Reeling in Hemingway’s Classic Tale of Perseverance

Introduction

In our fast-paced, instant gratification-seeking world, it’s easy to forget that some of life’s most rewarding moments come only after extraordinary struggle. That’s the central message in Hemingway’s classic novella The Old Man and the Sea.

The Old Man and the Sea is one of Ernest Hemingway’s most famous works, published in 1952. This short novel tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Despite being down on his luck, the old man remains determined and decides to venture far out into the Gulf Stream alone in his small fishing skiff.

After fishing for several days, Santiago finally feels a bite on one of his lines. What follows next is an epic battle between the old fisherman and a giant marlin. Using all his strength and willpower, Santiago manages to hook the massive fish estimated to weigh over 1,500 pounds. However, the fish thrashes about and threatens to pull Santiago’s skiff for miles out to sea.

Refusing to let the great marlin get away, Santiago holds onto the line with aching body and bleeding hands for three long days and nights. When the marlin finally exhausts itself and dies, Santiago has to figure out a way to get the huge fish back to land intact to prove his great accomplishment. But dangers and obstacles still await him on the journey home.

With its themes of perseverance, pride, man versus nature, struggle, and tragedy, The Old Man and the Sea is considered Hemingway’s last great work published in his lifetime. The short novel helped him win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 and restore his fame as one of America’s greatest writers. It continues to captivate readers today with its study of human endurance, the price of honor, and what it means never to surrender.

You can find The Old Man and the Sea by author Ernest Hemingway on your favorite bookstore, including Amazon.com and Amazon UK.

About author Ernest Hemingway

Among the most influential American writers of the previous century, Ernest Hemingway is known for his spare, understated prose style as well as his adventurous lifestyle, Hemingway produced some of literature’s most enduring novels and short stories.

Born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, Hemingway led an active childhood – hunting, camping, and fishing throughout the Midwest. After graduating high school, he became a reporter for The Kansas City Star. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Hemingway volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front. Seriously wounded in action, he returned home a decorated war hero. His wartime experiences became the backdrop of his early fiction.

In 1921, Hemingway moved to Paris. As an expatriate of the “Lost Generation,” he socialized with fellow writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. His first major work, the 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises, depicts Americans drinking, fishing, and bullfighting in Spain. This book established Hemingway’s understated writing style while examining themes of post-war disillusionment.

Hemingway got the divorce from his first wife in 1927, and then married Pauline Pfeiffer. After the publication of Men Without Women – an iconic short story collection including classics like “The Killers” and “Hills Like White Elephants” – the couple moved to Key West, Florida. While living in Key West throughout the 1930s, Hemingway focused on fiction best capturing themes of masculinity, adventure, wartime experience and life in Europe or American small towns. This Key West decade saw the release of several of Hemingway’s most critically-acclaimed works, including Death in the Afternoon (1932), Green Hills of Africa (1935), and To Have and Have Not (1937).

With the onset of the Spanish Civil War, Hemingway headed back to Europe as a journalist. He used these experiences in Spain as the inspiration for his most popular novel, 1940’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. A farewell-to-arms story set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, this novel solidified Hemingway’s legacy in the literary canon, garnering praise from both high-brow critics and middle-brow audiences. For Whom the Bell Tolls epitomized Hemingway’s adventurous spirit, understated emotion, and examination of war and loss.

In World War II, Hemingway served as a war correspondent and was at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Drawing upon these experiences, he wrote Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) followed by his Pulitzer-Prize winning novel from 1952, The Old Man and the Sea. Despite critical acclaim waning in his later years, Hemingway left an indelible mark on 20th century fiction through his succinct style, themes of anguish, love, and war, as well as his conception of masculinity in American literature. Suffering from deteriorating mental and physical health in the late 1950s, Hemingway took his own life in 1961 at his home in Idaho. He left behind an unmatched literary legacy.

Hooked from the First Paragraph

From that very first paragraph, Hemingway’s sparse prose had me hooked, line and sinker. Can’t you just envision the old Cuban fisherman Santiago, weathered and wrinkled from the sun, yet still strong and resilient? Hemingway’s tight writing casts the central conflict instantly – Santiago hasn’t caught a fish in 84 days. But does he give up? No way!

