has faith in himself as a fisherman; he has fished a long time and he knows fish and the ocean and has honed a certain practical cunning.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
11
www.cliffs.com
Santiago rows steadily, keeping well within his speed by using tricks that he has learned from experience, and by letting the current do a third of the work, he finds that he is even farther out now than he expected to be by this time. It is now dawn. From now on, the rhythms of the descriptive narrative will echo those of the swell of the Gulf Stream itself. The fishing begins with a gamble, a belief in luck and intuition. Santiago decides to give up his usual fishing in the deep wells; he will fish for tuna (albacore and bonita), hoping to catch a big one. Observe here how exact the description is. The bait is placed head down, at various depths; the shank of the hook is inside the bait fish, tied and sewed, and the projecting part of the hook is covered with garlands of sardines. Santiago is indeed out to trap a big fish; there is no part of the hook that 'a great fish could feel which was not sweet smelling and good tasting.' Take note too of the precision with which Santiago baits his lines. Each line is looped onto a green-sapped stick so that any pull, touch, or bite will make the stick dip, and each line is also attached to two forty-fathom coils which can be linked to the other spare coils so that a fish can take out over three hundred fathoms of line. We feel suspense as this experienced and professional old angler watches the dip of the three sticks over the side of the skiff while he rows gently, keeping the lines straight up and down at their respective depths. As we wait for the sun to rise, we too feel Santiago's urgent anticipation. Sunrise comes sharply, with a glare; wisely, Santiago rows without looking into it. Despite the glare, his lines are straighter and truer than other less skillful fishermen. He equates this precision with which he keeps his lines with his present absence of luck. Yet he never gives up hoping, and although it is better to be lucky, Santiago would rather be exact. Then when luck comes, one is ready. This philosophy shows what we might describe as Santiago's scientific approach to the random elements in his vocation. The large bird which Santiago sees circling in the sky is somewhat like a portent. Hemingway is using here the device of double contrast. The flying fish are escaping from the dolphin and the bird, and Santiago is using the bird as an ally in the quest, fishing correctly, only faster than usual. But the bird has no luck; he will catch no fish. If, however, Santiago is lucky, he will catch a dolphin. The dolphin are fast, and though Santiago fears they are escaping from him, he continues to hope that 'my big fish' might lurk nearby. This expression of faith is based on experience and intuition. Abruptly we know that the old man missed his chance for a dolphin, for Hemingway suddenly begins the next paragraph with a description of the clouds and the shore and the deep, almost purple water. And it is almost startling to hear Santiago curse the Portuguese man-of-war. The narrative is staccato-like here; tension is quickening. We can feel it, as can Santiago. The filigreed bladder is bad; it gives off poison which can be transferred by the lines to the fisherman's hands, causing sores much like those caused by poison ivy. Fish are immune to this poison, but Santiago is not. And note that these filaments and shining bubbles are outwardly bright, but inwardly false and deadly. The section on the sea turtles adds to the disquieting mood. The ideas of the storms and of being old and butchered are potent imagery, especially coming before Santiago sights the birds again. The old man knows that something is lurking. Note the vivid action words: jumping in all directions, churning the water, leaping in long jumps, and circling, driving the bait. Then comes a description of what it feels like to catch a large albacore tuna fish. And then the kill. But for Santiago, killing is part of his vocation as a fisherman; there is nothing sadistic about it, and since the critic Carlos Baker has called Santiago Hemingway's 'Ancient Mariner,' contrast Santiago's actions with Coleridge's Ancient Mariner's killing of the albatross, an act that was without reason. Unlike Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, Santiago is visited by grace from the beginning; he has nothing specific to atone for, whereas Coleridge's old fisherman spent a lifetime atoning for his misdeed.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
12
www.cliffs.com
One of Santiago's idiosyncrasies, or quirks, is his habit of talking aloud to himself. This talking aloud is a clever device introduced by Hemingway to compensate for the absence of Manolin, and there is nothing difficult about believing that a lonely old fisherman might carry on a monologue such as this. However, Santiago is a bit self-conscious about this habit since he feels that others might think him crazy. He, however, knows that he is not crazy, which is more important than what others think. One of the advantages of this monologue device is that the old man's conversations with himself vary the fabric of the narrative and enable Santiago to express his feelings, thoughts, private dreams, and reminiscences in a spontaneous and interesting manner. By nature, fishermen are usually men of few words, but Santiago is an exception--when he is alone. In fact, when he is alone, he is almost loquacious. He says that he regrets the fact that he cannot afford a radio to hear the baseball reports. We are glad that he did not have a radio. The old man is now far out, farther than he has ever fished before. He can no longer see the hilltops. His lines go straight down into water that is a mile deep. His whole being is engaged in his task, and we feel that soon his efforts and patience will be rewarded. BATTLE A nibble, a bite . . . we feel a chilling urgency in the old man's plea to the fish. He almost begs the fish to swallow the 'hard and cold and lovely' bait, and he prays that God will make the fish take it. His prayers are answered. This is no ordinary fish; of this we are certain as soon as Santiago lodges the hook firmly in the flesh of the fish's mouth--for the old man cannot even begin to move the fish. The suspense is high as the skiff begins to move slowly off toward the northwest. The great fish is actually towing the skiff behind him. Santiago realizes immediately what is happening: the fish is moving horizontally, not vertically. There are two dangers confronting the old man at this time. First, the fish might dive to the bottom and break the line; second, it might die, and sink, in which case Santiago would not be able to recover it The stage has now been set by a master craftsman for the enactment of a tragic drama involving a conflict demanding no less than everything between a solitary old fisherman and an immense and strong marlin. The old man hopes that the weight of the skiff will soon tire the fish, yet four hours later it is still swimming steadily out to sea, still dragging the skiff. Santiago now begins to feel uncomfortable; his straw hat cuts his forehead and he has been without nourishment (except for the early cups of coffee) for hours. However, he insists to himself that he feels fine, drinks a little water, rests, and tries not to think-'only to endure.' In the old man's attitude to the fish is the type of gallantry and heroism that Hemingway admires. This gallantry, this heroism, is parallelled by the stoical heroism of the great marlin; like his opponent, neither gives up. In addition, the force exerted by the old man is exactly counter-balanced by the natural force being exerted at this time by the huge hidden fish. This constitutes a natural, balanced equation. It recalls the balance of power which lasted long ago, for many hours, between Santiago and the black man of Cienfuegos. At one point, the old man stands up, urinates over the side of the skiff, looks at the stars, and checks his course. There is force in this odd juxtaposition of animal function and divine reason. It is possible to see in this an unusual expression of the tripartite nature of humans--namely, the natural body function plus aspiration (idealism, 'looked at the stars') plus rational intellect (navigating). Hemingway employs a limited stream of consciousness technique in the paragraph referred to above. The thoughts are written down in the order in which, we are to imagine, they struck Santiago's tired old mind; there is simulated disorder in their arrangement. Hemingway gives us the impression that there is no logical sequence here. There is, however, a logic of sensibility and a kind of poetry in this almost free association of ideas. This, Hemingway wants us to feel, is exactly how an old man like Santiago would
