the old man and the sea ernest hemingway book review

The Old Man and the Sea

By ernest hemingway.

'The Old Man and the Sea' is a story of man versus nature, hardship, poverty, and himself. At the beginning of the novella, Hemingway takes a reader directly to the life and struggles of Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman.

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

He’s making his way back to shore after what is his eighty-fourth day without catching a fish. This hardship, and its reverberating impact, consume Santiago’s life . Fishing is everything to him. It is both his passion and the way he makes a living. Read The Old Man and the Sea  summary here .

In his failure, I felt every impossibility of my own life. In his hope and perseverance: something of the human spirit. His character drives the novella, without the incredible character-building Hemingway engaged in, the story would be a shell of itself.  

While Santiago’s luck might be down, his ability to look towards the next day and find a reason to keep going is persistent. These are features of Hemingway’s main character that endeared him to me. I felt, almost instantly, an attachment to Santiago and a stake in his day-to-day hardship.  

Santiago and Manolin

As The Old Man and the Sea  progresses , the reader is treated to a clear look into Santiago’s mind and the purity of his drives. He cares about simple things, fishing first and foremost, but also his young friend Manolin, and baseball, specifically Joe DiMaggio. I felt that this, as have critics since it was written, is Hemingway at his best, his most articulate and most engaging.  

When the character of Manolin is introduced, the already growing empathy and commitment I felt towards Santiago’s character were expanded. To care for one, and feel tied to his fate, is to care for the other. Manolin is connected to Santiago through friendship and mutual interest in fishing and sports.  

The investment I’d already developed in these characters and their fight against poverty, hunger, and failure, was taken out to sea alongside Santiago. He endeavors, hoping against hope that this time on the eighty-fifth day, things will be different. He has faced streaks of bad luck before and refuses to believe this one will be his longest.  

The Pursuit  

With joy and relief, I greeted the news that a fish had taken the old man’s hook. “Oh, thank goodness,” I said out loud, surprising myself with my attachment to the fictional events put on paper more than sixty years ago. This was it, I thought, f inally relief for this infinitely deserving man is in reach. But, as with all great fiction, my satisfaction was prolonged. What followed was a struggle beyond my comprehension. Days passed with the fish dragging Santiago further and further out to sea. To make it all the more frustrating, for some time he didn’t even know what had taken the bait.  

Hemingway’s depictions of pain, perseverance, and fortitude are unmatched in this memorable section of The Old Man and the Sea .  Through Santiago’s thoughts and the words he spoke aloud to himself, a reader is pulled into a world of suffering and determination. In my own hands, it seemed as though I could feel the weight of the line. Across my back, I tried to imagine its pressure. The dragging hours as one day moved into the night and day again, weighed on my own mind as I considered the reserves of strength the old man had.  

Character Motivations and Considerations

At this point in The Old Man and the Sea,  I found myself considering Santiago’s motivations and what I would do in his place. I knew without a doubt that I couldn’t withstand the miserable forces he did as the marlin dragged him out to sea. Nor could I return to the ocean after the devastation the sharks wrought on the long labored for fish later in the novella. This, of course, made his efforts all the more impressive.  

But what, I asked myself, kept him going? How could he, an old frail man, pursue the marlin so single-mindedly? While I could never say for sure what Ernest Hemingway was thinking, or what Santiago might say for himself, I concluded that I think speaks to the root of the old man’s character.  

When the marlin took his hook and he saw the prize within his grasp, he felt everything—all the impossibles in his life—merge into one single, physical possibility at the end of his line. He knew that he had to catch this fish or die trying. It was the culmination of his simple life and the experiences he’d drawn on to get where he was. He wanted to prove himself worthy, as a man, but also as another life form, suffering and surviving as the myriad of fish and birds do around him.  

The Old Man and the Sea : A Conclusion

In conclusion, this achingly short novella, which speaks so clearly on what it means to be human in a cold, and hateful world, brings me hope. Finishing it for what is not the first time, I found myself entranced by Santiago’s continued fascination with his past. Specifically, the lions on the beach. The memory imprinted itself onto my own mind, and I tried to place myself in his shoes and figure out what it was about the scene that had so captured him.

I believe now it was the purity of the moment. The world was in alignment, with nature acting in accordance with its own laws and at the same time displaying Santiago the two of the possibles that consume human life—joy and community.  

The Old Man and the Sea Review: Earnest Hemingway's Pulitzer Prize Winning Novel

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The Old Man and the Sea Review

Even though The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel, it has a powerful impact. Santiago’s world, although simple, is incredibly moving and memorable. He suffers through poverty and hardship for little reward. His few pleasures, being on the sea, speaking with his young friend, and baseball are meager. But, all that makes him somehow easier to connect with.

