Ernest Hemingway Essay, Research Paper

Ernest Hemingway

Chris Ivie American Literature Dr. Breeden 10/2/96

Many of Ernest Hemingway’s books have had different meaning and all

could be interpreted in different way, but there has never been so much written

about his other stories. Well the Old Man and the Sea had more written about it

than any of his other novels and there have never been so many different types

of interpretations about his other novels. The Old Man and the Sea is a book in

which can be interpreted in many different ways. Here you will read what many

critics have composed about the story of a great writer, Ernest Hemingway.

Many of the critics have the same outlook on the works of Hemingway.

Hemingway’s work The Old man and the Sea can be looked at in many different

perspectives. All the critics believed that his styling of writing was very

defined.

In 1944 Ernest Hemingway went to Havana, Cuba and it was there he wrote

a letter to Maxwell Perkins which states he has a idea on a new novel called

The Old Man and the Sea ( Nelson and Jones 139). Hemingway first got his idea

for The Old Man and the Sea from the stories that he had heard in the small

fish cities in Cuba by a man named Carlos Gutierrez. He had known of this man

for about twenty years and the stories of the fighting marlins. It was then

that he imagined that man under the two circumstances and came up with the idea.

After about twenty years of pondering on the story , he decided that he would

start on the novel of The Old Man and the Sea. The story The Old Man and the

Sea is about a old man named Santiago who has to over come the great forces of

nature. Things seem to always go wrong for him because originally he started

out going to fish for some dinner, then he caught the biggest marlin ever and

it pulled him out in the bay of Cuba even more then he was. After he was pulled

out, he hurt his hands and couldn’t risk going to sleep because of the risk of

sharks. When the sharks finally attacked he lost the marlin which had become a

great part of him because he knew that no one would believe him when he told

them the size of the marlin. This has to be one of the most memorable fights in

a novel that I have ever seen, but I think that the way he put the novel

together was just as good as that of the fight.

When he put them together it was then that he relized that what he was

actually writing about was a struggle of man vs. nature. He liked the idea of

man vs. nature and decided to use it in the struggle scene with the marlin.

Magill wrote,” the book can be seen as a fable of the unconquerable spirit of

man, a creature capable of snatching spiritual victories from the

circumstances of disaster and material defeat” (Magill 4325). Also it is

said,” the conflict is of the strength of a ordinary man and the power of

nature”(Magill 4325). I feel that Santiago plays a large role in the novel by

being able not to give in and prove to the element of nature that he would over

come them in the long run.

Magill wrote,” The Old Man and the Sea is a direct descendant of Moby

Dick”(Magill 4326). He feels that the struggle between Santiago and the

marlin is very much like that of the whale and the captain in Moby Dick. The

similarities between The Old Man and the Sea and Moby Dick are extremely

noticeable after reading both of the stories back to back, but there are

differences in the story line. The main difference is that Santiago never comes

out with anything unlike the captain in Moby Dick. Santiago was left with just

a broken boat, a bad fishing pole, and the misery of defeat.

The story could also be interpreted as being religious because of the

struggle that Santiago was put though. Also it is felt by some people to be

religious because of the way he only cut his palms( from the rope), his feet(

on the front of the boat) and his head(when the bow hit him in the head). It is

often portrayed as that of Jesus on the cross. I don’t know if I really agree

with this interpretation of it being religious. The reason I don’t agree with

this is because if everytime someone got cut on the hands and feet in a movie

or book then I guess that they too resemble that of Jesus on the cross.

This story has many different interpretations to it, but would the

interpretations be if the story contained everyone from the village in it and

sowed how the were raised, born, educated, and bore children. This story could

have been well over a thousand pages if the above were included (Plimpton 125).

The big question that I ask is though, if all the above were included in the

novel, how different do you think that the interpretation would be? I feel

that the interpretations would be so very different because the whole story be

circled around that of the battle between Santiago and the marlin. Also, I

believe that the religious interpretations would be not as strong because of

dealing more with the life of the city people and that of Santiago.

Hemingway is a writer who creates things out of his head. If he wasn’t a

genius then how come did he win a Pulitzer Pride for the story The Old Man and

the Sea Hemingway states,” I knew two or three things about the situation, but

I didn’t know the story” ” I didn’t even know if that big fish was going to

bite for the old man when it started smelling around the bait. I had to write on

inventing out of knowledge. You reject everything that is not or can’t be

completely true.”(Bruccoli 179) I think that Hemingway is a genius for writing

this novel because in my point of view it shows the battle between human and

nature and that really caught my attention rereading this novel for the third

time. I also caught the moral of the story in my point of view, and that is

not everything good that you have is always going to be there. To me that means

alot because that moral also refers alot about your family as well as friends.

Hemingway is looked upon as one of the greatest writers to ever set foot

on this earth in the twentieth century. He is a writer who is know for leaving

very little left unsaid or leave you wondering, for example, what’s going to

happen, is he gonna die or not. As you could see in this novel he got to the

point in a direct manner without leaving anything unsaid and he definitely

didn’t leave you thinking about if Santiago was going to live or not.

Many people do not like the writings of Ernest Hemingway because they

feel most everything that he writes about is unhappy or make believe. Fredrick

Busch said at one point in time ,” He didn’t want to read that of which was

unhappy or make believe” referring to Hemingway’s work (Bryfonski 130). Many

have said to believe that The Old Man and the Sea was written about the life

of Ernest Hemingway, which in reality it was written about a Cuban by the name

of Carlos Gutierrez. However some of the parts in this story do relate to

things Hemingway has experienced.

In conclusion, The Old Man and the Sea can be interpreted in many

different forms, but I think it isn’t how you interpret it. Don’t get me wrong

some people like to read to see how many ways you can interpret it but , you

should read a novel to learn from others mistakes and also for the pleasure of

expanding you knowledge American and English literature. I could name many

different books in which I have read that have actually left a impact on my

life in some sort or another.

Bibliographies

Bruccoli, Matthew J. Conversations with Ernest Hemingway.

Mississippi: UP Mississippi, 1986

Bryfonski, Dedria. Contemporary Authors. Michigan: Bok Towers,1984

Magill,Frank M. Masterplots. 8 vols., New Jersey: Salem Press,1976

Nelson, Gerald B., and Glory Jones.

Hemingway: Life and Works. New York: Facts on File

Publications,1984

Wagner, Linda W. Ernest Hemingway, Five Decades of Criticism .

Michigan: Michigan State UP, 1974

Wagner, Linda W. Ernest Hemingway, Six Decades of Criticism.

Michigan: Michigan State UP, 1982