The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea - Estimated Read Time = 2 hours
This Article - Estimated Read Time = 10 minutes
Time This Article Saves You = 1 hour and 50 minutes
*Most books need to be read twice before they can really be understood. This article saves you time & effort by helping you skip to the second read.
The Old Man and the Sea - Podcast Episode
Hemingway had long been celebrated as one of the finest living authors when The Old Man and the Sea was published, but this was the first work he was significantly awarded for. He had lost a step late in his career, from poor reviews that followed Across the River and into the Trees, and he needed something to revive his status as a living literary genius. The Old Man and the Sea did just that, bringing home the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
It’s a short book with deceptively simple language. My own first read consisted of a thrilling experience, because in it I felt that for the first time I was understanding Hemingway. Only to reach the end, and find that what had seemed so narrowly within reach—the meaning of the story—finally slipped away in the closing pages, evading my grasp entirely.
Years later, on the benefit of a second and a third read, I’ve come to believe the novella deals with something that plagued Hemingway in his own life, having ascended to such literary heights early on, only to stumble and falter late in his career, and suffer at the merciless teeth of critics. The inevitable truth being that any significant accomplishment we achieve in this life will attract its own onslaught of sharks, and may one day be painfully ripped away.
Story Recap . Spoiler Alert!
The story follows Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who’s in the midst of a fishing drought. In the opening pages, we learn that he hasn’t caught a fish in 84 days.
After meeting the old man, Santiago, we’re then quickly introduced to a young boy named Manolin, whom Santiago shares a deep friendship with, and whom he taught to fish. They sit in Santiago’s shack and chat, their conversation meandering through fishing and American baseball. The boy’s love and concern for Santiago is revealed in how he cares for the weathered old man, providing him food and drink.
However, because of Santiago’s drought, the boy’s parents have made him fish with another boat and fisherman. So the next morning, on the 85th day, the old man sets out upon the sea alone.
Early on, he catches a smaller fish, a tuna. But then hooks the fish the story surrounds, a massive marlin, 18-feet long. He’s unable to see it, but he can feel the fish’s power tugging on the line, pulling his little boat along with ease.
So he enters the fight, bracing the fishing line against his body to keep it from snapping, hoping to wear the fish out. For three days, and across two nights, he maintains this battle, never sleeping once, save for a few minutes that ends badly with a cut to his left palm. Finally, on the third day, the marlin tires, and the old man pulls it in close to the boat. As it passes, he raises his harpoon, and jams it down into the heart of the great fish, killing it for good.
It is the biggest fish he has ever seen, let alone caught. It’s too large to even fit inside the boat, so he straps it to the side. And, exhausted, he begins the journey home.
Then, the worst happens.
Sharks, attracted by the scent of blood, come for the fish and begin eating its body. The man protects it as much as he’s able to, killing several sharks. But in the end, he loses. A swarm of sharks devours the body entirely. When Santiago finally reaches the shore, a skeleton and a tail are all that’s left.
He stumbles up the beach to his small home and collapses inside, gaining some much-needed rest. The boy comes soon after and tends to him.
The following morning, the other fishermen see the skeleton and marvel at what has happened. Some tourists see it as well, but misunderstand, missing entirely the feat that has just transpired. And then, the story ends.
Life as a Tragedy - An Interpretation
As a society that loves happy endings, we expect certain things from stories. Among those are pleasant endings. Everything about this story, early on, seems to promise just such an ending.
We meet Santiago in a hole, nearly a three-month fishing drought. Our expectation is to watch him climb out of that hole—catching not just any fish, but a gargantuan—so that upon his triumph, we can celebrate and feel good.
The thing is, Santiago does exactly this. He climbs out of the hole, bagging a marlin so massive even a child’s imagination can barely picture it. But then, instead of putting a bow on it and delivering to us the satisfying ending we long for, Hemingway chose to keep writing.
And in that writing, he chose to send in the sharks. The merciless, devouring sharks.
The entire journey home, the old man is plagued by sharks, who slowly and painfully devour every last piece of the marlin, until nothing is left. Finally, exhausted, delirious, and barely able to walk, Santiago arrives at the shore, and stumbles his way home.