When Santiago goes on to sea, trying once again to break his streak of unsuccessful fish trips, he embarks on a journey that pushes him to his absolute limits. The reader is asked to consider the value of life, their own capacity for suffering, and how if long they could persevere in the face of what Santiago stands up against.

• Hemingway’s writing style is incredibly effective.
• The characters are vibrant easy to connect with.
• Hemingway successfully uses imagery and memories to create a moving inner narrative when Santiago is at sea.
• Limited dialogue. Most of the actions play out through narration.
• Disappointing conclusion for Santiago who suffered for nothing.
• Reader is left wondering what happens to Santiago at the end of the novel.

About Emma Baldwin

Emma Baldwin, a graduate of East Carolina University, has a deep-rooted passion for literature. She serves as a key contributor to the Book Analysis team with years of experience.

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Book Review: ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway published ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ in 1952, and it was to be his last major work. It is easy to see the parallels between the old man in the novel, called Santiago, and Hemingway. Santiago suffers from bad luck in his old age despite being a great fisher in his youth. Hemingway had been trying to reclaim the literary success of his older books, such as “The Sun Also Rises” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Even though Santiago could have success in the easier, nearer patches of water, he hunts for a bigger fish further out. Hemingway too searches for a big success and writes this ambitious project.

Santiago’s run of bad luck continues for the 85th day; he hooks a marlin, but the marlin is too smart to panic and die quickly. Santiago must wait for the marlin to get hungry and jump out of the water. In this waiting game with the marlin, he verges onto the point of insanity, brought about by hunger, thirst and a lack of sleep. And yet he never lets go of the fishing line that connects him and the marlin. You, as the reader, as a bystander to this madness, at this point implore Santiago to let go and head back to shore, thinking to yourself “Why doesn’t he just let go?” in frustration. Santiago, on the one hand completely oblivious to your protestations, but also completely aware of them at the same time, does not let go.

Santiago wonders about this connection that he has made with this marlin. The marlin has seen him, and he has seen the marlin. He thinks that the marlin is far more dignified, far more beautiful and is ultimately far more deserving of life than him, with his old, decrepit body, abject poverty and the curse of bad luck that hangs over him. The marlin seems to also know this, seeing its reluctance to give up. And so Santiago must come up with a reason to justify his own survival. And he points to two things: his will and his intellect. In his moments of madness, he must rely on reason to come to a judgement of how things must be, and then bring about this outcome through his will. Because he can do this, and the marlin cannot, Santiago judges that he should live and the marlin should die; at this point, Santiago is playing at God, and promptly whispers some catechisms, asking the Lord to forgive him.

The marlin is far more dignified, far more beautiful and is ultimately far more deserving of life than him.

The stream of consciousness that Hemingway uses reflects Santiago’s way of coping with his madness. He ultimately asks 3 questions in this battle: “Who am I? Why am I here? What is it about me that deserves to live?” His response to the first question comes with his memories, which are, by definition, personal. His mind drifts to baseball, to the market stalls and to the fields of Africa, where he spent his youth. He traces who he was, and how he has got here. The second question is answered by the fact that he remembers that he has been fishing his whole life, and that fishing has essentially become the sole purpose of his life. All of his fishing experience has led him to this triumph. The third question is answered with a final moment; Santiago relates the story of when he arm-wrestled a man for 2 days in order to win. He identifies himself through his will. Even though this mission is suicide, giving up and letting go would also be a sort of suicide, because he has betrayed who he sees himself as. Time has taken away his body and his fortune, and so, his will is his last stand against time and it is the only thing that he will not relinquish. By extension, he cannot not relinquish the fishing line in his hand.

Santiago’s story is ultimately one of failure and his run of bad luck continues. The marlin’s blood has entered the ocean and the marlin’s corpse, strapped to the side of the boat, is eaten by sharks. He comes back after several days and all there is to show for it is a skeleton. Yet he has succeeded. Not only did he return alive, he also never betrayed his principles or his will. And so he lives to fish another day, whereas the marlin does not.

Even though this mission is suicide, giving up and letting go would also be a sort of suicide, because he has betrayed who he sees himself as.

Yet the ending is not depressing or demoralising. Santiago goes to bed, has some food when he wakes up and then goes fishing again, to repeat the whole process. Santiago has reaffirmed who he is in his old age; he has justified that he does not need to change. Resolute, unyielding and unchanging. This is what, Hemingway argues, it means to be a man.

