The Old man and the Sea

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

I have just finished reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.  I found the book to be quite a very interesting, absorbing and engaging book as well as sad.  It is a story about an old fisherman who, after a number of weeks without catching fish, decides to go out at sea alone. Hemingway tells the reader, “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish” (p1).   We are further told that, “Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as  the sea and were cheerful and undefeated” (p1).  The old man at times worked with a boy who was attached to him though his parents felt the old man no longer had luck to enable him to catch fish.

Quite painful is the portrayal of the loneliness of old age.  The old man himself while out at sea fishing talks to himself quite a lot.  He even talks to his hand as if in was another person, a deep expression of the desire for human company.  “What kind of a hand is that?” he said, “Cramp then if you want.  Make yourself into a claw.  It will do you no good” (p20).  This was when his left hand was cramped because of holding the fishing lines for too long.  “How do you feel, hand?”, he said, “I’ll eat some more (tuna) for you” (p21).   It appears talking to himself, the sea, fish and the bird is what keeps him sane in the absence of human intercourse.  In fact he appreciate the oneness of creation.  For example on seeing the two porpoises, he says, “They are our brothers like the flying fish”.   He even feels pity mixed with admiration  for the fish on his hook.  But he had to kill it, “Fish”, he said, “I love you and respect you very much.  But I will kill you dead before this day ends” (p19).  The fish on the hook, he addressed as a friend, a brother though he had to kill it.

Quite interesting is when he talks to the fish eating his bait, “Come on”, he would say, “Make another turn. Just smell them. Aren’t they lovely?  Eat them good now and then there is a tuna.  Hard and cold and lovely.  Don’t be shy, fish. Eat them” (p14).  He even talks to a small bird that came to rest on  the skiff.  “How old are you? Is this your first trip?” he asked the small bird (p19).  And when the big fish came, “He has taken it”, talking to himself (p15).  To the fish, “Eat it a little more “ he said.  “Eat it well” (p15).  “Fish”, he said to the big fish he had caught, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead” (p18).

Acknowledging the longing for companionship, the constant refrain of the old man which he pronounced aloud was, “I wish I had the boy” (p16). The boy would have provided companionship and help with the fishing and share his joy on this occasion.  “But you haven’t got the boy”, he reminded himself, “You only have yourself”.  Even more touching is when he thought to himself, “No one should be alone in their old age” (p17). 

The old man catches the biggest fish he has ever seen.  Sadly, he fails to haul it aboard the skiff.  He was now slow and no longer as strong as when he wad a young man.  He was tired after days at sea alone eating raw fish.  Just as one thought it was over, the old man has to fight off sharks which attached and chewed off chunks of meat from his fish, killing a number of the sharks in the process.  But the battle is lost when he had to fight a school of sharks at night.  His fish is all eaten but the skeleton is left as proof to that he had caught the largest fish ever.  The battle of wits he had had with the fish, his patience and skill in killing the fish all came to naught when he goes home with the skeleton of the fish.  But he did not consider himself defeated.  It was just, “I went too far” (into the sea), he said to himself (p43).  The soar hands and tiredness and the skeleton of the fish was the evidence of the struggle the man had with the fish as he killed it but failed to take it on board the skiff. 

All he asked the boy after days away at sea was “Did they search for me?” (p45).   A sad, but insightful story.