The Old Man and the Sea #5

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway was published in 1952. There are no real clues in the story about when it actually takes place, so I assume it just takes place around the publication date. The setting of the book is around the coast of Cuba and the surrounding sea. The old man's job is purely being a fisherman which seems likely given the setting and the time period. Because fishing can be so random with the catches they get, it makes sense that the old man is poor. The old man is a great fisherman and has many years of catching fish under his belt. The boy was becoming an apprentice of some sorts to the old man before he hit his eighty four day dry spell. The boy fished in vain with the old man for around half of the time before his parents made him stop. The boy's parents probably wanted the boy to have a better master or have chosen another career choice. Fishing could have been a very popular career choice or hobby of you lived by the coast, or just enjoyed the sport. Hemingway loved to fish and that is why he wrote the novel.

This novel is very symbolic with a great hero. This novel almost seems like a modern epic hero tale. Santiago has all of the characteristics of an epic hero from the past like bravery, an incredible journey he must go on, and a fatal flaw. The novel is about an old man beating the odds and catching an amazing fish, but because of his pride, he loses the marlin by chasing him too far out in the ocean. He realizes that he was the cause of the fishes and his destruction, but he forgives himself. This is why the novel is so popular, the hero goes through this incredible journey but does not catch the fish. "They beat me, Manolin," he said. "They truly beat me." (Hemingway 124). Because of this the fisherman passes his knowledge of fishing to the boy to live on.

 Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.