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THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

by Ernest Hemingway ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1952

A long short story and worth the money in quality of the old Hemingway of Men Without Women days — though in quantity it can't bulk to more than a scant 150 pages. A unique fishing story — as old man Santiago determines to try his luck in the Gulf waters off Cuba for the eighty fifth day. Surely his luck will change, he assures his faithful young friend whose parents wouldn't let him fish any more in such an ill-fated boat. So the boy goes along in imagination with the old man, pretending that there is enough food in the shanty- and supplementing the lacks from his own table; pretending that bait could be found- and bringing him sardines; planning for getting some warmer clothes for him and lugging water from the village pump; talking gaily of the great "DiMag" and of the game the Yankees are sure to win. And then the old man goes out — beyond the other fishing boats — and drops his lines in the way he has always done, and baits the hooks so that his hoped for great fish could smell and taste. The miracle happens — and the fish, a giant marlin, is bigger than any fish dreamed of. And the old man is alone....The story of that battle, that carried him out to sea and lasted through two days and two nights, is one of the miniature modern classics of such writing. And the story of the sailing back to port, as little by little the scavengers of the sea stripped what was to have been his livelihood for months to come, down to the skeleton, is grim and heartbreaking. A miracle tale, told with such passionate belief that the reader, too, believes. There's adventure here and Hemingway's old gift for merging drama and tenderness gives it a rare charm.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1952

ISBN: 0684801221

Page Count: 132

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1952

GENERAL FICTION

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by Ernest Hemingway with Patrick Hemingway ; edited by Brendan Hemingway & Stephen Adams

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by Ernest Hemingway edited by Rena Sanderson ; Sandra Spanier ; Robert W. Trogdon

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A LITTLE LIFE

by Hanya Yanagihara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2015

The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.

Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.

Yanagihara ( The People in the Trees , 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.  

Pub Date: March 10, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8

Page Count: 720

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015

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PERSPECTIVES

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

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by Harper Lee

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'The Old Man and the Sea' Review

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" The Old Man and the Sea " was a big success for Ernest Hemingway when it was published in 1952. At first glance, the story appears to be a simple tale of an old Cuban fisherman who catches an enormous fish, only to lose it. There's much more to the story -- a tale of bravery and heroism, of one man's struggle against his own doubts, the elements, a massive fish, sharks and even his desire to give up.

The old man eventually succeeds, then fails, and then wins again. It's the story of perseverance and the machismo of the old man against the elements. This slim novella -- it's only 127 pages -- helped to revive Hemingway's reputation as a writer , winning him great acclaim, including the Nobel Prize for literature. 

Santiago is an old man and a fisherman who has gone for months without catching a fish. Many are starting to doubt his abilities as an angler. Even his apprentice, Manolin, has abandoned him and gone to work for a more prosperous boat. The old man sets out to the open sea one day -- off the Florida coast -- and goes a little farther out than he normally would in his desperation to catch a fish. Sure enough, at noon, a big marlin takes hold of one of the lines, but the fish is far too big for Santiago to handle.

To avoid letting the fish escape, Santiago lets the line go slack so that the fish won't break his pole; but he and his boat are dragged out to sea for three days. A kind of kinship and honor develop between the fish and the man. Finally, the fish -- an enormous and worthy opponent -- grows tired, and Santiago kills it. This victory does not end Santiago's journey; he is still far out to sea. Santiago has to drag the marlin behind the boat, and the blood from the dead fish attracts sharks. Santiago does his best to fend off the sharks, but his efforts are in vain. The sharks eat the flesh of the marlin, and Santiago is left with only the bones. Santiago gets back to shore -- weary and tired -- with nothing to show for his pains but the skeletal remains of a large marlin. Even with just the bare remains of the fish, the experience has changed him and altered the perception others have of him. Manolin wakes the old man the morning after his return and suggests that they once again fish together.

Life and Death

During his struggle to catch the fish, Santiago holds on to the rope -- even though he is cut and bruised by it, even though he wants to sleep and eat. He holds onto the rope as though his life depends on it. In these scenes of struggle, Hemingway brings to the fore the power and masculinity of a simple man in a simple habitat. He demonstrates how heroism is possible in even the most seemingly mundane circumstances.

Hemingway's novella shows how death can invigorate life, how killing and death can bring a man to an understanding of his own mortality -- and his own power to overcome it. Hemingway writes of a time when fishing was not merely a business or a sport. Instead, fishing was an expression of humankind in its natural state -- in tune with nature. Enormous stamina and power arose in the breast of Santiago. The simple fisherman became a classical hero in his epic struggle.

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Author Interviews

The enduring depths of 'old man and the sea'.

"The best I can write ever for all of my life." That's what Hemingway said 54 years ago Saturday about his just-finished short novel The Old Man and the Sea . Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers tells Susan Stamberg why a brief story is so significant.

The cover of a 1995 reprinting of Hemingway's short novel depicts the fisherman's battle with a great marlin. hide caption

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SUSAN STAMBERG, Host:

Ernest Hemingway once said, Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can. Fifty-four years ago today, on March 4, 1952, Mr. Hemingway wrote his publisher that he had just finished a short novel that was, quote, The best I can write ever for all of my life. The book was The Old Man and the Sea, published first in a single issue of Life magazine. Mr. Hemingway's story of the struggle between a weather-beaten Cuban fisherman and a giant marlin won the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The book begins this way.

CHARLTON HESTON: He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf stream and he'd gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

STAMBERG: Thanks for talking with us, Mr. Meyers.

JEFFREY MEYERS: Thank you.

STAMBERG: Ernest Hemingway was 52 when he wrote it. Where was he in his writing life?

MEYERS: His previous book to this was Across the River and Into the Trees, which was the first book he published after World War Two. It came out in 1950 and it got a very negative response from the critics. So he was trying to make a comeback with The Old Man and the Sea, and the book, in fact, was a tremendous success.

STAMBERG: But these most famous books, really, the books that made his career, The Sun Also Rises, Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they were years earlier, weren't they?

MEYERS: That's right. And this one's quite different.

STAMBERG: What can you tell us about the writing of Old Man and the Sea? Where was he when he wrote it? How much of a struggle did he have with it?

MEYERS: The novel is written in extremely and deliberately simple style; and it's still used for that reason to teach English in foreign countries. And the book still sells about $100,000 worth of books a year abroad.

STAMBERG: My goodness.

MEYERS: Which is fantastic for simply one title more than 50 years ago.

STAMBERG: What were the reactions of reviewers when The Old Man and the Sea came out?

MEYERS: Rapturous. Perhaps they were trying to compensate for a bit, because they had been so hard on Hemingway on the previous book. And it sold 5,300,000 copies in two days of life and it remained a bestseller for six months.

STAMBERG: This book is seen as an allegory, sort of a testimonial to human endurance, the idea of bravery against terrible odds.

MEYERS: And in The Old Man and the Sea the sharks seem to represent not only sharks but also the critics, who had recently attacked him over his last book.

STAMBERG: Let's hear more of Hemingway's writing. Charlton Heston again, and a section from The Old Man and the Sea.

HESTON: Thank you. You make me happy. I hope no fish will come along so great that he will prove us wrong.

STAMBERG: Biographer Jeffrey Meyers, what is so great about this book?

MEYERS: Well, I suppose the simple power of the theme and the idea that a man who is weak and poor and old, and has gone through tremendous physical hardships, including having his hands sort of torn up by the rope and the struggle, does in fact endure, and prevail, even though he's lost what he's fought for, because the sharks have eaten the marlin.

STAMBERG: Hmm. Do you yourself have any reservations about this book, Mr. Meyers?

MEYERS: I do. I think it's too obvious, and too simpleminded, and too sentimental. And I think the Christian symbolism is too crudely overt. And I think it may even be a deliberate parody for readers and professors who are looking for symbols. As Hemingway said you want a symbol, here's a symbol that everybody who reads Life magazine, the essence of middlebrow America in the 50s, will understand and applaud.

STAMBERG: Hmm.

MEYERS: I think it's ironic that he gets all these prizes for what I consider one his weakest books. And he didn't get that kind of recognition for the ones you mentioned earlier on, which are his great masterpieces, The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

STAMBERG: Thank you, Mr. Meyers.

MEYERS: Thank you.

STAMBERG: Fifty-four years ago today, Ernest Hemingway wrote his editor at Scribner's that The Old Man and the Sea was the best he could write ever. The book was on the bestseller list for 26 weeks and translated into 26 languages.

Copyright © 2006 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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Books to give you hope: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The story of an elderly Cuban fisherman, with little but hope to sustain him through a punishing life, tells a fundamental truth about life

Dreamers, they never see the riptide coming. But then who can really blame them? Better to sail an ocean of hope than a sea of despair. Never mind what lies beneath: a world without dreamers would be a nightmare.

Santiago, the old man in Ernest Hemingway’s 1952 novella, is a dreamer. But with age, his dreams have changed, scuffed and sanded down by decades of fishing the Gulf Stream: no longer does his sleeping mind drift to the great events throughout his life but instead just to a place, a childhood memory: lions playing on an African beach. And he wonders: “Why are the lions the main thing that is left?”

Santiago is a simple man. Fishing is his life, while baseball, the Gran Ligas, is his religion. A New York Yankee, “the great DiMaggio”, is his earthly god. But lately the sea has been cruel, and the old man has endured 84 days without a catch. He thinks and speaks of luck but is not prone to superstition. He is reverent but not pious, wary of devotion, although he could waver. When it suits, when hope takes the bait under the deep blue sea, Santiago offers to pray should he require not only strength but fortitude to land his prize: “I will say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys that I should catch this fish, and I promise to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin de Cobre if I catch him. That is a promise.”

With his village status of saleo, “the worst form of unlucky”, his body racked and gnarled by years of labour but with blue eyes “cheerful and undefeated”, he sets out on the 85th day since his last catch and rows the skiff far, away from the deep wells that have offered no reward, towards “the schools of bonita and albacore” where he might fare better: “My big fish must be somewhere.”

He is not wrong. But it is then, with his quarry hooked, that the true test begins. Day becomes night becomes day, and with little or no sleep the old man loses track of time and islands of Sargasso weed drift by. Eating raw bonito and dorado to maintain strength, while slowly sapping the marlin’s will, Santiago regrets his poor planning: “I will never go in a boat again without salt or limes.” But his words are laced with hope that he will return to the sea.

He will win the battle but lose the prize, and rue the desperation that carried him beyond practical bounds. He laments the ruins of his lionheart dream, and yet he remains unbowed: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

I was revisiting this fable when news broke that an elderly priest had been slain at the Normandy altar where he was presiding over mass. After the horror had ebbed, I returned to Hemingway and found solace. Words have a power no violence can breach. Whispered in a church or shouted in a storm, words are a lifelong friend. And Hemingway’s words, in this slim volume, are consistently affecting, as steady a comfort as a lighthouse beam.

The Old Man and the Sea is a beautiful tale, awash in the seasalt and sweat, bait and beer of the Havana coast. It tells a fundamental human truth: in a volatile world, from our first breath to our last wish, through triumphs and pitfalls both trivial and profound, what sustains us, ultimately, is hope.

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The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | Book Review

PLOT: 4.5/5 CHARACTERS: 5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 CLIMAX: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5

“Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.” ~ Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

One of the bookish resolutions that I took in 2018 was to read 10 classics. My progress wasn’t noteworthy but I am determined to change it in the coming years.

I picked up The Old Man and the Sea because I am participating in an Instagram readathon in which the prompt was to read a book that is a part of a “100 books to read in a lifetime” list.

Needless to state, The Old Man and the Sea frequently graces many such lists and was a good option.

What is the book all about and what to expect?

The Old Man and the Sea is a classic novel written in 1951 by Ernest Hemingway . It is considered to be the last major work by the eminent author to be published while he was alive.

The book is a short read (under 100 pages) which is set in Havana, Cuba. The story tells us the tale of an old fisherman, a young boy and a beautiful and brave fish.

What is the story like?

Santiago is an old fisherman who has gone 84 days without fishing. He has now been termed as “salao” by the local people, which means that he is suffering from the worst form of unluckiness.

Once a sturdy and healthy man, he was great at his job and would always catch the best fish. Now, he is an old and poor man with nothing much to keep his days and mind occupied.

Even the boy whom he loves dearly and had trained well is now forbidden by his parents to work with the old man because of his unlucky strike.

Manolin, the young boy, however, loves Santiago and cares for him. He often brings him food and tea and they talk about all things under the sun especially Santiago’s favourite – the American baseball.

Determined to change his luck and bring home a catch big enough to get the town talking, the old man sets out on the sea on the 85 th day. He goes out into the Gulf Stream and his bait soon gets taken by a big fish which he supposes is a Marlin.

But, the fish will not relent so easily. The old man is also determined and won’t let go easily. What follows is a fight for life with both sides being equally brave and determined.

“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

How good are the characters?

The characters are one of the most honest and brave ones that I have come across in a book in recent times.

Santiago, the old man is . Though his body is weakened by the number of years he has seen, the same cannot be said about his resolve. That he is old in his manners and in his treatment of elements only adds to his charms. Unlike, many younger fishermen he respects the sea and calls her La Mar, a term of endearment.

“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.”

Santiago, for me, was a character that cannot be . His respect for the Marlin is also noteworthy. Though he is determined to prevail, he still respects the fish and apologizes to it profusely. He calls it noble and and sometimes laments about the futility of such an existence, which makes people do such horrible things to nature’s beautiful creatures.

The author’s writing style

I consider myself quite incompetent to comment on the author’s writing style. The author chooses a very simple story and turns it into a masterpiece. If that is not wonderful, I don’t know what else is.

