The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
An Annotated Bibliography
by Christina Ellis
Part 1:
The Old Man and the Sea is a seemingly simple story of an old man trying to catch a big fish. The meaning of the story eludes the narrative audience until they have finished, the same way the fish is always under the surface of the water until the end. You think you’re just reading a story about a man catching a fish but there is much to be discovered when you dive deeper. There are controlling values with oppositions that can lead to different meanings depending upon the interpretation.
When I started to read The Old Man and the Sea, I was reading for the lessons to be learned from the old man. I was curious about what insight and wisdom a poor old fisherman could offer me.
Sam approached the story differently because of his strong background in English and literary analysis. He said this of his reading for of the Old Man and the Sea: “I find myself challenged by my prior reading experiences with Hemingway to read for Modernist themes of nihilism conveyed through Hemingway’s abrupt prose”.
Stevens struggled with remaining a submissive reader: “I can tell that something is going on and I must begin to play different roles”.
We may have all had a different “reading for” to begin with, but we all knew that there was more to this story than an old man trying to catch a fish. I will attempt to show how we uncovered the meaning of the text.
The Old Man and the Sea is a book which is very easily read mimetically – for the sheer enjoyment of the story. The reader can easily follow the struggles that the old man, Santiago, faces while trying to reel in the catch of his lifetime.
Santiago is a strong independent man who chooses to do things on his own terms. He doesn’t want the help of the young boy, Manolin, at sea because accepting the help of others could hurt his independence and ability to act as he wants to on his own. There is a constant internal struggle throughout the book to remain independent. But he knows that being too independent will cause him to fail, and even die:
…the boy said. “You’ll not fish without eating while I’m alive.”
“Then live a long time and take care of yourself,” the old man said.
He doesn’t want to be forced into giving up his independence by taking on new technologies. He wants to stay with how things have always been done. When the narrator talks of the younger fisherman who, “who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats” there is a negative connotation because the old man will not have any of it. He will continue to do things the old way, his way. He doesn’t want to change – only endure.
His internal battle goes on throughout his solitary trip. He says a few times that he wishes the boy were there to help and also to take him away from his thoughts.
One part of his internal struggle to survive is in his ability to accept his economic status and the outcome of his life:
“…And the rich have radios to talk to them in their boats and to bring them the baseball. Now is no time to think of baseball, he thought. Now is the time to think of only one thing. That which I was born for” (10)
“I wonder how the baseball came out in the grand leagues today, he thought. It would be wonderful to do this with a radio. Then he thought, think of it always. Think of what you are doing. You must do nothing stupid.” (12)
He has to remind himself to not get lost in wishing for more than he could ever have. This is a struggle with him knowing that he could have been more successful if he hadn’t been so set on surviving on his own. This internal struggle is part of the controlling values that continue throughout the text. There is a constant battle between his beliefs and the opposing controlling values.
Part 2:
There is a qualitative progession surrounding the old man’s hands. They are described throughout the text and talked of often. They are mentioned in the beginning as a foreshadowing of the man’s success when the narrator says the scars on the man’s hands were , “erosions in a fishless desert”, giving the feeling that this man’s career and luck are just as dry and fishless.
Then the man gets a cramp and talks to his hands:
““How do you feel, hand?” he asked the cramped hand that was almost as stiff as rigor mortis. “I’ll eat some more for you.””
His hands then get injured and become the focus of the story for a short while. At the end of the story he when he finally gets home after this epic journey, he collapses with his palms face up. Throughout the story his hands are his being – they are what make a living for him and they are everything. At the end, he collapses face down with his palms up – this is a signal that his pride is gone and he gives up, at least for the night.
The mention of the man’s hands, Joe DiMaggio and the boy are examples of the repetitive form throughout this story. There is a reason that the narrator mentions these things repeatedly and I will explain further in the next section.
Part 3:
The semic code is very apparent when the narrator speaks of the old man’s hands. On the very first page of the book he says:
“…his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert”
This quote from the book alludes to the man’s long life of hard work without much success. He had to get his hands dirty and bloody to stay alive. The imagery that comes with reading “erosions in a fishless desert” is that of a bleak career. We can take an inferential walk and guess that this story will not be one of a fruitful nature.
The old man’s hands are also talked about as being “skillful” and “careful”. Although he might not be a successful fisherman, his is known for those traits. He thinks to himself about the way he casts his lines, I keep them with precision…I would rather be exact.
Then he talks to his hand when it cramps up on him. He talks about it as if it is an entity of its own:
But I do not want to open it now by force. Let it open by itself and come back of its own accord. After all I abused it much in the night when it was necessary to free and untie the various lines.
It’s reminiscent to the sensibility he proceeds with when he starts thinking about whether or not he should have been a fisherman. He thinks, Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman…But that was the thing that I was born for. I must surely remember to eat the tuna after it gets light.
