THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

I try to read this novella at least once a summer. I just finished it again this morning. Unbelievable. The story gets better each time I read it. This time I was amazed at Ernest Hemingway’s sharp simplicity of description and the riveting explorations of the thoughts and dispositions of Santiago, the old man. I also paid more attention to the actual craft and skills of the old man; what the old man calls his “trickery.”

Having opined before that I think there are deliberate Christological metaphors in the story, one clear example again stood out in this reading. The old man has tied the majestic, beautiful 18 foot marlin to his little skiff and two sharks are coming for the second attack. “‘Ay,’ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.” Considering the old man’s persistent, personalized Catholicism, I don’t know how some ignore or just don’t see this clear Christ-image. “…feeling the nail go through his hands into the wood.” Uh, hel-looo.

Even though I know the sad ending (having read the story at least 10 times), or is it really sad? Could be that the old man knows that this is the way of the sea and fishing and hungry sharks in a frantic hunt for food? Of course, the boy is sad and cries, and I love the relationship between Santiago and the boy: mentor/apprentice; old/young; wise/eager to learn; lonely/a friend. I appreciate the silent admiration of the other fisherman for the tragic, yet marvelous catch even as Santiago sleeps off his deadening fatigue. I want to drink coffee with the old man and boy from condensed milk cans.

And the irony of the ending!. Two silly, ignorant tourists in the bar, caught in a language snafu, think the marlin’s skeleton is that of a shark. They have no idea of the story behind what they see lying as garbage to be washed out with the tide.

Take up and read Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Peace Prize for Literature novella. Also enjoy his boy-to-man story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and his short, short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”

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