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
13
www.cliffs.com
feel and think when alone off the coast of Havana, fishing. When Santiago wonders if the fish has any plans or if he is just as 'desperate as I am,' we realize that Hemingway is concerned here with more than Santiago's present situation. He is concerned with the human condition, of drifting or being dragged through space and time, and of being half-in, half-out of control of ultimate fate. Is there any plan in nature--nature here being represented by the great and apparently intentionless fish? Has the fish any feelings and, if so, is it as desperate as Santiago? Or is it, unlike Santiago, insensible to feeling? This, we should note, is the first time that Santiago has mentioned the word 'desperation.' We should not, however, think that Santiago is afraid; he does not fear being so far out to sea; he knows that he can come in on the glow from Havana. But the old man is desperate to prove once more than he can do battle cleanly and well. Consider further Santiago's feeling for this fish. He has a sympathy and a strange appreciation for the marlin. Marlins, to him, are representatives of truth and of nature. Manolin had shared these unusual feelings, had begged the marlin's pardon (a touch of whimsical humor perhaps) and had 'butchered her promptly.' (Santiago again wishes fervently that Manolin were present with him in the skiff now.) Santiago, in fact, accuses himself of treachery in that by catching the marlin, he made it necessary for the marlin to interrupt the tranquil flow of his existence in order to go through the troublesome business of making a choice, a process that Santiago implies ought to be restricted to human beings. The choice of the fish is this: it can decide to stay in the deep dark waters of the Gulf Stream, far out beyond 'all snares and traps and treacheries,' or it can move into other waters with their attendant, but unknown dangers. It chooses to remain where it is and keeps moving. The old fisherman also makes a choice: his choice is to go out to find a fish 'beyond all people.' Now they are joined together and there is no one 'to help either one of us.' The old man is as lonely and isolated as the fish; and the fish is also lonely and isolated as is the old Cuban fisherman. Their fates run parallel, and their life-and-death struggle intensifies their commingling. Their destinies as individuals seem to have been inextricably bound up with, and in, one another's destinies. Three tragic elements in this conflict between the old fisherman and the great marlin are: 1) isolation (neither can understand the thoughts of the other, and there is no one else nearby); 2) courage, gallantry, stoical indifference to pain, and resolution; and 3) a commitment to the battle by the process of inevitability. This inevitability, it should be noted, is similar to the sense of inevitability in the Book of Job and in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. The old fisherman's name, Santiago, is San Diego in Spanish and St. James in English. The critic Carlos Baker refers to the point, first noted by another scholar, Melvin Blackman, that a connection is possibly intended between Santiago and the 'fisherman, apostle, and martyr from the sea of Galilee' mentioned in St. Matthew's gospel, chapter 4, verses 18-22. These read as follows: And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straight way left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.
If any connection was intended by Hemingway between Santiago and St. James the Lesser, as he is known, then it is sustained by the master and disciple relationship between Santiago and the boy, Manolin, since St. James is the patron saint of Spain and there is an important shrine dedicated to him at Compostella.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
14
www.cliffs.com
It is impossible to know for sure what makes the great fish lurch. Perhaps the lurch was caused by the slipping of the wire line on the 'hill' of the marlin's back; whether true or not, Santiago compares the way the fish's back must feel with the way his own backside aches now. This, in turn, renews his determination. He vows to stay with the fish until he (Santiago) is dead; he very nearly does so. Like the old man, the fish is also determined. The progress of the skiff that it is towing never falters; it moves steadily north. The current, by the way, follows northeast. The old man knows, therefore, that his marlin must be immensely powerful; were it feeling fatigued, it would be moving with the current. No such thing has happened. The only change in the marlin's journey out to sea is that it is now swimming at a lesser depth. Santiago prays for the fish to jump. If the fish surfaces, his air-sacks (situated along his backbone) will fill and it cannot go deep to die. Also, Santiago is understandably anxious to catch a glimpse of it. The old man is incredibly patient. He knows that he must not suddenly increase the strain on the line by jerkmg it for he might widen the cut made by the hook. If this happens and the fish jumps, it might escape. A small, tired warbler bird flies toward the skiff and rests on the stern before settling comfortably on the tense, outstretched line. Santiago meditates aloud, talking to the warbler bird as to a friend, discussing predatory hawks. Note the parallel to St. Francis, who also preached to birds. There is a rather strange remark by Hemingway that seems gently ironical: 'But he said nothing of this to the bird who could not understand him anyway and who would learn about the hawks soon enough.' Only commonplaces are exchanged between them, but note the conflict in nature represented by hawks and warblers; this is the counterpart of the battle between the old fisherman and the marlin. The latter, however, are more evenly matched than the former, but all creatures must 'take [their] chance like any man or bird or fish.' Hemingway views conflict as an inevitable accompaniment of human enterprise; for him, nature is always 'red in tooth and claw.' When Santiago's right hand is cut by the line and begins to bleed, we become aware that Hemingway is paralleling Santiago with a Christian saint. We had noted the previous resemblances between him and St. James the Lesser and St. Francis of Assisi. Now the bleeding hand strikingly completes the resemblance to St. Francis, who received the stigmata. (St. Francis received the stigmatization when his hands and feet were perforated with wounds resembling those inflicted on the crucified Jesus, and a lance wound is alleged to have appeared miraculously in his side.) Santiago is hurt, but so is the fish; a pain of some undetermined variety made the fish lurch; thus, there is mutual anguish. More references to the wounded right hand follow. The line burn has cut his hand in the working part; soon, he knows, he will be needing to use both hands. Then, to Santiago's disgust and consternation, his left hand cramps up like a claw. The hand is almost as stiff as a corpse after rigor mortis has set in. Santiago's resolve, as a result, also stiffens, for he vows again to stay with the fish, 'whatever it costs.' At last, the moment Santiago has waited for so long occurs: the fish surfaces ahead of the skiff, water pouring off its steep sides. The adverb 'unendingly' (though hyperbolic), describing the fish's ascent, gives us a strong sense of the fish's magnitude. Note too the key phrase 'the great scythe-blade of his tail.' The marlin is an ominous adversary, longer even than the old man's skiff. Santiago wishes that he were the fish 'with everything he has' (strength, speed, magnitude, nobility, dignity) 'against only my will and my intelligence.' Note the true humility in the use of the adverb 'only.' Then the old man settles his weary frame against the wood of the skiff (note the recurrence of the crucifixion image) and continues to bear all his sufferings with stoical indifference. He says certain prayers and promises to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Cobre if he succeeds in catching this great
