Paper 303 American Literature
The Old Man and the Sea: Major themes
The Old Man and the Sea witten by Earnest Hamingway was published in the year 1952. It was a highly appreciated by critics. Santiago the Cuban fisherman is the hero. There are many themes in this novella.
Major Themes:-
Ø The Undefeated
The Old Man and the Sea has almost the same theme as “The Undefeated”, a story written twenty-five years before, and the old fisherman who has not made a catch for eighty-four days is in the same human situation as the ageing bull-fighter of the story. Compared with that and other stories, and with the best episodes in Hemingway’s previous novels,there is a certain thinness of characterisation and situation here. Yet The Old Man and the Sea does give a new definition and meaning to Hemingway’s work as awhole. It gives the reader a keener awareness of the fact thet Hemingway regards moral stamina as the most importyant value in life.
Ø Human Condition
In this novella about a fisherman who struggles to catch a large marlin only to lose it, Hemingway has stripped down the basic story of human life to its basic elements. A single human being, represented by the fisherman Santiago, is blessed with the intelligence to do big things and to dream of even grander things. Santiago shows great skill in devising ways to tire out the huge fish he hac hooked and waqys to conserver his strength in order to land it. Yet in the struggle to survive, this human must often suffer and even destroy the very things he dreams of. Thus Santiago cuts his hands badly and loses the fishto sharks in the process of trying to back to shore. Yet the struggle to achive one’s dream is still worthwhile, for without dreams, a human remains a mere physical presence in universe, with no creative or sp[iritual dimensions. And so at the end of the story, Santiago, in spite of his great lose, physical pain, and exhaustion, is still “ dreaming about lions”- the same ones he saw in Africa when he was younger and would be like to see again.
Ø Pride as the Source of Greatness & Determination
Many parallels exist between Santiago and the classic heroes of the ancient world. In addition to exhibiting terrific strength, bravery, and moral certainty, those heroes usually possess a tragic flaw—a quality that, though admirable, leads to their eventual downfall. If pride is Santiago’s fatal flaw, he is keenly aware of it. After sharks have destroyed the marlin, the old man apologizes again and again to his worthy opponent. He has ruined them both, he concedes, by sailing beyond the usual boundaries of fishermen. Indeed, his last word on the subject comes when he asks himself the reason for his undoing and decides, “Nothing . . . I went out too far.”
While it is certainly true that Santiago’s eighty-four-day run of bad luck is an affront to his pride as a masterful fisherman, and that his attempt to bear out his skills by sailing far into the gulf waters leads to disaster, Hemingway does not condemn his protagonist for being full of pride. On the contrary, Santiago stands as proof that pride motivates men to greatness. Because the old man acknowledges that he killed the mighty marlin largely out of pride, and because his capture of the marlin leads in turn to his heroic transcendence of defeat, pride becomes the source of Santiago’s greatest strength. Without a ferocious sense of pride, that battle would never have been fought, or more likely, it would have been abandoned before the end.
Santiago’s pride also motivates his desire to transcend the destructive forces of nature. Throughout the novel, no matter how baleful his circumstances become, the old man exhibits an unflagging determination to catch the marlin and bring it to shore. When the first shark arrives, Santiago’s resolve is mentioned twice in the space of just a few paragraphs. First we are told that the old man “was full of resolution but he had little hope.” Then, sentences later, the narrator says, “He hit [the shark] without hope but with resolution.” The old man meets every challenge with the same unwavering determination: he is willing to die in order to bring in the marlin, and he is willing to die in order to battle the feeding sharks. It is this conscious decision to act, to fight, to never give up that enables Santiago to avoid defeat. Although he returns to Havana without the trophy of his long battle, he returns with the knowledge that he has acquitted himself proudly and manfully. Hemingway seems to suggest that victory is not a prerequisite for honor. Instead, glory depends upon one having the pride to see a struggle through to its end, regardless of the outcome. Even if the old man had returned with the marlin intact, his moment of glory, like the marlin’s meat, would have been short-lived. The glory and honor Santiago accrues comes not from his battle itself but from his pride and determination to fight.
