Pom Pongporn Wintakorn

Mr. Matthew Bishop

English 12
December 7, 2017

Hemingway’s Failure Portrayed in The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway is a journalist, a soldier, and a writer. When he was young,

Hemingway spent most of the time with his mother and was struggling because he often forced

to act in certain ways he did not want to. When he grew up, restricted from having a freedom, he

did not enter college and ran away from his mother to work as a journalist. As he was fascinated

by war, after a year working, he attended the WWI as an ambulance driver in Italy. Toward the

end of the war, he moved to Paris, where he met many American writers, which influenced him

to start his career as a writer. Although the time he spent in Europe was his prime time as a

writer, as his books got more and more famous, he attended the WWII and stopped his work as a

writer, which deteriorated his skill, and returned to focus with it after the war ended. This book

was the second book he wrote after the war with an intention to reclaim his reputation. While he

was writing this book, he recalled important experienced from the past, including what he was

facing. The Old Man and the Sea is a great vessel, which Hemingway used it as a reflection of

his failure in his previous book, his failure in a relationship with women, and the loneliness he

endured when writing this book.

The old man could not catch a fish for 84 days added to his poverty can be compared as

Hemingway failed to write a great book after he stopped his writing for a long time. During the

1940s, Hemingway was on the path to his success as a writer as he gained more and more

reputation from publishing novels., his passionate of war tripped him off as he attended the

WWII. For ten years, he leaves his reputation and skill in writing book behind him, and chose to

attend the war. After the war ended, he wanted to focus on his career again, but even though he

was a great writer with lots of reputation before the war, he could not write a great book like he
HEMINGWAY’S FAILURE PORTRAYED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

did before after a long break. His first book after the war, Across the River and Into the Trees,

was undoubtedly bad and it made, “almost all of the reviewers very sad, even depressed”

(ANALYSIS Across the River and Into the Trees, 1980). This can be related with the old man in

the story who lived in his tiny shack with, “a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor

to cook” (15). Also, his skiff, which he uses to go fishing every day, its sail is patched, “with

flour sacks”. This shows that the old man was normally poor and struggling with his everyday

life, and now, he had gone, “eighty-four days now without taking a fish” (9). It can be said that

this is the downfall of the old man’s fishermen career. From the comparison above, it can be said

that, Hemingway characterized the old man who was poor and cannot catch a single fish for

straight 84 days to mimic himself, who failed to write a great book after taking a long break.

The whole book shows little-to-none about women and any feminine subject that was

shown were written in a negative way. This tended to be because of his bad relationship with his

mother and his failed marriage life. When Hemingway was young, he spent most of the time

with his mother in which, according to Major General Charles Lanham, “Hemingway referred to

his mother as ‘that bitch’ . . . he must of told me a thousand times how much he hated her and in

how many ways” (Henrichon, 2010). There are three issues which likely lead to his hatred for his

mother. First, his mother had a dominant force in the family, secondly, his mother often forced

him to dress like a girl (Fathoms Deep: On Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as a Map to

Gender Identity Struggle, n.d.), and lastly, he blamed his mother for his father’s suicide (Flood,

2012). In addition to his hatred, when he grew older and his mother passed away, Hemingway

did not attend his mother’s funeral (Beattie-Moss, 2008). From these, it could be said that his

relationship with his mother was in peril from the start. In addition to his conflict with his

mother, Hemingway married four times (Young, 2017), but each time did not last long. With his
HEMINGWAY’S FAILURE PORTRAYED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

failed marriage life added to his conflict with his mother, it shows that Hemingway failed to have

a good relationship with women. This influences the book to have a rare appearance of women

and any feminine values. If any feminine value was mentioned, it would be in a negative way.

For instance, agua mala, the Portuguese man-of-war that appeared besides his boat. He called it,

“Agua mala / You whore” (35). “Whore” is an offensive and rude word to describe a feminine

value. Furthermore, he associated the agua mala as deceptive creature as the book said, “The

iridescent bubbles were beautiful. But they were the falsest thing in the sea.” (36). Hemingway

put any feminine value in the book in the negative way as influenced by his rough experience

with women.