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
15
www.cliffs.com
fish. Santiago's need for sleep is now great. The old man wishes that the fish would relax so that he could snatch some rest and dream about the lions. 'Why,' he asks, 'are the lions the main thing that is left?' The answer to this question (if there is one) is that he is without assistance except that which comes to him from his psychic stock of private images. Thus also do thoughts of baseball give strength to the old fisherman. For the second day (this tells us how long he has been out), he has heard no baseball scores and he doesn't know the results of the games. But he feels that he must be worthy of his hero, Joe DiMaggio, the man who does all things perfectly--even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel. For Santiago, DiMaggio has heroic qualities associated by us with a Renaissance man. Santiago wonders what a bone spur is and if it is as painful as the spur of a fighting cock. While enduring considerable pain and fatigue at this time himself, Santiago feels that DiMaggio has a superior capacity for enduring suffering because DiMaggio is strong and young: youth and strength are qualities which Santiago lacks-and needs especially now. In his search for sources from which to draw psychic strength for use during the struggle which lies ahead, Santiago's mind produces, at sunset, the memory of himself in the tavern at Casablanca (on the eastward side of the harbor of Havana) playing the 'hand game' (a trial of strength) with the big black man from Cienfuegos. Santiago and the man had spent a whole day and night with their elbows on a chalk line on the table, their forearms straight up and their hands gripped tight. The object of this game, or rather contest, was to try and force the other man's hand onto the table. The odds moved back and forth all night. The two contestants' fingernails dripped blood as they sat straining eye to eye, forearms up, hands gripped tight. The man from Cienfuegos, the strongest man on the Casablanca docks, was the favorite. Once he caught Santiago three inches off balance, but El Campeón (the Champion), as he was called after this event, made a supreme effort of the will and succeeded in restoring the balance of hands. Finally Santiago unleashed his utmost effort and forced the hand of the man down. This contest, in which the forces were more or less evenly balanced, is the counterpart of Santiago's struggle with the great marlin. The description of the dolphin which Santiago catches is presented deliberately as a thing of beauty and as a sea marvel that must, nevertheless, die. In these qualities, beauty and the marvelous, the dolphin is the counterpart of the great marvel who must die, the marlin. Note the precision with which the difficult feat of catching the dolphin is described. Remember that Santiago has the use of only one hand. (Note too the part played in this description by exact color adjectives and expressive words.) The old fisherman decides to eviscerate ('gut') the dolphin later, to save the blood in the meat. Remember that this fish is his only source of nourishment now that the flying fish from the dolphin's maw have been consumed. He has also eaten the bonito tuna; tomorrow he plans to eat the golden dolphin or dorado, as he calls it in Spanish. Santiago's morale, despite the pain, is high. He says that he feels good and his left hand is better and he has food for the night and the next day. Nevertheless, the pain from the cord across his back has almost passed pain and 'gone into a dullness that he mistrusted.' He weighs his advantages against those of the great fish, his antagonist, and feels that he has gained on him--at least in the matter of sustenance. The test of endurance continues; the contest demands a great deal of the old fisherman's strength. Even more demands will be made on him later. The danger of continued lack of sleep is evident to Santiago. If he does not sleep, he warns himself, he will become 'unclear in the head.' At present, however, he is as clear in the head as the stars that are his 'brothers.' It is only when Santiago observes that the flow of water against his hand is less strong that he slackens his pace; he knows now that his fish is finally tiring
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
16
www.cliffs.com
or that it is resting. The old man, too, proposes to get some sleep. The skiff moves farther into the unknown. The sky to the east is clouding over and the familiar stars are replaced by unfamiliar ones. Santiago seems to be moving into a great canyon of clouds; the wind has dropped. Suspense is roused by this description; bad weather will arrive within twenty-four hours. We prepare ourselves for some action. Santiago sleeps and this time dreams not of lions, but of porpoises stretched out for eight or ten miles. (This is approximately the distance he is offshore, and the fact obviously worries him subconsciously.) The porpoises are in their mating season; Santiago is in the middle of his own ambivalent (love-hate) relationship with the marlin. They leap high into the air; the marlin had previously jumped high into the air. The porpoises dive out of deep wells in the sea; earlier in the narrative, Santiago had left the wells of what some people labeled 'failure.' Note that every event in this dream has its counterpart, or parallel, in actual events despite the distortion induced by the dreamwork. The second part of this dream anticipates the future; Santiago finds himself asleep on his own bed in the village, but his right arm is paralyzed because his head rests on it instead of on the pillow, and it is very cold. The actual discomfort of his ordeal penetrates into the dream. In the third part of his dream, Santiago dreams of the long yellow African beach, and he sees the first of the lions come down in the early darkness followed by other members of the pride; he is happy, waiting to see if there will be more lions. The lions represent the third, and most exotic, of Santiago's private images. Their recurrence at this point in the struggle is significant They are associated with the virility of his youth, the time when he had those qualities he so badly needs at the present time. Also, since he is feeling profoundly wretched, he needs a dream that will make him feel strong and youthful and happy. This need is the dramatic function of this dream: to enable him to draw on hidden reserves of psychic energy made available to him through private images. The line's running through his right hand wakes him with a jerk. His left hand comes to its aid, but, as always, it lets him down. Then the left hand takes all the strain and is badly cut. Suddenly the marlin jumps, bursting from the ocean, falling heavily, and jumping again and again. The point at which the line threatens to break is reached repeatedly. Santiago is pulled tight into the bow, his face pushed into the cut slice of dolphin flesh. He cannot move. He can only hear the heavy splashes as the marlin repeatedly falls. The line should have been dampened to reduce its cutting friction, but Manolin is not there to do it: 'If the boy were here. If the boy were here.' The repetition of this lament lends both urgency and pathos to the solitary old fisherman in his hour of need. When the great fish at last begins to circle, it circles unremittingly for hours. Notice the signs now of Santiago's fatigue: he sees black spots before his eyes, he is wet with sweat, and he feels faint and dizzy. He even fears death momentarily. But the old man addresses himself, saying that he must 'last.' At this point in the narrative, Hemingway has succeeded in giving the reader a sense of continual loss and gain, ebb and flow, in and out of the contest which is the result of the two protagonists' being so evenly matched. This balance makes the narrative grim and suspenseful. Hemingway does not give us the fish's size in feet; rather, he conveys a suggestion of size which, though inexact, is more compelling and less prosaic than giving us dimensions in feet and pounds. The marlin is higher than a big scythe blade, and the old man can see his huge bulk and the large, spread pectorals. Two gray sucking fish, each more than three feet long, have attached themselves to the marlin and are lashing their bodies in an eel-like fashion. Note that the exact size of these sucking fish is given, but that of the marlin is only suggested; this vagueness is a very subtle device for heightening the presence of this leviathan in our minds.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
