THE OLD HEMINGWAY AND THE SEA

Santiago, the main character of "The Old Man and the Sea", speaking about the sea, says: 'He always thought of the sea as 'la mar,' which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her, but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen spoke of her as 'el mar' which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or with held great favours, and, if she did wild or wicked things, it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman.'    

Hemingway took the inspiration of the book from a tale he heard from Carlos Guttierez, one of Ernest's friends. The author thought it was "a marvellous story about Cuban coast, an extraordinary tale if I can tell it fine. A story that can become a book". the story was about Santiago, an old fisherman who, after eighty-four unlucky days, went to the sea alone to copture some swordfish; he hooked an enormous one, a marlin, with which he fought three long days. In the end he won the fish and he killed it without hate. In his way back he was assailed by sharks and when he reached the bank there were only the head and the fish bones.

Hemingway was also inspired by an accident he had in Cuba. A day, after a hard struggle to capture a big swordfish the animal escaped, leaving the writer alone and sad in the rain. Some years earlier there had been another episode. While he was carrying to the harbour a big tuna fish some sharks devoured it leaving only the head and the tail.

Hemingway was a colourful man, he fought in and reported on wars, hunted big game, married four times and survived several near-fatal accidents. He'd loved wild-life since he was a young boy. He used to go fishing and hunting with his father and the days they used to spend in the woods of North Michigan could be traced in his books.

In his adulthood, when he was writing a book, he used to live Havana, catching marlins with his boat "Pilar". Living dangerously was like a drug which he couldn't give up. His restlessness let him create his masterpieces.

So his life and the tales and the legends he heard from different people inspired "The Old Man and the Sea" and also "On the Blue Water" which has the same plot.

Ernest entitled his "sea book": "The old man and the sea". It revealed what it was the main theme of his works: the man's defeat; but the man, in his uneven fight, he shows a lot of brave that is, at the same time, the winner. The prose is free of erudition. The narration becomes poetry and the plot lean of the old fisherman who becomes, naturally, one of those archetype with a lot of meanings.

Santiago is a brave fisherman who lives in Cuba. But he also represents Jesus Christ with wounds on his hands and a strong headache (the crown of plugs), who drinks too much and goes to sleep on his bed with his  face down, with tense arms and the hands' palms turned, like he would be in cross.

Santiago, with his prayers acted like a priest using magic formulas and the murder of the fish is like immolation or sacrifice, he is also the man of ancient pre-Christians rituals, the man of origin. The writer uses, the "comedy of multiple identity" and the "fifth dimension" of the time with a miraculous simplicity. Symbols, allegories, different historical dimensions give a big coral effect. The result is an impression of complexity and transparency in the same time; it seems a contradiction, but it is the principal "charm" of the book. "The old man and the sea" is the idyll of the sea with the sea. In this way Hemingway creates this short but not small masterpiece.

"The old man and the sea" has also a best formal perfection. The rhythm is now calm sometimes agitate (like the sea) and every word and detail have a precise function. Simple particulars, like "lions that plays on Africa seaside" (recurring subject on Santiago's dream while he was rest, was in his three days and nights of  "passion" on the sea), become like a live background, a rare, landscape, nearly metaphysical.

The adventure assumes, in this way, a mythical dimension.

Hemingway's economical writing style often seems simple and almost childlike, but his method is calculated and used to complex effect. In his writing Hemingway provided detached descriptions of action, using simple nouns and verbs to capture scenes precisely. By doing so he avoided describing his characters' emotions and thoughts directly. Instead, in providing the reader with the raw material of an experience and eliminating the authorial viewpoint, Hemingway made the reading of a text approximate the actual experience as closely as possible. Hemingway was also deeply concerned with authenticity in writing. He believed that a writer could treat a subject honestly only if the writer had participated in or observed the subject closely. Without such knowledge the writer's work would be flawed because the reader would sense the author's lack of expertise. In addition, Hemingway believed that an author writing about a familiar subject is able to write sparingly and eliminate a great deal of superfluous detail from the piece without sacrificing the voice of authority.