who wrote the old man and the sea
Hi everyone, In this post on Solsarin we’re mentioning “who wrote the old man and the sea”
The Old Man and the Sea, a short heroic novel by Ernest Hemingway, was published in 1952
and awarded the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was his last major work of fiction.
The story centers on an aging fisherman who engages in an epic battle to catch a giant marlin.
Summary
The central character is an old Cuban fisherman named Santiago, who has not caught a fish for 84 days.
The family of his apprentice, Manolin, has forced the boy to leave the old fisherman.
though Manolin continues to support him with food and bait. Santiago is a mentor to the boy who cherishes the old man and the life lessons he imparts.
Convinced that his luck must change, Santiago takes his skiff far out into the deep waters of the Gulf Stream, where he soon hooks a giant marlin.
With all his great experience and strength, he struggles with the fish for three days, admiring its strength,
dignity, and faithfulness to its identity; its destiny is as true as Santiago’s as a fisherman. He finally reels the marlin in and lashes it to his boat.
However, Santiago’s exhausting effort goes for naught. Sharks are drawn to the tethered marlin, and,
although Santiago manages to kill a few, the sharks eat the fish, leaving behind only its skeleton.
After returning to the harbor, the discouraged Santiago goes to his home to sleep.
In the meantime, others see the skeleton tied to his boat and are amazed.
A concerned Manolin is relieved to find Santiago alive, and the two agree to go fishing together.
Analysis and reception
The Old Man and the Sea contain many of the themes that preoccupied Hemingway as a writer and as a man.
The routines of life in a Cuban fishing village are evoked in the opening pages with a characteristic economy of language.
The stripped-down existence of the fisherman Santiago is crafted in a spare,
elemental style that is as eloquently dismissive as a shrug of the old man’s powerful shoulders.
With age and luck now against him, Santiago knows he must row out “beyond all people,” away from land and into the Gulf Stream
where one last drama would be played out, in an empty arena of sea and sky.
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Analysis and reception
The Old Man and the Sea contain many of the themes that preoccupied Hemingway as a writer and as a man.
The routines of life in a Cuban fishing village are evoked in the opening pages with a characteristic economy of language.
The stripped-down existence of the fisherman Santiago is crafted in a spare,
elemental style that is as eloquently dismissive as a shrug of the old man’s powerful shoulders.
With age and luck now against him, Santiago knows he must row out “beyond all people,” away from land and into the Gulf Stream,
where one last drama would be played out, in an empty arena of sea and sky.
About The Old Man and the Sea
In April of 1936, Hemingway published an essay in Esquire magazine entitled “On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter,”
which contained a paragraph about an old man who went fishing alone in a skiff far out at sea, landed a huge marlin,
and then lost much of it to sharks. As early as 1939, the year he moved to Cuba,
Hemingway began planning an expansion of this kernel into a fully developed story that would become part of a larger volume.
(Indeed, other sections of that proposed volume were published after his death as part of Islands in the Stream.)
Early in 1951, Hemingway finally began writing The Old Man and the Sea at his home near Havana.
The government of Cuban President Carlos Prio Socarras was in decline and would eventually be overthrown in 1952 by U.S.
-supported dictator Fulgencio Batista, who in turn would be ousted in 1959 by Fidel Castro.
The Soviet Union had detonated an atomic bomb in late 1949.
The United States, under the Truman administration, advanced a policy designed to contain Soviet expansionism.
supported such international actions as the formation of the United Nations, the Truman Doctrine of 1947.
and the Marshall Plan of 1948; and became embroiled in the Korean War.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy initiated a Red Scare paranoia in his four-year search for communist sympathizers.
And the booming U.S. population and a post-war economy fueled American consumption.
Although The Old Man and the Sea take place in September of 1950, it exists outside (or just at the edge)
of these and other significant events of the period.
Plot summary
Santiago is an aging, experienced fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish.
He is now seen as “salao,” the worst form of unlucky.
Manolin, a young man whom Santiago has trained since childhood has been forced by his parents to work on a luckier boat.
Manolin remains dedicated to Santiago, visiting his shack each night, hauling his fishing gear, preparing
food, and talking about American baseball and Santiago’s favorite player, Joe DiMaggio.
Santiago says that tomorrow, he will venture far out into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish, confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.
On the eighty-fifth day of his unlucky streak, Santiago takes his skiff out early.
By noon, he has hooked a big fish that he is sure is a marlin, but he is unable to haul it in.
He is unwilling to tie the line to the boat for fear that a sudden jerk from the fish would break the line.
With his back, shoulders, and hands, he holds the line for two days and nights. He gives slack as needed while the marlin pulls him far from land.
He uses his other hooks to catch fish and a dolphinfish to eat. The line cuts his hands, his body is sore, and he sleeps little.
Despite this, he expresses compassion and appreciation for the marlin, often referring to him as a brother.
He determines that no one is worthy enough to eat the marlin.
On the third day, the fatigued marlin begins to circle the skiff. Santiago, almost delirious, draws the line inward, bringing the marlin towards the boat. He pulls the marlin onto its side and stabs it with a harpoon, killing it. Seeing that the fish is too large to fit in the skiff, Santiago lashes it to the side of his boat. He sets sail for home, thinking of the high price the fish will bring him at the market and how many people he will feed.
The trail of blood from the dead marlin attracts sharks. Santiago berates himself for having gone out too far. But each shark has bitten the great marlin, increasing the flow of blood. That night, an entire school of sharks arrives. Santiago attempts to beat them back. When the oar breaks, Santiago rips out the skiff’s tiller and continues fighting. Upon seeing a shark attempt to eat the marlin’s head, Santiago realizes the fish has been completely devoured. He tells the sharks they have killed his dreams.
Santiago reaches shore before dawn the next day. He struggles to his shack, leaving the fish head and skeleton with his boat. Once home, he falls into a deep sleep. In the morning, Manolin finds Santiago. As he leaves to get coffee for Santiago, he cries. A group of fishermen has gathered around the remains of the marlin. One of the measures it at 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. The fishermen tell Manolin to tell Santiago how sorry they are. A pair of tourists at a nearby café mistake the dead fish for a shark. When Santiago wakes, he donates the head of the fish to Pedrico. He and Manolin promise to fish together once again. Santiago returns to sleep, and he dreams of his youth and of lions on an African beach.
Background and publication
Written in 1951, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway’s final full-length work published during his lifetime. The book, dedicated to Charlie Scribner and to Hemingway’s literary editor Max Perkins, was simultaneously published in book form – featuring a cover illustration by his young muse, Adriana Ivancich, and black and white illustrations by Charles Tunnicliffe and Raymond Sheppard – and featured in Life magazine on September 1, 1952. The first edition print run of the book was 50,000 copies and five million copies of the magazine were sold in two days.
The Old Man and the Sea became a Book of the Month Club selection and made Hemingway a celebrity. In May 1953, the novel received the Pulitzer Prize and was specifically cited when in 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature which he dedicated to the Cuban people. The success of The Old Man and the Sea made Hemingway an international celebrity. The Old Man and the Sea are taught at schools around the world and continue to earn foreign royalties.
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