17
www.cliffs.com
When the fish comes with his interminable length to the side of the skiff and Santiago drives the harpoon into its heart, note the force and the absence of brutality in this description. Hemingway's phrase 'Then the fish came alive, with his death in him' gives us an impression of power and beauty, reminding us of his way of viewing the death of a heroic bull in the Spanish ring. Note too the realism of the fish's death struggle as its heart's blood, which is 'dark as a shoal,' spreads like a cloud through the mile-deep waters of the Gulf. This blood will cause the invasion of the sharks which populate these waters. From its original color, purple and silver, the fish turns silver, except for wide violet strips and its violet tail. Its eyes look as detached as mirrors in a periscope or as 'a saint in a procession.' This reference to 'a saint in a procession' makes manifest, only in relation to the marlin, a quality that has been latent throughout in relation to Santiago. One recollects the religious symbolism connecting him with St. James and, through the stigmatization and other crucifixion imagery, with St. Francis of Assisi. The work of securing the mammoth fish, fit not for heroes but only for slaves--in Santiago's terms--now begins--preparing the nooses and the rope to lash the marlin's carcass alongside the skiff. The magnitude of this task is underscored when we recall that the fish is two feet longer than the boat and weighs over 1500 pounds. For the first time, Santiago thinks of the commercial value of his catch. If it dresses out two-thirds of its weight and Santiago can sell that for thirty cents a pound, the amount will be approximately three hundred dollars, a sum that represents a fortune to the old fisherman. He reflects that the great DiMaggio would be proud of him today. True, he had no bone spur, but his hands and back 'hurt truly.' Santiago, the failure, is a hero (or champion) for the second time in his life. In his conflict with the man of Cienfuegos, and in his contest with the gigantic marlin, he has emerged as El Campeón, the champion. This part of the novella successfully establishes Santiago as a heroic figure. This building-up process is necessary because the taking-away process is about to commence. This literary device is known as the tragedy of deprivation. Note that he had to achieve something in order to have it taken away. We feel intense pity for the old fisherman later, and, later, so does Manolin, who weeps passionately. This quality of pity completes the tragic situation. As Aristotle pointed out in his Poetics, 'pity is a vital ingredient of tragedy.' How laconically and almost casually Hemingway introduces us to the tragedy of subtraction, noting simply that it was an hour before the first shark hit the marlin. Santiago's triumph was too good to last, but, on the other hand, 'man is not made for defeat.' His basic attitude is expressed in the form of a characteristically Hemingway distinction: 'A man can be destroyed but not defeated.' This comment means that defeat is a mental attitude, and we can control our mental attitudes even though we cannot control events that strike us down into misfortune. Santiago knows that more sharks will be coming, but he determines to sail on his way and take his fate, whatever it is. 'It' does not take long in coming. And part of the tragedy is that Santiago knows that the sharks will devour his catch and that he is powerless. Once again, we feel the agony of inevitability. Santiago does not despair, but he comes fairly close to doing so. He believes that to lose hope is sinful. In this he resembles the prophet Job, who never lost his hope despite the worst afflictions and deprivations that came upon him. He does not consider anything except that his calling is to be a fisherman--and he must be true to his calling before all things. This fidelity to what he believes is part of his integrity as a human being, as well as a part of his quixotic gallantry. Santiago is a man who is accustomed to living in uncomfortable and, to most of us, primitive surroundings. With nothing to distract him, no newspapers, no radio even, he thinks a great deal about the
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
18
www.cliffs.com
mystery of life and all the other things with which, as a human being, he is deeply involved. He is a true homo viator, or journeying man, which is one of those characteristics that makes him a Hemingway hero. The most pathetic and (since pity is a vital constituent of tragedy) tragic moment in the novel occurs when Santiago stops for a moment, looks back, and sees in the reflection of the port lights the great tail of the fish standing up well behind the skiff's stern. He realizes now the full significance of his heroic achievement and realizes how he has been cheated by the sharks. But this naked skeleton of the fish is as much a symbol of achievement, of truly masculine conquest, as is the elusive white whale of Captain Ahab of Melville's Moby-Dick. It sums up everything for which Santiago manfully strove; its naked emptiness represents the hollowness of material achievements, even after he has spent no less than everything. When Santiago falls, at the top of the hill leading to his shack, we are powerfully reminded of Jesus' fall when he bore the wooden cross over his back on the hill of Calvary. Santiago rests five times on the way back to the shack; Jesus fell five times on the road to Calvary. There were also five wounds. Manolin may represent spiritually the disciple (one of them was St. James) who slept while Jesus watched before Golgotha, which is in Hebrew 'the place of the skull' (perhaps a parallel to the skeleton of the fish). While Santiago sleeps, the town's faith in the old fisherman is resurrected and Manolin affirms that the fish did not beat Santiago; the old man was triumphant.
CHARACTER ANALYSES SANTIAGO 'Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were cheerful and undefeated,' says Hemingway of his old Cuban fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without a catch. Santiago is a freelance fisherman who earns his daily bread, when he does, by the exercise of his native intelligence and acquired skills pitted against an implacable adversary, the ocean. When the novel opens, Santiago is without money to buy proper gear and he fishes in a skiff with patched sails, but he is still, at heart, El Campeón-the champion--as he was in his youth. In the face of misfortune, the old man keeps the will to continue, the courage to bear trouble with dignity, and the endurance to survive loneliness and pain.
THE MARLIN 'He came unendingly and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple, and in the sun the stripes on his sides showed wide and light lavender.' This is Santiago's first glimpse of his surprise catch. The superb marlin fights him for three days with such skill that Santiago, during the struggle, calls him 'brother' and 'more noble' than man. Scavenger sharks attack the valiant catch, and Santiago fights to save the prize lashed to the side of his skiff, but finally nothing can be done except to watch his masterful foe destroyed by the scavengers of the ocean. Santiago wishes that he had left the marlin free. Later, at the dock, the fisherman who measures the catch calls to Manolin, 'He was eighteen feet from nose to tail'--the largest fish ever caught in the Gulf.
MANOLIN 'The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.' Hemingway sets the scene of the devoted friendship between the old fisherman and the young boy whose parents ordered him to forsake the old man and to sail with a lucky fishing ship. Manolin keeps his faith in Santiago and continues to
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
19
www.cliffs.com
help and visit him. When Santiago returns after losing his spectacular catch, it is Manolin who cries at the sight of the wounds, cares for him, and vows that he will never allow the old man to fish alone again.
