Hemingway Lifes Reflection within The Old Man and the Sea

Courage is grace under pressure (Hemingway, n.d.). The story in The Old Man and

the Sea revolved around an old fisherman named Santiago, which at the moment was very

unlucky with catching fish. The main problem in the story is that a young boy, named

Manolin, who used to help Santiago fishing is forced to left Santiago boat because of the

unlucky streak. One day, Santiago decided to go further into the sea, hoping for a better

catching. On his way, he caught a tuna. But it was not over as Santiago could baited another

fish, a giant marlin. He struggled for more than three days for the fish to finally become

exhausted and stabbed it with a harpoon. Despite all of his hard work, the blood from the

dead fish lured in all the sharks. Santiago fought with the sharks till nightfall. Even though he

kills many of them, they overpowered him, devoured the great marlin left with only its

carcass. Santiago then returned to the land and rested. On the next day, people crowded over

the great fish carcass. The boy agreed to fish with Santiago again and finally Santiago

dreamed of his usual dream, the lion. Ernest Hemingway published this great adventure of an

old Cuban fisherman in 1952. His liking in fishing and baseball was a good backup in writing

the story and creating Santiagos character. Focusing on the similarities of Hemingway and

Santiago life, there are three major events in the book that support that Santiago is the

reflection of Hemingway life as a writer, which is the unlucky catch for eighty four days, the

catching of the great marlin and the sharks feeding frenzy.

Firstly, Hemingway started his writing career for a long time. His past works include

A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises and his best-selling novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Although he had worked on many other careers before, writing is what he is most successful

at. After his great success, he did not publish anything for almost a decade (Bittner, 2000).

This event resembles at the starting of the novel, ...he had gone eighty-four days now
HEMINGWAY LIFES REFLECTION 2

without taking a fish...But after forty days without a fish the boys parent had told him...the

boy had gone at their order in another boat which caught three good fish a week (p.9). After

his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway stopped publishing his work for a while like

Santiago who did not catch any fish for a long time. These two jobs are similar in a way that

both of them did not produce money every day or they are unstable. It is true that fisherman

and writer can produce a lot of money in one day ---- a big catch or a book publication day.

But a while later, both of the careers will not make much money for a while. Fishermen still

can sell the small fish they catch and writers can get money from their earlier published

books. Moreover, eighty four days of catching no fish at all mean there is almost no income

like the long gone of Hemingway during the ten years of not producing anything. As an

author did not publish any work at all, his fan club or readers will eventually change to follow

other author like the young boy Manolin who changed his boat. Not only other peoples faith

in Santiago and Hemingway that has been lost, but the critics and the media also bad

mouthing about Hemingway like in the book, They sat on the Terrace and many of the

fishermen made fun of the old manOthers, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were

sad (p.11). At the time Hemingway was writing this novel, some of his novel writing

colleague had been passing away. At the beginning of the book, Hemingway wrote TO

CHARLIE SCRIBNER AND TO MAX PERKINS (p.5), to honor his literary peers that just

have passed away before the book was published (Fenstermaker, 2013). Many of the old

writers had stop writing or died but not Hemingway nor Santiago.

Another event in the book that suggests that Santiago is the reflection of Hemingway

is the catching of the tuna and the great marlin. In 1950, Hemingway finally published a

novel Across the River and Into the Trees after a long gone of Hemingway from his career

but this work was not successful. Many critics claimed that it is the worst novel Hemingway

ever written, although Hemingway himself thought that it is his best work so far (Meyers,
HEMINGWAY LIFES REFLECTION 3

2007). The publishing of Across the River and Into the Trees was similar to when Santiago

catches the tuna, the first fish he caught after eighty four days of bad luck. However, soon

after, Santiago was forced to eat the tuna since it will rot soon. So he ate it fresh for strength

rather than take it back to sell at the market. Two years after the publishing of Across the

River and Into the Trees, Hemingway released The Old Man and the Sea, to prove that his

career is not yet finished. The success and the struggle of writing this book can be compared

to the event in the book, He felt the iron go in...Then the fish came alive, with his death in

him, and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power

and his beauty. The catching of the great marlin is a huge success like when Hemingway get

Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and Nobel Prize in 1954 from this book (Yasmin, 2012).

However, success do not always comes to people who works hard. The last major

event in the book that bear a resemblance of Hemingway life situation is the sharks attack.

Throughout the novel, there were some foreshadowing of a bad event that might happens in

the future. Shark attack is one of the foreshadowing and is the most often seen. Around the

beginning of the book, there is scene that describe the shark factory in detail and the scene

where Santiago mentioned drinking shark liver oil for strength (Momtazi, 2003). In the

middle of the book, Santiago is always cautious for an appearance of any shark. At the end of

the book, after his great victory of catching the great marlin, the shark appeared, biting and

tearing the dead marlin into pieces with hunger. Santiago fought as hard as he could but still

failed to protect the great marlin. All of his effort goes to waste. This climax of the story, , is

similar to Hemingway situation after the success of winning prizes from writing this book.

The Old Man and the Sea had been torn apart by the criticizing from the media and the

critics. Many of the people is not satisfied with his work. However, a question may arise, if

Santiago is really a reflection of Hemingway life then how did Hemingway knew what is

going to happen with him after writing this book. Hemingway always boast about his novel to
HEMINGWAY LIFES REFLECTION 4

his friends before publishing of his book (Lanzendorfer, 2015). This can be say that he

expected the prize to come after he finished writing his book, the catching of the great marlin

situation. For the sharks attack circumstances, after many years of tolerating the critics

provoke and mad-mouthing, one would expect them to start attacking again after releasing a

new work which in this case is The Old Man and the Sea.

To sum up, three events in the book that resembles Hemingways life is the eighty

four days of catching no fish---a decade of not publishing any new work, the catching of the

great marlin---the receiving of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize and the sharks attack---the huge

criticize upon his new novel, The Old Man and the Sea. However, after all of the obstacles,

success might not come in a way that one wished for. For Santiago, he took the carcass of the

great marlin back to the shore and regain peoples appreciation. For Hemingway, this book

made him famous, many media invited him for an interview and his book is adapted into a

stop-motion film, winning an Oscar Prize (Lanzendorfer, 2015). This whole novel just prove

one of Hemingway greatest belief, Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but

not defeated.(Hemingway, n.d.)

HEMINGWAY LIFES REFLECTION 5

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