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Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea
by R.P. Infantino

    I’ve always prided myself in reading the classics of literature: Faulkner, Melville, Conrad, Goethe, Voltaire, Poe, Twain, Steinbeck and many more. I had not, however, read Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea (Scribner, 1952). Most young adults, at the mention of reading a book about an old man fishing, would kick and scream and stomp and complain as if being punished. Watching grass grow would be more exciting. We want action, they claim, with machine guns and crashing cars and exploding bombs and zaftig women. But a story about an old man? Fishing? Gimme a break.

    Recently, I heard considerable praise for this book which compelled me to give it a try. Reading the introduction was an eye-opener. Hemingway was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea and the following year, due in large part to this novella, was awarded the Nobel Prize. I doubt many (remove the 'm') books with machine guns and crashing cars and exploding bombs and zaftig women have ever won the Pulitzer Prize.

    I had to read this!

    And read it I did. Not once, but twice. This novella is an enduring classic. Just as Van Gogh's Starry Night, Michelangelo's Statue of David, and Beethoven's Ode to Joy are "an instant arrested in eternity" (to quote James Huneker), so, too, is this gem. One hundred years from now, when there are all new people, The Old Man and the Sea will still be inspiring, gripping, and moving its readers.

    This compact story has, under its core, many underlying themes and messages: courage, perseverance, personal triumph, respect for nature, loss, and love.

    Amid this action/adventure in one (two, if you count the great fish), there are words of wisdom that can easily be missed if the reader is simply looking for a quick read. They're easy to overlook considering the action is so intense. Hemingway has us rooting for the old man throughout. Along the-way, the old man feeds us valuable lessons he has learned, mostly from being a fisherman "which I was born for," he says.

    Here are some useful life lessons from Santiago—who I consider as great as the Great DiMaggio whom the old man admires:

    Now is no time, to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

    Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

    I try not to borrow. First you borrow, then you beg.

    Let him [the fish] think I am more man than I am and I will be so. I have no luck anymore. But who knows?' Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes, you are ready.

    Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man.

    From his pain he knew he was not dead.

    So many more wonderful insights are expertly hidden but shout out loud when you find them. It’s no wonder the boy loved the old man so much. Hemingway makes us love him, too.

    Manolin, the boy, is no doubt important to the story. Without him, this would simply be a poor man’s Moby-Dick. Immediately in the story, the boy is the old man’s servant, catering to his physical needs (“I must have water here for him,” the boy thinks, “and soup and a good towel. Why am I so thoughtless? I must get him another shirt and a jacket for the winter and some sort of shoes and another blanket.”) as well as his emotional needs ("The best fisherman is you," the boy says.” “Thank you,” the old man replies, "you make me very happy.”)

    The boy brings humanity, compassion, and love to this tale and adds a richness it would otherwise not have. “The old man,” writes Hemingway, “taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him." When the old man dreams of the lions on the beach of Africa, Hemingway lets us know, “He [the old man] loved them as he loved the boy.” While out at sea, the old man mentions the boy no less than eleven times, how he wishes he had the boy with him.

    The old man’s love extends even further to all of nature. He mentions the porpoises who swim by his boat (“They are our brothers like the flying fish”), the small warbler (“Stay at my house if you like, bird"), the sea (“The dark water of the true gulf is the greatest healer that there is”), and of course, the great fish ("Fish, I love you and respect you very much”)

    The old man has learned much in his years and shares that with the boy who, like a sponge absorbs it all. The old man is part warrior, part philosopher when he states, “Everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive." How true for all of us.

    Even though the old man states, "I am not religious,” he mentions God no less than ten times, says the Hail Mary prayer aloud, and offers to "say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys that I should catch the fish.”

    Hemingway even references Jesus when the old man makes a sound which "is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood." After the old man makes it back to shore, he carries the mast on his shoulders (similar to Jesus carrying the cross). He even “fell and lay for some time with the mast across his shoulder,” which makes us envision Jesus as he fell with the cross still across his shoulders.

    When the boy sees the old man for the first time in three days, with all his cuts and bruises and injuries, the boy cries for the first of many times. Manolin takes care of the old man, gets him to his bed, serves him hot coffee, again cares for his physical needs as well as his emotional, reminding the old man that the fish did not beat him, it was the sharks that did him in. The old man agrees that he did, indeed, beat the fish and that "truly, it was afterwards" that the sharks did their damage. When you see the true and deep connection between the old man and the boy, the love they share for each other, you see how important it is for the young and old to be together. We can learn the best life lessons from the elderly; they have much to teach us about love, loss, relationships, and how to get through this tough ride we’re on called life. We should not put our elderly to pasture, nor should we keep them apart from our young. Who better to prepare us for a long and healthy life than those who have been through it, and survived.

    If we can all have that connection, that relationship that Hemingway so wonderfully details, our lives — both young and old — will be fuller, richer, and more beautiful.

Copyright © 2023 by R.P. Infantino