The Old Man and the Sea
“The Old Man and the Sea” is a novella written by Ernest Hemmingway. It tells the story of an aging Cuban fisherman and his four-day-long struggle with a giant marlin that took his bait. Though it is a good story, it felt a little underwhelming to me, mostly because I had higher expectations of it given it was the first Ernest Hemmingway story I was reading.
The book starts with the protagonist, Santiago experiencing a streak of bad luck. For 84 days, he’s been unable to catch a single fish. So, on the 85th day, he takes his skiff out. Finally, his streak of bad luck is about to end as his bait is taken by a giant marlin. However, Santiago fails to reel him in and has to let the fish pull his skiff deeper into the waters, far from the shore hoping that the marlin will eventually tire and give up. But neither does the marlin nor the fisherman give up. What follows is a four-day long ordeal in which the fisherman is stretched to his limits. The ordeal doesn’t end with the fisherman eventually getting hold of the marlin. Having followed the marlin so deep into the sea, Santiago now has to worry about are the sharks as the skiff pulls the marlin tied beside it as he makes his way to the shore. And so, do the sharks attack. Santiago finally reaches the shore with what’s left of the marlin. Back at the shore, fishermen and tourists admire the marlin’s skeleton. Santiago and his apprentice decide to go fishing again the next day.
Majority of the book takes place on water, away from humans, with only the marlin and the fisherman to focus on. Santiago seems to develop a relation with the marlin as he admires the marlin even though Santiago will eventually kill him. At one point in the story, Santiago addresses the marlin admiring his composure and saying he no longer cares who kills who in this long-stretched battle. The book plays out as Santiago judges the marlin’s behavior and keeps predicting the marlin’s action. Both Hemmingway and Santiago treat the marlin as a sentient being, describing in detail his actions and the thought process that might be behind it.
The story proceeds slowly, like a day out on the ocean would. Hemmingway shines when it comes to descriptions, be it the detailed descriptions of various fishing exercises or the lucid descriptions of the setting or the fishes. For example, here is his description of the marlin as it jumps out of the water at one point in the story:
“He came out unending 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 a light lavender. His sword was as long as a baseball bat and tapered like a rapier and he rose his full length from the water and then re-entered it, smoothly, like a diver and the old man saw the great scythe-blade of his tail go under and the line commenced to race out.”
The last major piece of literature written by Hemmingway; it served to send the message that Hemmingway hadn’t yet run out of material owing to a lukewarm reception of his closely preceding works. This story is supposed to be different compared to Hemmingway’s previous works. Robert P. Weeks in a piece titled “Fakery in The Old Man and the Sea” criticizes the novella writing about how Hemmingway distorts some facts and exaggerates some stuff as opposed to his usual writing style where he is exact in his descriptions. However, I think that exaggerations add to the overall reading experience and make it more of an enjoyable read.
In conclusion, The Old Man and the Sea is a nice short read to be picked up on some slow afternoon or a rainy evening and completed in one sitting. Though it felt underwhelming to me owing to my much higher expectations from it, it is a wonderful piece of literature and deserves to be read at least once.
If you have any suggestions or would like to send your own review of the novella, we will be happy to read them at kshitij@iitr.ac.in
