‘Old man and the sea’ summary

‘Old man and the sea’

                                                                                                By: Earnest Hemingway

     ‘Old man and the sea’ is a famous novel written by Earnest Hemingway. It is a novel with simple story of a simple fisherman, who finds himself unfortunate as he had no catch for 84 days, but he doesn’t get discouraged and goes on a venture again. This novel reflects the personality of the author himself.

Hemingway wants to join the army but he was not selected due to an eye injury that he suffered as a young boy. Though he was rejected, he was willing to wage a war and so decided to travel overseas as a Red Cross ambulance driver. Hemingway was wounded in Italy during following his duties just before he turned 19. For his bravery, he was honoured by the Italians.

When Hemingway returned to the U.S., he spent time in the Michigan woods; he recovered from his war wounds. Then he works as a reporter in Toronto. But soon he got tired and dissatisfied of his North American life and so he moved to Paris, as a foreign correspondent for the ‘star’ he came in contact with the wing of fellow Americans Gertrude stein and Ezra pound. He was greatly influenced by them. He focused his attention on creative writing rather than reporting. He wrote a collection of short stories. ‘In our time’ in 1925. Is first novel ‘the sun also rises’ was published in 1926. He achieved a great fame at the age of 27.

Later he married and divorced three times. In 1930s he spent time in Spain and Africa and archived reputation as a Sportsman and athlete. He fought bulls in Spain, hunted in Africa and died fishing in Florida. The central character of the old man and the sea Santiago was based on someone he encountered when he was finding on the Gulf Stream out of his liking for adventure. When he was on the boat, he and his friend Carlos met a fisherman and a boy being dragged through the sea in a rickety boat, struggling against a huge fish. Even when Hemingway and his skipper offered help, the old man refused. This episode took a form of novella later on.

The story of the old, brave fisherman also reflects the author himself according to some critics; a critic compares Hemingway’s with Santiago and his work as marlin. Others found it as Hemingway’s love for gallantry. A critic said that Hemingway wandered the world “in search of flame of spirit in men and beasts”. In the present novel, the flame is found as a Characteristic of both Santiago and the marlin.

In 1942, Hemingway went on a voyage voluntarily with his fishing boat for navy projects off the west coast of Cuba. It was a mission for destroying U-boats. He also served as a correspondent in the Spanish civil war. In 1944, he worked as a correspondent and went on mission with royal air force and then joined the first army. He suffered injuries during the Second World War

After the war, Hemingway lived in Havana until Fidel Castro’s revolution forced him out of the country. ‘Old man and the sea’ was Hemingway’s last published work. He received the Nobel Prize in 1954.

The novel ‘old man and the sea’ represents what Hemingway had once witnessed but we can see from his life that it also reflected in some or the other way his own personality. His sense of adventure, courage, patience, capacity to suffer- all these are reflected in the character of the old man Santiago- the sailor. The incident that he observed in the sea once became the base for this novel.