The Old Man and the Blog Post

Many themes and qualities of Ernest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea, the story of an old fisherman, Santiago, and his attempt at catching a marlin off the coast of Cuba after 84 days without a catch, are typical of literature by Hemingway, and one can draw parallels between the story and others written by Hemingway. One theme that Hemingway greatly draws upon is the idea of showing grace under pressure, or how one does not show their emotions and fear even when confronted with the impossible or inevitable, such as death itself. This can be seen in stories such as “Indian Camp,” in which Nick Adam’s father does not falter even in the most difficult surgery on a woman in childbirth, or in the first chapter of his novel A Farewell to Arms, in which the narrator calmly describes the landscape of Italy in peaceful and detailed works, even when surrounded by the fighting of World War I and the sickness of cholera. This theme of grace under pressure can, too, be seen in The Old Man and the Sea. In the first couple pages of the book, Santiago, the title character, is described.

The old man was thin and haunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection of the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. (3-4)

Santiago has been through many hardships in his life and done a lot of hard work to survive, as evidenced by his tan cheeks and many scars from roping in marlins and other fishes. However, the scars are old, and he hasn’t caught a marlin in many days. While someone else might find despair in the circumstances of being an old man who can’t provide for himself anymore and is slowly dying of hunger, Santiago does not give up, looks 84 days with no catch in the eyes, and dares to be “cheerful and undefeated.” By not completely breaking down and giving up, Santiago exemplifies showing grace under pressure.

Indeed, Hemingway writes Santiago as someone who he believes to be deserving of the most honor and respect. Similarly to how Ole Andreson in Hemingway’s short story “The Killers” refuses to fear death and have his life changed by that fear, Santiago also faces death head-on and treats it with extreme casualness, in order to make sure that he has done everything he can to catch the marlin he battles with for more than three days. Even after he has caught the marlin, he still must make it back to shore without sharks eating the fish lashed to his skiff. In reference to the sharks he swears: “‘Fight them, I’ll fight them until I die’” (90). Unafraid of death, Santiago refuses to compromise his goal—to finally catch another fish—just because he could be killed.

One aspect of Hemingway’s social beliefs that manifests itself in much of his writing is his intense misogyny. It is readily apparent in “Indian Camp,” where Nick’s father helps a American Indian woman through childbirth when all the old women of the village could not, showing that Hemingway believes men can do what women cannot and are superior in their scope of what they can accomplish. It also is demonstrated in “Hills Like White Elephants,” where the main characters, a couple, are known as “man” and the diminutive “girl.” And, it can also be seen in The Old Man and the Sea, even though no female character is ever actually present. When Santiago departs on his fishing voyage, he contemplates the sea in which he has made his life, considering how in his native tongue of Spanish he calls it the feminine la mar, instead of the proper masculine el mar, and the reason behind this.

…the old man always thought of her as feminine and 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 moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought. (20)

When Santiago points out why he considers the sea to be feminine, every comparison between the sea and women are very generalizing, demeaning, and offensive. Not only does he say that women are fickle and unreliable, people who just decide to “give or withhold great favours” at their own whim, but that they are not responsible for their own actions, since they just “[can]not help them[selves].” As a final dig at women, Hemingway compares a woman’s menstrual cycle to the cycle of storms and bad weather in the sea. This passage is perhaps one of the most openly misogynistic of all Hemingway’s works, and that’s saying something. Another place in which misogyny, although slightly more subtle, can be found is when Santiago determines the sex of the hooked marlin to be female: “[The marlin] took the bait like a male and he pulls like a male and his fight has no panic in it” (35). Santiago believes that if the marlin had been a female, it would have been immediately noticeable due to some trait of females which causes them to pull weaker and with panic. Although he may be just talking about fish, that Hemingway would generalize females of any species is not an accident. His ideas about females panicking and being unable to contain themselves in the face of danger run right along with his concept of the “stoic male,” one who exemplifies the idea of grace under pressure and does not allow himself to be influences by outside forces or by emotion, but rather logically and intelligently weighs the situation and selects the best course of action, as does the male marlin in this passage, pulling with strength in order to break free.

Not only can demonstrations of Hemingway’s beliefs be found in The Old Man and the Sea, but one can also find examples of his distinct writing style that is consistent through many of his works. In many of his short stories, including “The Killers,” “Hills Like White Elephants,” “Indian Camp,” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” dialogue is a major component, often consisting of small-talk and during meal times. An excellent example is “The Killers,” in which much of the story is talk over lunch between men ordering food at Henry’s lunch-room. While The Old Man and the Sea may contain little dialogue because throughout most of the book only one character is present, when there are two characters present, the fisherman, Santiago, and his more-or-less disciple, Manolin, the dialogue is abundant, free-flowing, and decidedly Hemingway.

‘Your stew is excellent,’ the old man said.

‘Tell me about the baseball,’ the boy asked him.

‘In the American League it is the Yankees as I said,’ the old man said happily.

‘They lost today,’ the boy told him.

‘That means nothing. The great DiMaggio is himself again.’

‘They have other men on the team.’

‘Naturally. But he makes the difference. In the other league, between Brooklyn and Philadelphia I must take Brooklyn. But then I think of Dick Sisler and these great drives in the old park.’

‘There was nothing ever like them. He hits the longest ball I have ever seen.’ (13)

The casual banter between Santiago and Manolin about baseball, while eating dinner, is very typical of Hemingway dialogue. Near the end, names identifying the speakers are dropped, a convention carried over from Hemingway’s “iceberg” writing, in which he needs not tell the reader whom is speaking since it should be obvious from context if the writer does a good job.