As Santiago sets out once again on his modest skiff, seemingly on a fool’s errand, you can’t help but root for him. Don’t you kind of want to pat the old guy on the back and say “you got this!”?

When Opportunity finally Strikes…

After nearly two days fighting the currents, when Santiago finally hooks an enormous marlin, at first you breathe a sigh of relief. But then you realize – his troubles are just beginning! The old fisherman is locked in a life and death battle, man versus beast.

With the monstrous fish dragging his skiff for two straight days, you grip your armchair, cheering silently as Santiago summons seemingly superhuman endurance. “Just hang in there a little longer!” you mutter through gritted teeth.

Hemingway’s taut prose captures the drama masterfully, like a suspenseful TV show where the hero desperately hangs from a cliff by his fingernails. Will Santiago prevail? Or will the mighty marlin defeat this stubborn old Cuban? You have to know, so you can’t put the book down till the final page.

Refusing to Give Up Despite the Odds

While less worthy men would have bailed long ago, Santiago perseveres. As he battles pangs of hunger and fatigue, he focuses on his friendship with the boy Manolin, reminiscing on better days they shared fishing together. These memories renew his spirit when all seems lost.

Sure Santiago made some mistakes – strap yourself to the boat old man! But his refusal to surrender leaves you genuinely moved. How many people today would struggle so valiantly for their dignity and personal code of honor against such overwhelming odds? Hemingway clearly admires gritty endurance above all else.

The Sharks Arrive to Rip Victory from His Grasp

Just when it seems Santiago might prevail, his hopes are cruelly shattered. The sharks arrive, tearing the marlin’s precious meat to shreds.

You want to cry out, “Can’t Santiago enjoy his victory, even for a moment!” It’s just devastating how misfortune keeps piling on misfortune. First no fish for nearly three months, now even his hard won prize is being snatched away. Has there ever been a more tragic antihero in literature?

Yet Santiago soldiers on stoically. You shake your head in awe at this man facing down repeated indignities from an uncaring, even hostile universe.

Modest Triumphs Amidst Heartbreak

In the end, the sharks devour the marlin’s entire carcass, leaving only a stripped skeleton. After all Santiago endured, it’s an absolutely crushing blow. Returning home exhausted, the old man collapses into bed to drift into restless sleep.

Yet the next morning when he awakens, Hemingway allows Santiago a shred of redemption. His young friend Manolin pledges to fish alongside him once more. And Santiago might have lost the meat, but back home hangs the extraordinary 18-foot marlin skeleton – sure to fetch a pretty penny from curious tourists.

Life returns bittersweetly to normal. While Santiago didn’t achieve all he hoped, through resilient self-reliance he did accomplish something meaningful.

Lasting Impressions from a Masterpiece

For me, Santiago’s struggle formed the perfect metaphor for life’s hardest but most important lessons. Even if the world beats you down again and again, never relinquish your dignity, identity, or cherished beliefs. With dogged perseverance and self-reliance, a man can salvage triumph from the jaws of defeat.

Sure at just 127 pages The Old Man and the Sea packs quite a punch. But like that epic battle between an aging fisherman and the mighty marlin, Hemingway reels you in fast with his tight prose and everyman charm. Then he leaves you pleasantly aching all over from an unforgettable reading experience.

I’m betting you’ll get hooked from page one just like I did! Reel in this Hemingway classic for yourself if you hunger for a inspiring tale of perseverance and the enduring human spirit.

Further readings

If you enjoyed Santiago’s extraordinary test of will and endurance, here are 5 similar page-turners I recommend:

• The Martian by Andy Weir – An engaging sci-fi story about an astronaut stranded on Mars who must use his wits and expertise to survive. Focuses on problem-solving.
• Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand – This gut-wrenching biography chronicles Olympic runner Louis Zamperini’s horrifying true story of resilience in a Japanese POW camp during WWII. Like Santiago, Zamperini endures what seems unendurable, buoyed by memories of loved ones back home.
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel – When a cargo ship sinks, a boy named Pi is left stranded for months on a small lifeboat with several zoo animals…including an adult Bengal tiger! This fantastical adventure will leave you awed by the human capacity to survive against inconceivable odds.
• In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick – Herman Melville’s Moby Dick was inspired by a real life 1820 sinking of a whaleship called Essex by an enraged sperm whale. Through meticulous research, Philbrick reveals the harrowing true tale of men pitted against nature’s fury in order to survive.
• Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer – Krakauer’s iconic nonfiction book retells his own brush with death during the infamous 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Like Santiago, the stranded climbers demonstrate dogged endurance and refusal to surrender in a battle they did not choose.
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston – The ultimate survival memoir! After a boulder traps his arm during a remote canyon hike, adventurer Aron Ralston embarks on a 127-hour ordeal to escape. You won’t believe the excruciating measures he resorts to in order to persevere.

