Why I Loved Ernest Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’
It was during the sombre nights before my class ten exams that I would study the classic ‘Chandragupta Vikramaditya’ as part of my Hindi literature curriculum. For those of you who don’t know, Hindi is the national language of my celebrated country, India.
The story revolved around a king who fought battles and won wars. Somehow or the other, it kept my eyes from drooping as I turned page after page to memorise the location of every attack and the names of all the rival kings. That’s because although it was torturous to study late into the night while sacrificing sleep, the author made me feel that what I went through was nothing compared to the crisis that the king often found himself in. It would begin to pour at unexpected hours, the enemy army would be too large to combat and so on. What kept me intrigued was that even though the enemy army knew it was fighting a losing battle, the soldiers held their heads high and fought on, never giving up. That would motivate me to continue studying as well and I really believed that my life was much simpler than that of a warrior. Suddenly, everything seemed very easy — staying up late, the ginormous ICSE syllabus and even the exams.
Five years later, once again, in the middle of my college exams, I read ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. It is a celebrated novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author, Ernest Hemingway, was also awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It brought back my memories of undying perseverance and undeterred persistence of the warrior, Chandragupta Vikramaditya. The only difference was that he was a king fighting armies and the old man in this book is a poor fisherman fighting an eighteen feet long fish.
It does not take royal blood to be brave. Be it a king or a fisherman, a war or a struggle, tenacity is what it takes to keep at it even when the going gets tough. There is a lot to be learnt from this wonderful story, apart from the myriad terms used by seamen such as ‘harpoon’, ‘skiff’ and ‘tiller’.
Bonds of the Heart
The old man, Santiago, taught a boy called Manolin how to fish. Ever since, Manolin holds him in high regard. He deeply respects and appreciates the old man. He boundlessly loves him and even cries twice when he sees the old man’s hands bleeding after a rather long tussle with a big fish at sea.
Manolin looks after Santiago like his very son. He ensures the old man eats on time and also reprimands himself when he forgets to get him water to wash. He thinks of bringing Santiago a clean towel, jacket and so on to take care of him.
Manolin’s parents are apprehensive of his going fishing with Santiago because, as is mentioned throughout the book, Santiago has lost his luck at fishing. He once went over eighty days without catching a single fish while Manolin is part of another group that is doing better than that. Santiago also doesn’t wish that Manolin accompany him to the sea because he feels he is unlucky but Manolin stays dedicated to him all the same. Even in the end, he is shown once again insisting Santiago to let him come with him to fish.
Perseverance
The biggest lesson of the story is Santiago’s perseverance. I would like to think that he went through hell thrice and yet survived. He did not give up the first time, which is probably what made him strong enough to stay put the second and even the third time.
The author has not revealed what type of fish had taken Santiago’s bait. All we know is it was purple and white, eighteen feet long and weighed around fifteen hundred pounds. Santiago had ventured far out into the sea, beyond the territory of his luck and crossing the boundaries of his fortune. A large fish had taken the bait but due to its size and weight, it was a massive struggle to bring it back ashore.
Deprived of sleep, food and also injured numerously, Santiago never once thought of letting go of the fish. He sent forth prayers. When doubt crept into his mind and he wondered if he was still good enough to catch the fish after all the years he had spent as a fisherman, he told himself he was good forever. He believed he was born to fish. The purpose of his life was to be a fisherman because that is what he was meant to do.
While I struggled to stay awake while studying for my exams, I was filled anew with energy and enthusiasm to tackle anything and everything. Santiago had spent more than a sleepless night, chewed a dolphin raw and bled his hands while straining his spine, just to kill the fish. It was very important for him to stay true to himself and to his goal. He prioritised his duty of feeding people over his own well-being. The overpowering exhaustion could not hold Santiago back from going after what he wanted.
Fortitude
The story isn’t just about catching a mammoth fish with enormous struggle. It is also about fortitude. It is about giving your all to something, watching it shatter to pieces and then picking them all up to start again right from the very beginning. While we shouldn’t give up during the battle, we also shouldn’t give up after the battle! Even if you lose, you must keep going as though starting a match afresh.
It pained me to tears when I felt Santiago’s efforts failing him in every direction and every way possible. It was the sort of pain I’ve felt for another only once before, when I watched Freddie Mercury’s character get diagnosed with AIDS in the blockbuster movie, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Nobody deserves to endure the kind of agony Santiago endures, not even our enemies and least of all alone in old age. The attacks of sharks, a pack of them, the long way to the coast and the loss of fishing gear, I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to stop reading but then I thought that I am in such a comfortable place that I have to only flip pages of a book. I tried to put myself in the shoes of Santiago to grab an inkling of what he went through. I could grab no more than an iota because the suffering he confines himself to is barely imaginable by someone like me who has lived in the city all her life and has never gone out to sea, least of all alone and in Santiago’s sunset years of age.
I brought myself to finish the book. I was heartbroken at Santiago’s plight. Life is harsh and luck is harsher. I wish I could enter the book with a club and knife to replace the ones he lost as he attacked the sharks. I wish I could bandage his palm and heal his back. I wish I could carry the fish for him to the shore that is very far away.
It is all about keeping your head in the worst of times. Was it the old man’s wisdom that kept him at the monumental task? Was it his years of experience at sea that helped him go on with hope? We can only guess.
Harbingers at Sea
I studied the first of the seven parts of ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ in school in my ICSE English literature curriculum at the St Mary’s School, Pune. I learnt an albatross is a sign of good luck for seamen. In Hemingway’s story, a man-of-war bird, like an albatross, circles above the sea where the big fish lay and helps the old man get hold of it. It also serves to be of company to the old man, who is very lonely without Manolin by his side in the boat.
The Sun and wind also seem to be friends of fishermen. They indicate time and direction. The author mentions that the best weather is when a storm is expected but does not arrive. The porpoises, turtles and colourful fish make the sea seem pleasant to the reader, obviously until Santiago engages in a struggle for life.
At the end of the book, I felt very ashamed of myself for complaining about petty things such as grades, internships and so on. I can’t believe they ever seemed insurmountable to me. Compared to what Santiago fought, won and lost, I feel like this story is a lesson in gratitude to remind me of what a comfortable life I have fortunately led. I never had to engage in combat with the sharks, I never had to set sail alone in old age like Santiago, I never had to fish for hours and sometimes days in the sun despite skin cancer like Santiago.
We should all acknowledge that no matter what situation we are in, we can pull ourselves out of it. If Santiago could get through a elephantine battle against the fish and make it out alive, as well as optimistic, I think we all can. I hope I can live the rest of my life with at least half of your perseverance and courage, Santiago. Thank you, Ernest Hemingway, for making my heart beat with profound emotion after a very long time.
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About the Author
I am the wellness head of the Institute Wellness Group of IIT Kharagpur. My greatest passion is writing. I am an avid reader. Novels give me the happiness that we experience perhaps only in childhood. My favourite places are the gym and the basketball court. I am a trained Bharatanatyam dancer as well as an elocutionist certified by the Trinity College, London and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. I am also a zonal gold medalist of the All India Essay-Writing Event 2016 organised by the Sri Ram Chandra Mission in collaboration with the United Nations.