The old man’s feeling of loneliness because he needs to travel alone in his journey to

catch the great fish is like what Hemingway felt when he wrote this book after he got rejected by

the girl he appealed to and his risk of divorcing with his wife. In 1948, Hemingway travelled to

Italy with his wife to recall the old day when he first attended the war. Here, he met the girl,

Adriana, and was attracted to her since he first met. Their relationship is closer than just friends,

as Adriana said, “I broke down his defenses: he even stopped drinking when I asked him to”

(Robilant, 1980). And when they contacted with each other through letters, Hemingway signed

the letter as, “Papa”, or, “Mr Papa” (Flood, 2012). This show Hemingway close relationship with

Adriana, and he had once asked her to marry him, even though he already had a wife, but

Adriana rejected as she explained, “He was too old”, and, “He was married” (Robilant, 1980).

This affair with Adriana ruined his relationship with his wife during the time and made his

relationship with his wife, “in jeopardy” (Kalbach, 1994). The lost of the woman he was

attracted to and his broken relationship with his wife cause him to feel isolated and lonely. This

loneliness was portrayed in the book as the old man, who sails alone in the journey, misses the
HEMINGWAY’S FAILURE PORTRAYED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

boy who usually set sail with him. During the journey, the old man cried, “I wish the boy was

here” (50), and he continued to cry out for the boy several times as he sailed away. The boy is

the only person who usually hang out with him and take care of him, so, without the boy, the old

man feels lonely, like Hemingway himself without Adriana. Hemingway related himself as the

old man, who is sailing lonely in the vast ocean, to himself in desolation at the time he wrote this

book.

To sum up, Hemingway used The Old Man and the Sea as an imitation to his failure in a

relationship with women, failure in his previous book, and loneliness he experienced while

writing this book. Firstly, his first book after the long break was a disaster in his career as a

writer, and thus, it was like the poor old man, who failed in his fishermen career, after he cannot

catch a big fish for 84 days. Secondly, the discord he had with his mother combined with his

unsuccessful marriage life leads to his failure in his relationship with women resulting in a rare

appearance of woman in the story, and any feminine subject was written in a negative way.

Lastly, rejection from the girl he attracted to and his life at the verge of divorce made him felt

alone during the time he wrote this book, like the old man who sails alone in his journey to catch

the great fish.

HEMINGWAY’S FAILURE PORTRAYED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

References

ANALYSIS Across the River and Into the Trees. (1980). Retrieved from American Literature:

http://www.amerlit.com/novels/ANALYSIS%20Hemingway,%20Ernest%20Across%20t

he%20River%20into%20Trees%20(1950)%20analysis%20by%209%20critics.pdf

Beattie-Moss, M. (2008, September 8). Letters home reveal another side of Ernest Hemingway.

Retrieved from Penn State News:

http://news.psu.edu/story/141618/2008/09/08/research/letters-home-reveal-another-side-

ernest-hemingway

Fathoms Deep: On Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as a Map to Gender Identity

Struggle. (n.d.). Retrieved from President Boise State:

https://president.boisestate.edu/presidents-writing-

awards/files/2015/02/PWA_2014_taylorkerns.pdf

Flood, A. (2012, March 30). Ernerst Hemingway Letters reveal painful late years of affection

and loss. Retrieved from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/30/ernest-hemingway-letters-reveal-

softer-side

Henrichon, S. E. (2010, October 28). Ernest Hemingway's Mistresses and Wives: Exploring

Their Impact on His Female Characters. Retrieved from Scholar Commons USF:

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4786&context=etd

Kalbach, C. (1994). A Biographical Analysis of The Old Man and the Sea. Retrieved from

Reading Area Community College:

https://www.racc.edu/sites/default/files/imported/StudentLife/Clubs/Legacy/vol_1/Biogra

phical.html
HEMINGWAY’S FAILURE PORTRAYED IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Knigge, J. (2011). Hemingway's Venetian Muse Adriana Ivancich. Retrieved from Humboldt

University of Berlin: https://edoc.hu-

berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/14129/257OuZ2UGqA.pdf?sequence=1

Robilant, O. D. (1980, December 1). Ernest Hemingway's Long-Ago Crush on a Venetian Girl is

Once Again the Talk of Italy. Retrieved from People: http://people.com/archive/ernest-

hemingways-long-ago-crush-on-a-venetian-girl-is-once-again-the-talk-of-italy-vol-14-no-

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Young, P. (2017, August 3). Ernest Hemingway. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingway