The 'old man' of the story is Santiago, an experienced fisherman who is on a run of bad luck. He has had eighty-four days without catching a single fish. Now determined to end the run he goes out fishing further than he has done and ends up luring a great marlin, which takes his bait and continues to pull the fisherman for two days. Santiago finally kills the beast but while he is trying to take the fish back with him to the market sharks come and eat the marlin, leaving him with only the skeleton. He returns to the village and, exhausted from the ordeal, is waited on by his devoted young assistant Manolin back to health.
The story is probably unlike most of his other fiction being that it has an allegorical aspect to it, more fable like then his other realistic narratives. For me this is a plus as I think it makes more of an impact relating a message, or meditation, on the human condition.
The struggle for Santiago is the struggle for, initially, success, and then a struggle for life where all his can do is hold on until his moment to strike opens to him. He lives but with nothing to show apart from a skeleton which the villages mistake for another fish, but somehow it has all been worth it as he managed to see another day.
No man loves life like an old man, so the saying goes and after his adventure you feel that Santiago loves life more than ever, or he will do when he recovers.
A darker interpretation of the story would be that for all his efforts the fisherman's escapade is futile, as man cannot, ultimately master the natural world but succumb to the forces of animals more adept to survive. Nature humbles man offering no meanings for it's existence but a struggle to reproduce and survive.
And yet the surviving is enough.
By living we gain the greatest gift that all of the universe can offer: life itself. To spend time smelling the roses and noticing the beauty of the world, the small moments of kindness, the unexpectant happiness and joy you might feel for no reason are reasons for living.
We may involve ourselves in great struggles that might feel to be life or death or end up in situations where you may have to prove yourself even if you think the odds are stacked then, Hemingway might be suggesting, the struggle is worthwhile as it proves something in yourself that you might not have known to be there before. And that's valuable.
I thought this was a great book and didn't need to be any longer than it already is but certainly had plenty to say about life.
Now this is where you hit a paywall- well not exactly a paywall more like a moat you can swim across- but what I'm saying is that if you enjoyed this blog and my previous work than you can help support me by going on Patreon.com and search for Alistair David Todd-Poet.
I only ask for the lowest possible donation ($1) so that you don't have to wake up in the middle of the night sweating about bills and tax. Two reasons I ask you of this is 1) It would mean a lot to me and 2) I can buy more Nobel Prize Winning books.
You can even message me with recommendations of books I should cover that I haven't already have (being that the canon is huge), I'd be really interested in what you have to offer me. In the meantime stay safe and all the best to you.
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