The cultural codes within this text are polyvalent. The code of simple versus complex is at play when he contemplates if he should’ve been a fisherman. He brushes it off by saying, but that was the thing I was born for, so that he can remain simple. It is too late in life to think about what could have been. He must keep his mental state in tact. Keep it simple. Think of what it takes to survive – I must surely remember to eat the tuna after it gets light. He is a simple fisherman with his simple boat and gear. He doesn’t need anything more.
As he struggles with remaining simple, he reminds himself that this is what he was born for. He is simply a man who is bound by fate. This is his belief system that keeps him from feeling regret for his poor situation. He knows he shouldn’t worry about having radios or a career in baseball because there is no point – his path has been chosen for him and there is no sense in complaining.
His hands are symbolic of his own life and the struggles and triumphs that he faced. They are skilled and precise and do what is necessary, exactly as he makes sure his lines fall meticulously. His hands have endured battles, the same as he has made it through losing his wife, loneliness and poverty. He put in the hard work and got the scars but he has nothing to show for it but some cancerous blotches on his sunburnt skin.
The hands are part of the cultural code of the rich and the poor. The poor people who work with their hands every day and push them to the limits. They bleed and endure and cope while the rich sit behind their desks and go home to their fully stocked refrigerator. If you look at a person’s hands who uses them to work hard every day then you can literally see the struggle.
The marlin is a symbol of the triumph the man has had over the adversity throughout his life. Life has tried to drag him down many times but he will use whatever resources he has to win. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. He might be bleeding and getting weaker by the day but he is not afraid. He will not give up mentally unless he is destroyed physically. The marlin could also be viewed as symbol of death. This man is nearing the end of his life. His health is failing – he can barely eat anymore. Death is dragging him out to sea, but, as always, he continues to fight the inevitable.
The sharks are life itself tearing at him. He does what he can to endure and move on but he will ultimately be torn to bits, just like the marlin.
The lions are Santiago’s youth. The are free from pain and loss and full of power and playfulness. He dreams of them only because he knows his time on this earth is coming to an end. His longing for the days of his youth are apparent when he reminisces of his glory days when he beat the “great negro” in the arm wrestling match. The narrator says, “For a long time after that everyone had called him The Champion”. He has lived a long life and had his time to be the champion and he is more than aware that those days are at the bottom of the ocean. Not even catching this marlin can bring them days back, but it’s all he has. The fight with the marlin is his attempt at proving he is still strong and capable.
DiMaggio represents the greatness that the old man wishes he had. “I wonder how the great DiMaggio would have liked the way I hit him in the brain?” His obsession with this man is how he measures the greatness of his own life. He has to put it into perspective for himself so that he feels bigger.
The sea itself is life and just as multi-faceted. It tries the man’s endurance but at the same time supports him and his boat, and keeps him afloat. There are obstacles to face – the sharks – and conquests to be had – the marlin. La Mar is a woman “that gave or withheld great favours” at her whim. He loves and respects her probably as did his wife. The deep unknown of the sea is death and that’s what the man is trying to stay on top of. If he can catch this fish and bring it home then he has won, for one more day.
Part 4:
The narrator is telling a simple fishing tale. He wants you to know about the man and to feel his pain, physically and mentally. He lets us know what the old man looks like and how he feels. He gives us insight into the world the old man lives in and how he fits into it:
“…many of the fishermen made fun of the old man and he was not angry. Others, of the older fishermen, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it…”
He sets up the old man’s struggle and brings the reader into his world so that we can relate and continue reading.
The author wants to bring to light the cultural codes that surround this old man and his situation. The story is one big metaphor that can be dissected in many ways. The author is continuing the long progression of stories that deal with man and nature, rich and poor, simple and complex and the powerful and powerless. All of these codes are appropriate given the communist culture in Cuba when Hemingway lived there.
The rhetorical dimension of this text is clear when you take on the role of a resistant reader. The submissive reader will only see the tale of the old man at seas trying to catch a big fish. They will see the struggle this man faces and take it at face value. As Sam observes in his blog, the submissive reader will be “perhaps another old fisherman listening over some beers on “the terrace””. They will not look for any hidden meanings and symbols behind the words.
The resistant reader who joins the authorial audience will find this text to be polyvalent and as multi-faceted as the sea. The man and his fishing tale are necessary tools to portray the underlying theme of this man’s struggle to stay alive and hold on to his youth. He is still making plans to go out again with the boy even as he is lying on the bed unable to move because of his exhaustion and injuries from this trip. The last line in the book is “The old man was dreaming about the lions”. He is dreaming about lions because he is dying. He draws strength from thinking of his youth and the successes he’s had in the past; it’s what keeps him going.
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