CRITICAL ESSAYS THE HEMINGWAY CODE HERO Indigenous to almost all of Hemingway's novels and in fact to a study of Hemingway in general is the concept of the Hemingway hero, sometimes more popularly known as the 'code hero.' When Hemingway's novels first began to appear, they were readily accepted by the American reading public; in fact, they were enthusiastically received. Part of this reception was due to the fact that Hemingway had created a new type of fictional character whose basic response to life appealed very strongly to the people of the 1920s. At first, average readers saw in the Hemingway hero a type of person whom they could identify with in almost a dream sense. The Hemingway man was a man's man. He was a man who did a great deal of drinking. He was a man who moved from one love affair to another, who participated in wild game hunting, who enjoyed bullfights, who was involved in all of the so-called manly activities which the typical American did not participate in. As more and more of Hemingway's novels appeared and we became more familiar with this type of person, we gradually began to formulate a theory about the Hemingway code hero. We observed that throughout many of Hemingway's novels the code hero acts in a manner which allowed the critic to formulate a particular code. It must be emphasized, however, that the Hemingway character or code hero himself would never speak of a code. He does not make such broad generalizations. To actually formulate a set of rules of conduct to which the Hemingway character would adhere is, in one sense, a violation of the essential nature of the code hero. He does not talk about what he believes in. He is a man of action rather than a man of theory. Therefore, the following concepts of the code are those enunciated not by the hero himself but by the critics and readers who are familiar with the total body of Hemingway's work and of his views. Behind the formulation of this concept of the hero lies the basic disillusionment of the American public, the disillusionment that was brought about by the First World War. The sensitive person in America, or the sensitive person in the world, came to the realization that the old concepts and old values embedded in Christianity and other ethical systems of the Western world had not served to save humanity from the catastrophe inherent in this World War. Consequently, after the war many sensitive writers began to look for a new system of values, a system of values that would replace the old received doctrines that had proved to be useless. Having endured the great calamity of World War I, Hemingway found that he could not return to the quiet countryside of America, could no longer accept those values that had previously dominated all of America. Instead, he searched for some principles based upon a sense of order and discipline that would endure in any particular situation. Hemingway's values, then, are not Christian; they are not the morals that we have grown accustomed to in Protestant America. A basis for all of the actions of all Hemingway key heroes is the concept of death. The idea of death permeates or lies behind all of the characters' actions in Hemingway's novels. This view involves Hemingway's concept that 'when you are dead, you are dead.' There is nothing more. If a person cannot accept a life or reward after death, the emphasis must then be on obtaining or doing or performing something in this particular life. If death ends all activity, if death ends all knowledge and consciousness, humanity must seek its reward here, now, immediately. Consequently, the Hemingway man exists in a large part for the gratification of his sensual desires; he will devote himself to all types of physical pleasures because these are the rewards of this life.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
20
www.cliffs.com
Hemingway's characters first attracted attention because they drank a lot and had many love affairs. This behavior appealed on a simple level to the populace. In its most elementary sense, if a person is to face total oblivion at death, there is nothing to do but enjoy as many of the physical pleasures as possible during this life. Thus the Hemingway man will drink, he will make love, he will enjoy food, he will enjoy all sensuous appetites all the sensuous pleasures that are possible. For example, we need only to recall small, insignificant scenes in Hemingway's works, such as in A Farewell to Arms, when in the midst of the battle Frederick Henry and his two ambulance drivers sit down in the middle of the battlefield amid all of the destruction and thoroughly devote themselves to relishing, enjoying, savoring every taste of their macaroni, cheese, and bottle of mediocre wine. Returning to the primary considerations--that is, that death is the end of all things--it then becomes the duty and the obligation of the Hemingway hero to avoid death at almost all cost. Life must continue. Life is valuable and enjoyable. Life is everything. Death is nothing. With this view in mind, it might seem strange then to the casual or superficial reader that the Hemingway code hero will often be placed in an encounter with death, or that the Hemingway hero will often choose to confront death. The bull-fighters, the wild game hunters--characters like these--are in constant confrontation with death. From this we derive, then, the idea of grace under pressure. This concept is one according to which the character must act in a way that is acceptable when he is faced with the fact of death. One might express it in other terms by saying that the Hemingway man must have a fear of death, but he must not be afraid to die. By fear, we mean that he must have the intellectual realization that death is the end of all things and, as such, must constantly be avoided in one way or another. But--and this is the significant point--the Hemingway man can never act in a cowardly way. He must not show that he is afraid or trembling or frightened in the presence of death. We can extend this idea further by saying that, if he wishes to live, he lives most intensely sometimes when he is in the direct presence of death, which will at times bring out his most innate qualities, test his manhood, and contribute an intensity, a vivacity to the life that he is at present leading; it is for this reason that Hemingway often places his characters either in war, in bullfighting rings, or on the plains of Africa where they must face an animal determined to kill them. It is then that the Hemingway man shows the coolness, the grace, the courage, the discipline which have prompted the idea of grace under pressure. The man who never encounters death, who never faces any danger at all, this man has not yet been tested; we don't know whether he will withstand the pressures, whether he will prove to be a true Hemingway man. In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, because Santiago went too far out for a really big fish, he faces possible death. He is very old, has little food, little strength, and can no longer recognize the star patterns which once guided him. The marlin is strong, weighs over 1500 pounds, and is determined. Santiago struggles with it until his hands are cut and bleeding; his vision blurs and he feels dizzy. Yet he stays with the fish. And he is alone; no one is there to help him. He has only his courage for company. He fights with dignity, against great odds, and though he loses the marlin, he survives and wins a moral victory for himself by daring the sea and the great fish. The fullest expression of his courage and his strength are tested--and are triumphant.
THE NADA CONCEPT Aside from death being a part of the concept of the code of the hero, there are certain images that are often connected with this view. His actions are often identified by certain definite movements or performances. He is often called a restless man, meaning that he will often stay awake at nighttime and sleep during the day. The reason for this is that for the Hemingway man, sleep itself is a type of obliteration of one's consciousness. Night is a difficult time for the Hemingway hero or code hero because
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
21
www.cliffs.com
night itself--the darkness of night--implies, suggests, or symbolizes the utter darkness that he will have to face after death. Therefore the code hero will often avoid nighttime. This period will be the time he will drink; this will be the time he will carouse or stay awake. In many novels, he will spend the night making love with someone and only at the crack of dawn will he then desire sleep. In A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry stays awake all night so as to be with Catherine Barkley, who is on the night shift. Catherine Barkley is on the night shift so that they will not have to sleep during the night; they can make love or talk. They can do anything to avoid the combination of darkness and sleep. In short stories such as 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,' the emphasis is upon light. The Hemingway code character, if he goes to sleep at night, will often leave a light on. Usually he does not like the darkness of the room, the darkness of the night, the state of sleeping, because these are in themselves suggestive of that final sleep of death.
THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CODE HERO If the old traditional values are no good anymore, if they will not serve, what values then will serve? Hemingway often rejects things of abstract qualities--courage, honesty, bravery. These are all just words. What Hemingway would prefer to have are concrete things. For Hemingway, a person can be courageous in battle on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock. But this does not mean that that person will be courageous on Wednesday morning at 9 o'clock. A single act of courage does not mean that humanity is by nature courageous. Or a person who has been courageous in war might not be courageous in some civil affair or in some other human endeavor. What Hemingway is searching for are absolute values, which will be the same, which will be constant at every moment of every day and every day of every week. Courage itself, then, is a relative value. It might be true for one moment but not true for the next. As he expressed it in his novel A Farewell to Arms: 'I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. . . . Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.' The quotation indicates, then, that Hemingway is searching for concrete things that one can feel, touch, and see. The name of a place is something that a person knows. Ultimately, therefore, for Hemingway the only value that will serve humanity is an innate faculty of selfdiscipline, a value that grows out of essential being, out of inner nature. If a person has discipline to face one thing on one day, one will still possess that same degree of discipline on another day and in another situation. Santiago, for example, has long years of practical knowledge about fishing and about the sea and he has practiced self-discipline for many years. He can depend on no one but himself when he is far out, battling marlin. He does not panic when he has no food; he renews his strength by eating the raw, repugnant tuna. Nor does he panic when his hand cramps; he curses it and uses it as best he can. It seems that Santiago's courage increases as he is tested by the fish and by the liabilities of his old age. Like Santiago, the Hemingway code hero is often also a person of some degree of skill. Sometimes it is not mentioned what the character does, but we do know that Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls is an excellent teacher of Spanish. We also know that Frederick Henry has been a good architect and that Jake Barnes is a highly competent journalist. In A Farewell to Arms, Rinaldi devotes himself completely to his surgical operations. It is in the act of doing that which a man is good at doing that the code character finds himself. Santiago is a fisherman and it is as a fisherman that he achieves his greatest happiness and his greatest victory.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
22
www.cliffs.com
Important also to the Hemingway hero is the concept of loyalty. He often feels an intense loyalty for a small group of people. In A Farewell to Arms, Frederick Henry deserts the Italian army because the Italian army is abstract. The concept of the national government is also abstract. However, the loyalty that he feels to his small individual group--that is, the group of ambulance drivers--is very important. This concept is later modified in For Whom the Bell Tolls because Robert Jordan does feel a sense of loyalty to the Spanish land. He enters the war partly for this reason, but his most intense feelings of loyalty are for the small guerilla band with whom he works behind the lines in Spain. Again, a sense of loyalty is expressed in The Old Man and the Sea between the young boy and the fisherman. In any case, the Hemingway hero cannot feel a sense of loyalty to something vague and abstract, but as far as the intense personal immediate friendship is concerned, he is totally devoted to this smaller, this more personal, group. In conclusion, the Hemingway hero is a man whose concepts are shaped by his view of death; in the face of death, he must perform certain acts, and these acts often involve enjoying or taking the most he can from life. The Hemingway man will not talk about his concepts. To formulate them, as we have done here, is a violation of the concept. He is a man of intense loyalty to a small group because he cannot accept things abstract. He must need the definite, the concrete. He does not talk too much. He expresses himself not in words but in action, action usually involving courage.
THEMES IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA In this novel of the old man's endurance pitted against the forces of the sea, Hemingway has successfully juxtaposed three distinctive themes--the Christian, the nature, and the code hero--without allowing any of them to become obvious enough to predominate over the other. The themes are interwoven with such complete mastery that it is impossible to discuss one without bringing in factors that will equally apply to another. For this reason, the reader or critic cannot classify this novel as an allegory of Man versus Nature or as a story of a new Christ without doing grave injustice to the author; nor can it be classified on any one level of interpretation, but it must be read as a story in which the diverse elements of life are successfully combined to yield one great life. Any individual discussion of the basic themes as far as it is possible will illustrate how successfully Hemingway has united these various themes into one great story. Perhaps the most obvious and apparent symbolism is that of Santiago as a Christ-like figure. The opening paragraph shows that the old man had his young disciple, Manolin, with him for the first forty days; but after this, he was left to continue his struggle alone. Santiago, however, is not the young Christ of the Bible, but a twentieth-century view of Christ as an old man who must prove himself again and again to the unbelievers and also set a noble example for his young follower. The motive of faith and trust is prominent in the opening pages when the old man says: 'I know you did not leave me because you doubted,' and the boy answers that his father, who is almost blind and 'hasn't much faith,' made him leave. The importance of faith is seen again in their discussion of baseball when the old man understands the elements of greatness and rebukes the boy's lack of faith: 'The Yankees cannot lose.' 'But I fear the Indians of Cleveland.' 'Have faith in the Yankees my son.'
The faith of both Santiago and Manolin is therefore presented on a simple level which reminds one of the simple but strong faith of the early Christians.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
23
www.cliffs.com
The old man's humility is one of the great attributes of his Christian character: 'He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.' He knew that he had a nobility of character, and when 'many of the fishermen made fun of the old man, he was not angry.' Santiago's actions and the descriptions of his physical appearance show further use of Christian symbolism. He is described as a man whose 'hands had deep creased scars.' The old man's stoic suffering and endurance during his three-day test of strength in which he bore the burden of the fish across his shoulders and 'settled . . . against the wood and took his suffering as it came' may be compared with the suffering of Christ on the cross. This image is further emphasized when, seeing the sharks, he lets out 'just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.' And finally, after being defeated by forces stronger than he could combat, the old man reached the shore, where he 'started to climb again and at the top he fell and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder. He tried to get up. But it was too difficult and he sat there with the mast on his shoulder and looked at the road.' Then, seemingly ready for death, Santiago reached his cabin, where 'he slept face down on the newspapers with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up.' These allusions unmistakably show that Hemingway meant for his main character to be a Christ-like figure. He was, nevertheless, equally determined that the reader should not interpret the meaning of the book only on this level; therefore, the author intentionally injects anti-Christian allusions and statements into the book, which are seen in the emphasis that Santiago places on the importance of being lucky, and more directly, when the old man makes such statements as 'I am not religious,' and his statement where he speaks of sin: 'I have no understanding of it and I am not sure that I believe in it.' Less obvious than the Christian symbolism but still very prominent is Hemingway's use of nature symbolism. The sea is presented as romanticized and feminine--both cruel and cleansing. In the early morning, the old man is awakened by the land smells, but, as he rows out, he leaves the smell of land and goes 'out into the clean early morning smell of the ocean.' The ocean is also depicted as having a healing baptismal effect upon the old man after he has suffered long and is exhausted from the struggle with the fish. She is cruel but the old man always thought of her as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The old man has a feeling of brotherhood with all the creatures of nature. The turtles have a heart, feet, and hands like his, and the flying fish are his brothers since they play and make jokes with one another. There is also a oneness in nature between the old man and the great fish. On the first day, Santiago speaks to the marlin: 'Fish . . . I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you before this day ends.' But the day does end and the marlin is still struggling for its life. The old man then feels a certain pity for the great fish and tries not to disturb it at sunset: 'The setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish.' Just as any noble person can usually recognize nobility in another person, so does the old man recognize the great nobility of the fish, his brother in nature, but this does not lessen his determination to be the victor: Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed, he thought. But are they worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity.
