The Old Man and The Sea Summary

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA -ErnestHemingway Ernest Hemingway was one of the most infuential modern American novelists. He successfully captured the fancy of generation of readers and writers in America and any other writer of the 20th century. His experience as a journalist helped him with graphic,various prose style. His experience in wars at many places helped him with themes. Violence in one form or other seems to be the chief element of his material.He had interest in pain and death which is is reflkected in almost all hisworks. His master piece “The Old Man and The Sea” with its style and dignity of ‘The Bible’.That’s why he got Nobel Prize. “The Old Man and The Sea” is a wonderful adventure story of an Old Man who stuggled against a huge fish.Eventhough physically weak,he was quite strong mentally and morally. He started very early all alone to catch a big fish in the deep waters. Ultimately a big fish was hooked. It was very strong and powerful. It started pulling the old man’s boat in its own way for two days and two nights. The Old Man suffered a lot physically,but he didn’t lose courage.When he saw the fish ,he loved and respectedit. When the fish was sufficiently tired and came near the boat he killed it with his harpoon. He tied the fish to the boat and started back home. Then the sharksstarted attacking the fish. He had a brave fight with the sharks,but all in vain. The sharks ate away the fish leaving only the skeleton. He reached home admitting his deat. His sad experience didn’t make the old man lose his adventurous spirit. He decided to fight with another fish and slept peacefully. The story of “The Old Man and The Sea” is a dramatisation of the remarkable endurace of man and his conflict with Nature. The old man has his share of trials and troubles but neither his old age with decreasing strength nor bad luck stop him from his endless adventure. Both Man and Nature appear to be enemies yet together they constitute the Universe of creation. The old man defeated the fish but the sharks defeated the old man. In this process some sharks lost their lives. The Old Man’s adventure ended from where it had started. “The Old Man and The Sea” is a beautiful work in ‘Dantesque’ allegory. Every action can be interpreted allegorically.It is parable on the theme of fighting. A good fight with the undefeatable spirit of man and the certain death. Man tries to be heroic but fails without any fault of his. The story of the Santiago shows a natural tragic pattern of human life.It is open to many interpretations- a christian allegory,a parable of man’s external conflict with his enduring power and capacity to work under almost impossible conditions.Santiago dares the impossible. He almost won the battle but he is defeated.The feeling of defeat does not trouble him. Santiago shows an almost super human courage in facing the Herculian task.He feels “Man is not made for defeat” with all the strenth in his old age he succeeds to kill it. He tried his best saying “ I ‘ll fight them until I die”. He was not disheartened. He bore the loss with dignity. In addition to this main theme the theme of interdependence of man and the theme of the communion with Nature run as under current in the Novel. Hemingway uses symbolism to arouse the feelings and emotions.He tried to present human life in fiction and examine human situation from various points of view with the help of symbols. He used the symbolism of association.Even the old man’s name Santiago means St.James.Manolin the boy is a symbol for his lost youth.At every mention of the boy he gains new strenth to fight the battle with the fish or the sharks.The boy is the salt of his life.The symbol of Di-Maggio the basket ball player of New york yankees and the symbol of young Santiago as a wrestler give the old man much needed confidence in his strugggle. From the beginning to the end the whole story depends on the sea.The sea represents Nature where the old man goes to prove his manliness.The sea with all its wealth attracts the old man to try his luck and catch a giant fish.The sea acts as a wall between Santiago and the Marlin[fish].He couldnot see the fish for a long time.The sea helps him,at the same it adds to his trobles.Thus the whole drama of the Novel is enacted on the watery stage-The Sea. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prizefor literature for his “forceful and powerful style forming mastery of the art of modern narration revealed in his novel, “The Old Man and The Sea”. Hemingway’s style is ,his view of life and way of life.His style is called journalistic-simple and straight forward.Sincere emotion is genuinely transmitted through the simple style.And so,it is easily understood and the reader can read many things that are unsaid. Thus, “The Old Man and The Sea” shines like a multyfaceted gem with its epic theme,great diction of action,symbolism and simple language. --------------------- o ---------------------------

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