FAQs

What inspired Ernest Hemingway to write this book?

The Old Man and the Sea was inspired by Hemingway’s love of the ocean and fishing. After many years without publishing a successful novel, he drew on his experiences fishing in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba to craft a simple yet powerful story about an aging fisherman wrestling with a massive marlin. The novella explores timeless themes of perseverance, pride, and man’s struggle against nature.

Where is The Old Man and the Sea set?

The Old Man and the Sea is set in a small fishing village near Havana, Cuba. The opening pages mention the fishing shacks and boats along the coastline where the fishermen launch their daily expeditions in search of fish like tuna and marlin. Much of the short novel’s action takes place at sea, following the old Cuban fisherman Santiago far offshore in his epic battle with the giant marlin.

How old is the fisherman Santiago?

Though his exact age is never given, Santiago is described as being well past his prime with wrinkles around his eyes and blemishes on his skin from years working under the Cuban sun. Based on clues in The Old Man and the Sea, such as Santiago reflecting back on his youth and mention of his career spanning decades, readers can infer that he is likely in his mid 70’s when his epic fishing battle with the marlin unfolds.

Why doesn’t Santiago have a fishing partner?

Early in the story, we learn that Santiago has gone 84 days without catching a fish. He tells Manolin, a neighborhood boy who fished with him until recently, that his lack of success caused the boy’s parents to insist that Manolin fish in another boat. Too proud to let the boy’s family continue paying for fishing gear he felt he did not deserve, Santiago relents to fishing alone without aid or company.

What baseball star does Santiago dream about? Why does this matter?

In his sleep the night before his big fishing excursion, Santiago dreams of his idol – Joe DiMaggio, the famous outfielder for the New York Yankees. Santiago sees parallels between DiMaggio’s incredible hitting streak in baseball and his own quest to end his terrible luck at sea. The pride and perseverance of these heroes inspire one another across skillsets and generations.

How long does Santiago’s battle with the fish last?

After hooking the giant marlin far offshore, Santiago spends three full days wrestling with the powerful fish as he tries to pull it towards shore without breaking his fishing line. The old man barely rests as this life-or-death battle rages, drifting in and out of consciousness but still clutching his fishing rod each time the marlin attempts another run for open sea.

What happens when sharks start attacking Santiago’s catch?

Exhausted after three straight days battling the marlin, Santiago has lashed its massive body alongside his small skiff for the long sail back to Havana. Not long after starting his return a pack of sharks smell the marlin’s blood in the water. Santiago fights them with a knife and club but he is unable to stop them from destroying his epic catch, leaving only a bare skeleton by the time he reaches the village shore.

How does Ernest Hemingway’s writing style enhance the story?

Hemingway employs his signature minimalist style with simple vocabulary and short, blunt sentences mirroring the old man’s crisp thoughts and actions. This crisp, no-frills prose helps readers connect intimately with Santiago, bringing the struggle to life without heavy-handed adjectives or lengthy inner dialogue cluttering such an active, emotional tale.

When was Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea published?

After over a decade without publishing any major works of fiction, The Old Man and the Sea revived Hemingway’s career when Scribner’s released the 126-page novella on September 1st, 1952. The story, Hemingway’s last major fiction work published in his lifetime, earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953.

Why is The Old Man and the Sea considered one of Hemingway’s greatest works?

Despite its short length, The Old Man and the Sea has been praised as one of Hemingway’s richest works exploring fundamental themes of mortality, pride, perseverance and our place in nature. Santiago’s epic struggle and uncommon strength of spirit continues to inspire readers while honing Hemingway’s bold, minimalist style to near perfection in the compact, powerful novella.