The old man and the sea

Name: The old man and the sea
Rating: 3.688536953242836 (1326 reviews)
Author: Ernest Hemingway
ISBN: 9783190001507

by Ernest Hemingway, Ingrid. Jacob, Paul. Kämmer

3.7

(1,326 ratings)

59 pages1995Hueber VerlagISBN 9783190001507

About this book

This is a novel describing people's struggle with nature. Old fisherman San Diego the protagonist has been fishing for 84 days at sea without catching any fish. At first, a boy named Manolin goes out to sea with him, but when they haven't caught any fish after 40 days, the boy is arranged by his parents to another boat because they believe that their boy can't get good luck with the old man. On the 85th day, the old man paddles his boat far away early in the morning, and unexpectedly catches a fish even bigger than the boat. After fighting for two days with this fish, the old man has finally speared it, and then tries hard to pull it back with his boat. However, on the way, he meets a shark attack, and finally the big fish is reduced to a skeleton only and the old man is so exhausted that he falls down on the shore. The boy comes to see the old man, but he doesn't think San Diego is defeated. That afternoon, San Diego falls asleep in a thatched hut and he sees a lion in his dream. The moral of the novel is symbolic -- the old man's is a glorious failure. The novel praises the old fisherman's remarkable fortitude and tenacious determination. The boy is ready to go out to sea with the old man again, and he wants to learn the old man's skills and inherit the old man's undefeatable spirit.

Publication Details

Publisher: Hueber Verlag
Published: 1995
Pages: 59
ISBN: 9783190001507
Language: en

About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American writer and journalist. During his lifetime he wrote and had published seven novels; six collections of short stories; and two works of non-fiction. Since his death three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction autobiographical works have been published. Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he worked as a reporter but within months he left for the Italian front to be an ambulance driver in World War I. He was seriously injured and returned home within the year. He married his first wife Hadley Richardson in 1922 and moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent. During this time Hemingway met, and was influenced by, writers and artists of the 1920s expatriate community known as the "Lost Generation". In 1924 Hemingway wrote his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. In the late 1920s, Hemingway divorced Hadley, married his second wife Pauline Pfeiffer, and moved to Key West, Florida. In 1937 Hemingway went to Spain as a war correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War. After the war he divorced Pauline, married his third wife Martha Gellhorn, wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, and moved to Cuba. Hemingway covered World War II in Europe and he was present at Operation Overlord. Later he was in Paris during the liberation of Paris. After the war, he divorced again, married his fourth wife Mary Welsh Hemingway, and wrote Across the River and Into the Trees. Two years later, The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952. Nine years later, after moving from Cuba to Idaho, he committed suicide in the summer of 1961. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid 1920s and the mid 1950s, though a number of unfinished works were published posthumously. Hemingway's distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement, and had a significant influence on the development of twentieth-cent