The Old Man and the Sea

                Interestingly enough I never had to read Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea for school.  Maybe it’s because I focused more on Medieval lit than American lit.  At any rate, one of the members of my book club wants to read more classics so this is one that she nominated for reading.  I’ve also been interested in reading more American Lit so I went out and got the Barnes and Noble edition because it also has The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls in it.  I'm a sucker for the Barnes and Noble editions because they look really nice on a book shelf.

                The Old Man and the Sea is Pulitzer Prize winning novel.  It details the story of an old fisherman, Santiago, who has lost his luck with catching fish and is determined to go out and catch one more big fish.  He goes out alone, travels farther out than he typically does, and ends up snagging a large marlin.  The rest of the novel revolves around his attempt to reel the fish in and get it home all in one piece.  Santiago has to battle the marlin, hunger, sharks, and his own aging body in an attempt to prove to himself that he still has it in him to go out and do the job he’s been doing his whole life.  It’s about having the courage to overcome the limits of one’s own body, the ravages of time, the obstacles of nature and the unwillingness to accept defeat.

                I enjoyed The Old Man and the Sea.  I think the point Hemingway was trying to get across was well illustrated.  Santiago could have just given up, stopped fishing and lived out the remainder of his days at home but instead he’s determined to continue fishing and will not let his 84-day streak of bad luck deter him from that.  Even in the end, when things do not go exactly as he’d hoped, he still plans to continue trying.  I like that message, the reminder that you shouldn’t lose hope and should always keep trying.  Even as I walk away from this story feeling sad for Santiago I also take with me the importance of believing in oneself and your inner strength.

                I do take issue with the fact that sometimes Santiago feels like a stock character.  We learn next to nothing about him throughout the novel except that he’s an old man, he’s a fisherman who’s had a string of bad luck, he likes Joe Dimaggio, and he used to live in Africa and enjoyed watching the lions play in the sand.  When we discussed this book for book club I didn’t even refer to him often by name, instead calling him the old man, because he didn’t really feel like a character to me.  I think this made the novel a little lackluster for me because, while I wanted him to succeed, I didn’t feel invested in his success. 

                This novel also crosses one off the list from the 1001 Books you Must Read Before You Die.  I do understand why they put this one on the list.  Not only did it win the Pulitzer but Hemingway is a very important American novelist and this is one of his most popular works.  It embodies one of his most famous quotes about courage, that it is “grace under pressure.”  It is short, and widely available, so I recommend reading it if you haven’t.