The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel by the American author Ernest Hemingway which also led him to win Nobel prize in literature. Published in 1952, The Old Man and the Sea is the story of Santiago – an ageing fisherman – who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. A young lad called Manolin then joins him and they venture out in the ocean. On the surface, it looks like a story of catching a fish; but on a more deeper level (given how it’s written and how it captures human emotions), it remains one of the finest novels of the twentieth century. If you still need more reasons to pick this book, here are a few:
Hemingway’s prose.
Hemingway’s writing style is direct, concise and powerful, perhaps due to his early training in journalism. It helps you stay with him, following the prose. Read the paragraph below to get a taste of it.
He always thought of the sea as ‘la mar’ which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as ‘el mar’ which is masculine.They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.
Metaphorical Significance.
Hemingway himself wouldn’t have liked it if you tried to read too much into the metaphors. He believed in the power of a story and that’s it. Yet, one cannot help but wonder about the deeper meanings of life found in the course of the book. It’s a human nature, after all. In Hemingway’s own words, he tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks; but if he made them good and true enough they would mean many things. And they do mean many things in this book.
Characters.
What is always special about a Hemingway story is its powerful characters. Often there are not too many and so is the case here. But the ones who participate are very carefully crafted, and although you wouldn’t find too many descriptions about a character, it’s the little things they do here and there make you feel as if you know them for a long time.
If you still need more reasons, here is one more. The novel is hardly a hundred-odd pages long and won’t take much of your time. Go and read!
Kalampedia 