I also liked the way a non-human i.e. the Marlin plays such an important role in the book.

The life lessons which the old man teaches while battling for his own existence is also something to look forward to in this book.

What I absolutely loved?

Undoubtedly, the climax is the best part of the book but more about that in the following paragraphs.

What did I not like?

The Old Man and the Sea is a difficult read for somebody who isn’t familiar with all the fishing jargons, methods, techniques and equipment. This is probably one of the reasons most readers find it difficult to finish the book.

It also means that once you are through the book you emerge as a more informed reader. I personally found myself googling for a lot of information throughout the course of the book, and that is something that really makes me happy.

What about the climax?

The climax is what makes this book a winner. The magic of The Old Man and the Sea lies in its tragic ending and that is what elevates the book to its classic status.

The climax is and, in the end, if you are a sensitive and emotional reader like me, you cannot help but shed a tear or two for the old man Santiago and his undying spirit.

How good was the entertainment quotient?

The book, though a short read, is not an easy one. It takes time for the reader to get into it and it is also perceptibly slow towards the middle, but that doesn’t take away the entertainment quotient.

Finishing the book does require some effort but, in the end, it is worth every minute that you spend reading it.

 Pick up the book if

The book is often featured in the “100 books to read in a lifetime” list, do you need any other reason apart from that?

Skip the book if

Skip the book if you don’t like slow reads and if classics are not your cup of tea.

Watch the video here

Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of The Old Man and the Sea from the link below.

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About the Author

Sankalpita singh.

Meet Sankalpita, the bookworm extraordinaire! 📚 With an insatiable appetite for reading (over 100 books annually!), she embarked on her book blogging journey in 2013 to share her boundless love for books. What started as a quirky hobby has blossomed into India's top-tier book blog, bookGeeks – the reigning champion for five consecutive years! 🏆 With a whopping 7,00,000 loyal readers monthly, Sankalpita's blog is like a literary wonderland. 📖✨ But that's not all – she's not just conquering the written word but also ruling the YouTube realm with her channel, bookGeeks India, dedicated solely to the art of book adoration, and boasting a fan base of over 24,000 subscribers! 🎥📚 Her ultimate goal? "To serve a nation through literature." 🇮🇳 With a passion for Indian literature, she's on a mission to ignite the reading spark in both kids and grown-ups alike. 🔥 When she's not nose-deep in a book or typing away, you'll find her brainstorming with her hubby or captivating her 8-year-old daughter with enchanting tales. And every now and then, she indulges her creative spirit through painting and nurturing her garden. 🌻🎨 Join Sankalpita on her bookish adventure as she brings the world of literature to life, one page at a time!

Check latest articles from this author:

Meera of karmana vol 1 | nitin antoon | book review, the lost treasure of azad hind fauj | piyush rohankar | book review, author sunil joshi talks about his book ‘kachche pakke rang zindagi ke’ (कहानी संकलन) | hindi interview, related articles, 27 souls: spine chilling scary stories | vaidehi taman | book review, सुनो माँ (suno maa) | संदीप भूतोड़िया (sundeep bhutoria) | पुस्तक समीक्षा.

Ernest Hemingway New York: Charles Scribner�s Sons, 1952 127 pages.

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The Old Man and the Sea (1952)">William Faulkner’s Review of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952)

in Books | March 13th, 2019 3 Comments

Images via Wiki­me­dia Com­mo ns

In the mid-20th cen­tu­ry, the two big dogs in the Amer­i­can lit­er­ary scene were William Faulkn­er and Ernest Hem­ing­way . Both were inter­na­tion­al­ly revered, both were mas­ters of the nov­el and the short sto­ry, and both won Nobel Prizes.

Born in Mis­sis­sip­pi, Faulkn­er wrote alle­gor­i­cal his­to­ries of the South in a style that is both ellip­ti­cal and chal­leng­ing. His works were marked by uses of stream-of-con­scious­ness and shift­ing points of view. He also favored titan­i­cal­ly long sen­tences, hold­ing the record for hav­ing, accord­ing to the Guin­ness Book of Records, the longest sen­tence in lit­er­a­ture. Open your copy of Absa­lom! Absa­lom!   to chap­ter 6 and you’ll find it. Hem­ing­way, on the oth­er hand, famous­ly sand­blast­ed the florid prose of Vic­to­ri­an-era books into short, terse, decep­tive­ly sim­ple sen­tences. His sto­ries were about root­less, dam­aged, cos­mopoli­tan peo­ple in exot­ic loca­tions like Paris or the Serengeti.