As the fish continues in his struggle for life, the old man's respect increases and finally he tells the fish: You are killing me, fish. . . . 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
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
24
www.cliffs.com
who kills who.
By the time Santiago has landed the fish, his feeling for this noble creature is one of deep love and respect. Thus, when the sharks come and destroy the fish, the old man's sorrow is almost unbearable--not only from disappointment over his financial loss, but also from his deep love and respect for this giant fish, his brother in nature. In his final defeat, he apologizes to the fish for going out too far: 'Fish that you were . . . I am sorry that I went too far out.' Consequently, the old man is defeated by violating the code of nature by going out too far. Hemingway seems to be saying that there are certain limits which the old man must stay within, and when he ventures out beyond these limits, he does it at his own risk and must suffer the consequences. But then he must sometimes go farther than the limits and thereby create newer and greater limits. In each of Hemingway's books, the elements that make up the code hero have played an important role. But previously, in each hero, there have been characteristics which were subject to criticism, and often the author was too close to his character for complete success. In Santiago, however, Hemingway has maintained a successful aesthetic distance and created a simple, unpretentious character, who, in the eyes of society, is a complete social failure. Yet, by the end of the novel, he rises to the stature of one of the great Hemingway heroes. This transformation is part of the greatness of the book and it is performed with deft skill and accuracy. Santiago is the embodiment of all that is noble in life, and, as such, he is perhaps the most perfect of all the Hemingway heroes. Here is an old man, defeated according to his society, but still full of confidence in himself. His only fault is that with old age comes a loss of strength, but all the knowledge is still with him. When Manolin asks, 'Are you strong enough for a truly big fish,' the old man answers: 'I think so. And there are many tricks.' By tricks, he means skill and mastery of his profession, which are essential elements of the code hero. The old man has nothing in his humble shack to eat but still he refuses to borrow or beg or even acknowledge this humiliating fact. Here is the code hero's honor in action in spite of dire necessity. Another factor which illustrates fully the essence of the code hero is Santiago's supreme courage in the face of overwhelming odds. With his strength gone and his mental powers diminishing with old age, the old man's fight with the great fish assumes the role of a supreme test of his greatness. His courage is echoed in his simple words: 'Fish . . . I'll stay with you until I am dead.' He has hooked the biggest fish he has ever seen or heard of; consequently, it was to be the greatest test of his skill. This test naturally involves a great deal of suffering on the part of the code hero, and the great pain that Santiago endures serves to emphasize the strength of his character. He endures his suffering without complaint, and he does not even 'admit the suffering at all,' as he tells himself that 'pain does not matter to a man,' and that he will show the fish 'what a man can do and what a man endures.' This endurance under pain is one of the characteristics that makes Santiago stand out as a noble heroic character. The reason that the old man endures all this suffering is that one of the characteristics of the code hero is to prove himself over and over again: 'The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.' Santiago, as a Christ-like figure, has an obligation to Manolin to fulfill before his life is complete. The old man has taught his young disciple the basic principles of how to be a great fisherman, but after forty luckless days, Manolin is told by his father to go to another boat. This does not mean that Manolin has lost faith in the old man since the boy says: 'There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
25
www.cliffs.com
there is only you.' Yet the old man feels, among other things, that he must 'provide an object lesson for the boy' and must prove that 'greatness cannot be destroyed.' Therefore, Santiago has a deeper embedded motive for enduring his struggle with the fish, and his efforts are nobly rewarded when the young boy tells him that he will defy his parents now and go in the boat with the old man, which was the final lesson in faith that the old man could teach Manolin. Thus, in a sense, his life's work was completed. In all Hemingway's code heroes, it is necessary that they prove themselves, but the underlying motivations of why they need to prove themselves determine the nobility of the character. Santiago's main motivations were to instill permanent faith into his young disciple to prove to himself that greatness cannot be defeated and that life will attain its ultimate goal through perseverence. These motivations have a certain nobility in themselves and, consequently, require a person of noble character to perform them. The test of endurance for Santiago takes on greater significance when the reader is able to compare the greatness and strength of his past life with the present life of the old man. In the midst of his struggle with the fish, the old man thinks of when he was El Campeón, when he 'played the hand game with the great Negro from Cienfuegos.' He thinks of this time in his youth when he possessed great strength so as to give himself more confidence in his present struggle with the giant fish. These past days were the time when the old man, who was not an old man then, was accepted in all company as a champion; all that is left of these days is only the dreams of them. Thus, he dreams of the lions which symbolize the strength of his earlier life; but those were also happy days, and so his lions are young cubs playing on the white and shining beaches. In the middle of the struggle, when the old man is suffering with the burden of the fish, his dreams of lions assume a more important role since he wishes that the fish would sleep so that he could also sleep and then dream about the lions. Santiago then unconsciously asks himself: 'Why are the lions the main thing that is left?' One answer, although unknown to Santiago, is that these lions are his symbol of the great strength of his younger and happier days. He wishes to dream of them for the same reason that he thinks about his fight with the man--to give him more courage and confidence. It is highly significant, therefore, that when the old man does sleep on the second night, he does not dream immediately of the lions. In the past, his dreams were in remembrance of his strength, but now he is enduring the greatest test of his strength and there is no need to dream of his earlier days; but rather, his dreams are about the porpoises playing during their mating season. His dreams change suddenly from the porpoises to the desolate life that he leads in the village and 'there was a northerner and he was very cold and his right arm was asleep.' This sudden change from the pleasant porpoises to the miserable life in the village forces his dreams to return to the old subject of the lions on the beach, and once again 'he was happy.' The final element of a code hero seen in Santiago is his determination to fight against the sharks until the end: 'Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the tiller.' This is Hemingway's way of saying that even though so-called defeat may be inevitable, there are certain ways a man must meet it. These ways determine the final nobility of the code hero. Santiago never loses his courage and he fights until the bitter end, even though he recognizes that there is no hope to bring in his fish. As a result, his loss is bitter. He is struck down by forces bigger than a single person can combat, but he leaves behind him a code of honor and virtue which bring a beauty and nobility to his loss, and also, he has set a great example of courage for others to strive after and follow. The note of finality and death is prominent in the closing conversation between Santiago and Manolin as the old man makes his final dispensation of his meager property, which consists of the head of the fish-given to Pedrico--and the spear--given to his young disciple. He then tells Manolin that 'in the night I spat
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
26
www.cliffs.com
something strange and felt something in my chest was broken,' and it was only after he reached the shore again that 'he knew the depth of his tiredness.' But it would be violating the code to admit that death was near, and, even though both Manolin and Santiago recognize it, they continue to play their game of preparing for another day's fishing. This conversation is the same type of fiction between the two comrades that they played earlier in the book: 'What do you have to eat?' the boy asked. 'A pot of yellow rice with fish. Do you want some?' 'No. I will eat at home. Do you want me to make the fire?' 'No. I will make it later on. Or I may eat the rice cold.' 'May I take the cast net?' 'Of course.' There was no cast net and the boy remembered when they had sold it. But they went through this fiction every day. There was no pot of yellow rice and fish and the boy knew this too.