In the formal sense of the word, it’s a tragedy.
But it is so for a reason. Because the real meaning of the story lies there, beyond the moment of triumph, in the narrative’s sad continuation.
In that final portion, Hemingway leans into some very particular language. On several occasions, he describes Santiago with phrases that echo the biblical language of Christ. For example, when the first shark arrives, Hemingway writes this of the old man.
“‘Ay,’ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.”
Later on, Santiago’s injuries are described, and attention is called specifically to wounds upon his palms, similar to those that Christ received during his crucifixion.
“But in the dark now and no glow showing and no lights and only the wind and steady pull of the sail he felt that perhaps he was already dead. He put his two hands together and felt the palms. They were not dead and he could bring the pain of life by simply opening and closing them. He leaned his back against the stern and knew he was not dead. His shoulders told him.”
Lastly, as he stumbles to his home, the language echoes that of Christ carrying his cross to the place of his execution.
“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. A cat passed on the far side going about its business and the old man watched it. Then he just watched the road.
Finally he put the mast down and stood up. He picked the mast up and put it on his shoulder and started up the road. He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.”
Every one of these is a clear, intentional echo, drawing a connection between Santiago and Christ. The question is, why?
I believe Hemingway was trying to depict Santiago as a Christ-figure—someone who suffers in a way similar to that of Jesus. Something that’s actually quite common in literature.
In this particular story, it serves to reinforce the overall meaning, that the attainment of whatever success we seek does not mark the end of our journey.
Christ’s success could be defined along several lines. Doctrinally speaking, Jesus’s success prior to his death consisted in living a perfect life, fulfilling the law given to Moses in its entirety. From another angle, one could consider his development of such an influential grassroots teaching ministry in the 1st century—long before even the printing press was invented, let alone the internet and social media—as his most significant accomplishment.
However you define it, his success invited its own sharks—namely, hatred from the established religious leaders of the day, who saw him as a threat. His ever-growing influence fueled their hatred, which resulted in them ending not only his ministry, but his life.
The connection to Santiago being that his feat in triumphing over the fish is exactly what attracted the sharks who devoured it. Which is a pattern that has marked his entire life.
Before the marlin, there was nothing for the sharks to devour. Before the boy became his apprentice, he had no apprentice to lose. Before he married his bride, he had no wife to be widowed by. In every case, the greatest losses of his life were first his greatest joys, and achievements. In that regard, the loss of every one of them was a death—hence the language of Christ’s crucifixion.
And the same is true for us. The story’s parallel to life being, the achievement of any great success always invites the possibility of an even greater loss.
Closing Thoughts - Sowing Gratitude
The novella doesn’t provide further commentary upon the lesson. It simply states reality’s cold truth—that if we pursue the fish, we may one day suffer its loss.
In other words, if we pursue and attain marriage, we may suffer bereavement, or even divorce. If we construct a house, and craft it into a home that we love, circumstances may one day force us to leave it. And if we pursue having and raising children, we open ourselves to the experience of devastating loss, because we’ve brought something into this world that we love so much it’s dangerous.
Which isn’t to say that we shouldn’t pursue these things. Again, the story simply provides the hardened truth, and leaves us to reckon with it how we will. Some may consider it a warning, and be dissuaded in their pursuits.
Perhaps instead we might consider the tale as an invitation, an opportunity to reflect on the relationship between loss and joy in this life. Which is a reflection that may strike fear, or even apprehension, into one’s heart.
Or, it might sow Gratitude.
Gratitude for the chance we have today of giving ourselves away in so many meaningful, joyous pursuits. Gratitude for the privilege of pouring ourselves out for the good of those we love the most. And one day, Gratitude even for the memories of the days when we struggled with the great fishes and beasts of this life, and we triumphed over them.
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Bookshop Link: The Old Man and The Sea
Loved this review. This book was my introduction to Hemingway. I wrote a book report for it in college and got a really bad grade, haha. The professor said all my interpretations were way off the mark. I don't even remember what I wrote, but I'm going to assume it wasn't as well written as this, lol.