If you type in “Faulkn­er and Hem­ing­way” in your favorite search engine, you’ll like­ly stum­ble upon this famous exchange — Faulkn­er on Hem­ing­way: “He has nev­er been known to use a word that might send a read­er to the dic­tio­nary.” Hem­ing­way: “Poor Faulkn­er. Does he real­ly think big emo­tions come from big words?” Zing! Faulkn­er report­ed­ly didn’t mean for the line to come off as an insult but Hem­ing­way took it as one. The inci­dent end­ed up being the most acri­mo­nious in the two authors’ com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship.

While Faulkn­er and Hem­ing­way nev­er for­mal­ly met, they were reg­u­lar cor­re­spon­dents, and each was keen­ly aware of the other’s tal­ents. And they were com­pet­i­tive with each oth­er, espe­cial­ly Hem­ing­way who was much more inse­cure than you might sur­mise from his macho per­sona. While Hem­ing­way reg­u­lar­ly called Faulkn­er “the best of us all,” mar­veling at his nat­ur­al abil­i­ties, he also ham­mered Faulkn­er for resort­ing to tricks. As he wrote to Har­vey Bre­it , the famed crit­ic for The   New York Times , “If you have to write the longest sen­tence in the world to give a book dis­tinc­tion, the next thing you should hire Bill Veek [sic] and use midgets.”

Faulkn­er, on his end, was no less com­pet­i­tive. He once told the New York Her­ald Tri­bune , “I think he’s the best we’ve got.” On the oth­er hand, he bris­tled when an edi­tor men­tioned get­ting Hem­ing­way to write the pref­ace for The Portable Faulkn­er in 1946. “It seems to me in bad taste to ask him to write a pref­ace to my stuff. It’s like ask­ing one race horse in the mid­dle of a race to broad­cast a blurb on anoth­er horse in the same run­ning field.”

When Bre­it asked Faulkn­er to write a review of Hemingway’s 1952 novel­la  The Old Man and the Sea , he refused. Yet when a cou­ple months lat­er he got the same request from Wash­ing­ton and Lee University’s lit­er­ary jour­nal, Shenan­doah , Faulkn­er relent­ed, giv­ing guard­ed praise to the nov­el in a one para­graph-long review. You can read it below.

His best. Time may show it to be the best sin­gle piece of any of us, I mean his and my con­tem­po­raries. This time, he dis­cov­ered God, a Cre­ator. Until now, his men and women had made them­selves, shaped them­selves out of their own clay; their vic­to­ries and defeats were at the hands of each oth­er, just to prove to them­selves or one anoth­er how tough they could be. But this time, he wrote about pity: about some­thing some­where that made them all: the old man who had to catch the fish and then lose it, the fish that had to be caught and then lost, the sharks which had to rob the old man of his fish; made them all and loved them all and pitied them all. It’s all right. Praise God that what­ev­er made and loves and pities Hem­ing­way and me kept him from touch­ing it any fur­ther.

And you can also watch below a fas­ci­nat­ing talk by schol­ar Joseph Frus­cione about how Faulkn­er and Hem­ing­way com­pet­ed and influ­enced each oth­er. He wrote the recent book,  Faulkn­er and Hem­ing­way: Biog­ra­phy of a Lit­er­ary Rival­ry  .

Note: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this post appeared on our site in July 2014.

Relat­ed Con­tent: 

Ernest Hem­ing­way Cre­ates a Read­ing List for a Young Writer, 1934

See a Beau­ti­ful­ly Hand-Paint­ed Ani­ma­tion of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1999)

The Art of William Faulkn­er: Draw­ings from 1916–1925

Jonathan Crow  is a Los Ange­les-based writer and film­mak­er whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hol­ly­wood Reporter, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low him at  @jonccrow .

by Jonathan Crow | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Related posts:

Comments (3), 3 comments so far.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly the quote above by Faulkn­er about Hem­ing­way read­ers not need­ing to go to the dic­tio­nary, is tak­en out of con­text and is only the par­tial quote. The video above shows the full quote, and from that we can eas­i­ly see more harm­ful intent from Faulkn­er.

Frag­ile egos, well bal­anced between the two.

I remem­ber read­ing Hem­ing­way referred to Faulkn­er as “old mel­liflu­ous”, at least once. A per­fect moniker (and a pret­ty big word, arguably) coined by Hem­ing­way.

Any­way, a great Faulkner­ian para­graph of a review by the man him­self.

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The Musical Brains

By arijit bhattacharya.