But now the game is on a deeper level. When the old man tells Manolin, 'They beat me . . . they truly beat me,' he is broken and the young boy, concealing his tears from the old man but not caring that others saw him crying, is paying his last acknowledgments to his teacher. Thus, the stakes in this final game involve death and the proper approach to death. Here, also, is the last lesson that perhaps the old man can teach his young disciple. The old man has perhaps performed his last great feat of courage and strength. He has finally won the respect of the town, he has taught Manolin the lesson of greatness and faith, and now, the old man can lie in his cabin and dream of his lions calmly and serenely.
HEMINGWAY'S STYLE A great deal has been written about Ernest Hemingway's distinctive and probably unique style. Ever since he came to the attention of English-speaking readers in the 1920s, he has been the subject of lavish praise and sometimes savage criticism. He has never been ignored. When Hemingway published his first novels, he was still a relatively young man, but he had perfected his style, and it was to change little, except for refinements. He was already recognized as a new force in English literature, and he did not fail his critics. When, in 1954, he was awarded the Nobel Prize, he was cited for 'forceful and style-making mastery of the art of modern narration.' Hemingway's ear for dialogue is keen, and he has often been described as a master of dialogue. Yet a study of his dialogue will reveal that this is rarely the way people really speak. It is rather that by calculated emphasis and repetition, he makes us remember what has been said, or is being said. Parodists can make fun very easily by caricaturing Hemingway's dialogue, and a few writers can imitate it convincingly. It is artificial, but it is effective. Hemingway's unique style was by no means a spontaneous one. It was the result of several years of newspaper writing, where he learned to report facts crisply, then a refinement from voluminous reading of the masters and a study of their different styles, then of writing and rewriting. Writing did not flow out of Hemingway as it apparently did from Thomas Wolfe, but the end product was a masterfully constructed piece of work. A massive amount of material has been written about Ernest Hemingway's style, his way of life, and his philosophy. As early as 1929, Dorothy Parker, the humorist and critic, said: 'Probably of no other living man has so much tripe been penned or spoken.'
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
27
www.cliffs.com
No two critics can agree on Hemingway's style. Perhaps the best way to sum it up is to put it in the writer's own words. Shortly before his tragic death on July 2, 1961, in his home in Ketchum, Idaho, Hemingway gave to the Wisdom Foundation in California a collection of his observations on life and art, love and death. Playboy magazine published them in the issue of January 1963. Of his own style, Hemingway had this to say: I do most of my work in my head. I never begin to write until my ideas are in order. Frequently I recite passages of dialogue as it is being written; the ear is a good censor. I never set down a sentence on paper until I have it so expressed that it will be clear to anyone. Yet I sometimes think that my style is suggestive rather than direct. The reader must often use his imagination or lose the most subtle part of my thoughts. I take great pains with my work, pruning and revising with a tireless hand. I have the welfare of my creations very much at heart. I cut them with infinite care, and burnish them until they become brilliants. What many another writer would be content to leave in massive proportions, I polish into a tiny gem.
Hemingway goes on at some length, but the essence of what he says may be in this paragraph: A writer's style should be direct and personal, his imagery rich and earthy, and his words simple and vigorous. The greatest writers have the gift of brilliant brevity, are hard workers, diligent scholars and competent stylists.
ESSAY TOPICS AND REVIEW QUESTIONS 1. What are some of the basic ideas of The Old Man and the Sea? 2. What does the marlin represent? 3. Why does Santiago identify himself with Joe DiMaggio? 4. Identify and discuss at least five symbols in this novel. 5. Define and describe the characteristics of the Hemingway 'code hero,' using examples from this novel to illustrate the characteristics selected. 6. Who are 'outsiders' to the code hero's standards and why? 7. Discuss the symbols that Hemingway uses to develop the Christian symbolism (Christ-figure) theme. 8. Discuss the characteristics in this novel that help define Hemingway's writing style. 9. What are Santiago's feelings toward the marlin? 10. Why does Manolin have such great faith in Santiago?
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
28
www.cliffs.com
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY BAKER, CARLOS. Ernest Hemingway: A Life story. New York: Scribner's, 1969. _____, ed. Hemingway and His Critics. New York: Hill and Wang, 1961. _____. 'The Marvel Who Must Die.' Saturday Review Sept. 6, 1952: 10-11. COWLEY, MALCOLM. 'Hemingway's Novel Has the Rich Simplicity of a Classic.' New York Herald Tribune Book Review Sept. 7, 1952: 1-17. DAICHES, DAVID. The Novel and the Modern World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. DAVIS, ROBERT GORHAM. 'Hemingway's Tragic Fisherman.' The New York Times Book Review Sept 7, 1952: 1-20. FENTON, CHARLES A. The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway. New York: Viking, 1958. GEISMAR, MAXWELL. Writers in Crisis: The American Novel Between Wars. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1942. HOFFMAN, FREDERICK J. The Twenties: American Writing in the Post-War Decade. New Jersey: Collier, 1955. MCCAFFERY, JOHN K. M., ed. Ernest Hemingway, the Man and His Work. New York: Avon, 1950. SCHORER, MARK. 'With Grace under Pressure.' New Republic October 6, 1952. SNELL, GEORGE. The Shapers of American Fiction. New York: Cooper, 1947. WEEKS, ROBERT P., ed. Hemingway: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1962. YOUNG, PHILIP. Ernest Hemingway. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1952.
Cliffs Notes on The Old Man and the Sea © 1973
29