The book The Old Man and the Sea is Ernest Hemingway’s last major work published in 1952. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to its award of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature to Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist.
His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works during his lifetime; major publication dates were 1920, 1926–45 (a novel), 1948–60 (short stories), 1951 (two non-fiction books) and posthumously 1966–99 (three novels).
According to Ernest Hemingway’s biographer Carlos Baker “The Old Man and the Sea is Ernest Hemingway’s greatest novel, in my opinion—and this in spite of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and To Have and Have Not. The Old Man and the Sea is a paean to what Ernest Hemingway called ‘grace under pressure.’ Indeed it may be said that The Old Man and the Sea was Ernest Hemingway’s personal statement of his own philosophy.”
Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is one of his more celebrated novels. It earned him a Pulitzer Prize, but its acclaim isn’t just for that novel alone. Rather, it comes mostly from what critics consider Ernest Hemingway’s magnum opus. The book focuses on an aging fisherman named Santiago who tries to catch an enormous marlin so he can bring food back to his village since it has been some time since they’ve feasted on meat.
While this quote does not come directly from Santiago himself, its function is still significant in highlighting Ernest Hemingway’s writing style as well as his characterization of Santiago. As will be shown through other quotes throughout this article, Ernest Hemingway does not use dialogue between characters to convey much information. Instead, Ernest Hemingway typically uses this tactic in order to get the reader closer to the protagonist’s own thoughts and feelings.
This is what Ernest Hemingway does here; through his writing, Ernest Hemingway gives us a glimpse into Santiago’s mind while he goes through his days on his boat catching smaller fish while hoping for something big like the marlin which he eventually catches. Ernest Hemingway also uses this quote to show that one of Santiago’s goals during this trip is simply just to stay alive. Though he has not caught anything worthwhile yet, he still continues due to hope and because it is equally as important as everything else for him at least according to Ernest Hemingway.
Ernest Hemingway has Santiago state in the novel when he catches an albacore which is a form of tuna, “I must be careful not to let them see how happy I am. But it is easy to be happy though torn in half inside. ” Ernest Hemingway conveys through this quote that while sometimes there may only appear to be one option and it seems impossible, we can still choose hope and happiness despite our circumstances. This quote also shows the theme of acceptance in Ernest Hemingway’s writing style.
In other words, Ernest Hemingway forces us as readers to accept certain aspects about life such as death but also love and faith because these are all facets of life which Ernest Hemingway puts in his novel. Ernest Hemingway highlights these aspects in this quote through how Santiago feels about the albatross and its movements throughout the sky despite it being a peculiar looking bird. Ernest Hemingway writes, “I don’t know why I like the bird. I like him but if I were writing a book about all the things there were that I liked, the albatross would not be one of them. Ernest Hemingway shows Santiago’s acceptance here when he states that even though he does not love or even particularly like something; it doesn’t change what is essentially true and so he still accepts it and loves it in its own way without putting up resistance to any part of life no matter how simple: white clouds in blue skies.
Ernest Hemingway shows Santiago’s feelings through his actions and dialogue when he catches something which Ernest Hemingway writes, “He held the fish up and looked at it and then he kissed it. It is important to note this quote because Ernest Hemingway uses such simple acts in juxtaposition with one another in order to show that we can love even when we don’t understand how. Though Ernest Hemingway does not show us explicitly what aspect of life we can accept or why, he still shows us that accepting what life presents each day is indeed possible. The quote above is also significant in highlighting Ernest Hemingway’s writing style when describing the sea; specifically when Ernest Hemingway describes what happens when there are waves. Ernest Hemingway writes, “I was in a new country.
The great cold coast of Maine and the Cape Cod shore were behind. ” Ernest Hemingway shows us this through Santiago’s emotions when Ernest Hemingway writes, “He saw ahead of him now very clear and blue… ” Here Ernest Hemingway contrasts cold land with warmer seas showing the significance of the sea to Santiago. Ernest Hemingway also uses this quote to show that in a way there is a change which happens when moving from one place or environment into another. This can be shown when Ernest Hemingway writes, “Here I am in my island where I will be alone.
Ernest Hemingway gets closer to Santiago himself through his thoughts and feelings showing once again Ernest Hemingway’s writing style when presenting the sea to readers. Ernest Hemingway is able to present many different types of sea waters in this novel through the simple line, “He was well inside now and had room to maneuver. ” Ernest Hemingway shows Santiago’s feelings through action once again which Ernest Hemingway writes, “But what he thought was not clear because it was too early and he could not fix it up with the logical coherence that it would have at night. “
