The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea is a story of an old fisherman, Santiago, who hasn’t got fish in 84 days. On day 85 he goes alone to the sea because his young friend, Manolin, doesn’t get permission from his parents because of Santiago’s bad luck with fish. By noon of the first day a giant marlin takes his bait but Santiago doesn’t get it up.

After three days on the sea Santiago is tired, thirsty and his hands cramped but the fish doesn’t give up. Still the old man stabs a harpoon with his last strength into the fish’s side and the battle between the old man and the fish is over. On the journey back home, sharks attack. When Santiago has killed the first shark he loses the harpoon and makes a new harpoon of his knife and oar. Anyway at home the only thing that is left is a fishbone.

The book was published in 1952 and that’s why it is a little old-fashioned. The events are placed in 1950’s Cuba and there are some mentions about an American baseball player from that time, Joe DiMaggio.

The main thing in the book wasn’t the fight between the man and the fish but the relationship. A special relationship develops between the man and the fish as the book progresses. Even though the fish was the enemy, Santiago thought of it rather as a friend.

“The fish is my friend too,” he said aloud. “I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.”

Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought.

Although the plot isn’t so special, Santiago’s thoughts were brilliant. And therefore The Old Man and the Sea has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.