• Sep 6, 2021

Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway

This is the tiniest book on my bookshelf, but it has taken a much bigger place in my heart. This book with 99 pages will bring you to the middle of the sea, you will be on a small fishing boat with the old man Santiago, the adventure of eighty-four days will make you fall in love with this old man. His courage, energy, enthusiasm will remind you that how young the old man is. As a virtual partner, you probably can not accompany him so he will be all alone in this eighty-four days of journey and missing his only little friend Manolin.

This book was written simply and has two sides; one is adventurous, the other is full of life lessons. The main character of this book is the old man Santiago, who is a very experienced and skilled fisherman from Cuba. He was called “salao” by the local people of his area, which means he was at the worst form of unluckiness. The other highlighted character is Manolin, a young boy who learned fishing from Santiago and really loves and cares about him. Because of family restrictions Manolin wasn’t able to join Santiago in his next fishing journey, and just wished him very good luck. But it was Santiago’s fortune, his bad luck stayed with him for 84 days of his fishing on the sea of Cuba. Twist came on the 85th day, which suddenly changed the story when Santiago hooked a marlin fish. The smart giant marlin then started making him struggle every single moment. Though insufficient sleep, wounded hand, hunger, and thrust made Santiago physically weak but he was a young-minded old man who challenged the fish and vowed to kill this giant soon. It took 3 days to kill the fish. The story didn’t end here, he was with a piece of good luck this time but again luck betrayed him. As he was in the sea on the way to his home, a group of sharks attacked the dead fish. Then Santiago’s struggle continued with this verse of the story. Just imagine an old man in the middle of the sea with a dead fish attacked by a group of dangerous sharks, what could be more worse than that? After a treacherous fight finally, he was able to reach home with that giant, though only its trace remained there with him. The story ended with a bunch of beautiful and thrilling memories from the sea and a lesson to stay happy in every situation.

Santiago’s struggle with the giant marlin fish will thrill you up, but in the end, it will make you emotional. His relation with Manolin will remind you again that friendship has no age limit.

The unique diversity of this book makes it winning Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and Nobel Prize in Literature for Ernest Hemingway.

I have finished it so early, and right now, I am missing it very badly. Now when I see the name “ The Old Man and the Sea ” it creates a clear world of imagination in front of my eyes, where I am on a fishing boat again with Santiago, he is struggling with the giant marlin and murmuring on his own that “I wish I had the boy”…

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Book Review

The old man and the sea.

• Ernest Hemingway
• Drama , Historical

Readability Age Range

• Scribner Book Company, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
• Nobel Prize in Literature, 1954; Award of Merit Medal for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1954; Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1953

Year Published

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

Santiago, an old fisherman, hasn’t caught anything in 84 days. He’s discouraged. His friend and former sailing mate, Manolin, longs to help him, but Manolin’s parents refuse because of Santiago’s poor fishing record. On day 85, Santiago feels a tug he knows to be the fish he’s been looking for. But the fish is so enormous and strong that for several days it pulls him farther out to sea. Hemingway details the valiant struggle between man and fish, lauding the old man for his perseverance despite the fact that sharks ultimately eat his prize fish.

Christian Beliefs

Santiago has religious pictures on his wall. He questions the purpose of sea swallows, birds that are really too weak and delicate to survive against harsher sea birds. Santiago tells God he isn’t religious, but that he would say “Hail Mary” and “Our Father” prayers and make a pilgrimage if he catches the fish. He follows this with additional prayers that are more repetitive than heartfelt. Santiago contemplates whether it is a sin to kill the fish. Hemingway employs a fair amount of crucifixion imagery throughout the book to portray Santiago as a Christ figure who transcends death and defeat.

Other Belief Systems

The old man talks quite a bit about luck concerning fishing. Manolin’s parents are happier now that he is working with a “lucky” boat.

Authority Roles

Santiago is Manolin’s hero. Santiago teaches Manolin a great deal about fishing. However, Manolin keeps a close eye on Santiago to make sure Santiago gets the nourishment and care needed. At times, Santiago is under the authority of both the sea and his great fish. At other moments, he masters them with his skill and perseverance.

Profanity & Violence

Phrases like “God knows,” “Christ knows” or “God help me” appear; few, if any, are an intentional misuse of the Lord’s name. In demonstrating his passionate faithfulness to the old man, Manolin uses the words d–n and h—.

Sexual Content

Santiago calls the dangerous Portuguese man-of-war invertebrate a whore. He later talks about the same animal heaving and swinging as though “the ocean were making love with something.”

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Other issues: The boy buys the old man a beer. (There is no clear indication as to whether the boy has one himself.) When the old man asks if he’d steal some sardines, the boy says he will, but he doesn’t.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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