About the Author

In learning about the life of Ernest Hemingway, you learn a lot about his stories as well, for this is one author who often portrayed his own life in the characters and places he wrote about. He was a man of adventure, a mans man, who loved danger and excitement. Most of his novels are drawn from his own life experiences as a reporter and adventurer, and The Old Man and the Sea is no exception. Hemingway loved to hunt and fish, and later in his life, when he was well recognized as one of Americas greatest writers, he lived in Havana, Cuba and Key West, Florida, places where he went fishing almost every day. He wrote about war. He wrote about The First World War (19141918) in A Farewell to Arms, a war in which, as a volunteer ambulance driver, he was badly injured. He wrote about The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Second World War (1939-1945) in Across the River and Into the Trees, wars he had observed and written about as a reporter. And, he wrote about his passions. He wrote about Africa, where he had been on a safari as a big-game hunter, in Green Hills of Africa, and about bullfighting in The Sun Also Rises, and about big-game fishing in The Old Man and the Sea. His writing is simple and smooth; hardly a word wasted. Although The Old Man and the Sea is a short story, every page is alive with feeling and emotion. His sentences and paragraphs are short and simple, thus easy to read- no superfluous adjectives or meandering, negative hyperbole. As a young reporter, Hemingway was taught to report only the facts in a positive, simple manner and that style is apparent in his writings. It is almost impossible for writers to exclude using their past experiences when developing a fictional novel. His/her attitudes, feelings and perceptions about life are interwoven throughout their writing. Their past romantic experiences are often the basis for the love scenes they write about. Their childhood, upbringing and adulthood are similarly reflected in the situations and characters of

their stories. Their geographical knowledge about the places theyve lived and visited frequently becomes the outline for the cities and towns they write about. Their political leanings can usually be discerned from the stories they tell, as well. Although an author may use the antithesis of a previous place or experience, he/she cannot completely remove themselves from the passages they write. It could hardly be otherwise, for we are our past experiences and knowledge. Hemingway is often criticized for too factually representing himself in his novels. In 1950, Across the River and Into the Trees was published. Although the writing was very good, the novel was short and only covered a single military engagement. The critics were expecting a broader coverage of the war in the novel and were also critical of Hemingway for including a relationship in the story that many said was nothing more than a retelling of a relationship that Hemingway had with an Italian woman named Adriana Ivanocich. In 1940 For Whom the Bell Tolls was published and became an overnight success. It was unanimously voted the best novel of the year by the Pulitzer Prize Committee, but due to its political overtones, the committee was prevented from awarding the literary honor-no prize was awarded that year. Some readers claim to find symbolism throughout Hemingways novels; a claim he strongly denies. For instance, The Old Man in the Sea is seen as depiction of Hemingways anger and frustration with the literary critics of his earlier novels- the sharks representing the critics and the great fish representing the author. Hemingway said, the old man is an old man, the sea is the sea and the fish is a fish, nothing more. Youll have to be the judge about the extent of symbolism to be found in the story.

Hemingways in depth knowledge and portrayal of the subjects he writes about are an added bonus for the reader. He believed that if a writer knew enough about the subject he was writing about, some details could be omitted by the writer in order to let the readers imagination fill in missing bits of information. This creates a symbiosis between the writer and reader and also between the reader and the story, which allows the reader to become intimately involved. It is often referred to as Hemingways iceberg principle or iceberg theory. In The Old Man and the Sea there are many insightful lessons to be learned about how to be a big-game fisherman, a subject that Hemingway was very knowledgeable about, but the book is much more than a primer for deep sea fishing. All of your senses are invoked as you turn the pages. You can smell the salt air, hear the birds, and taste the tuna. You become the old man and feel his sadness, pain and acceptance. You become the great, noble fish swimming in the cold, deep, blue sea, searching for something to eat. You are in tune with its every thought and movement and intuitively sense its plight. You come to an understanding that its destiny is somehow being fulfilled. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, for The Old Man and the Sea. So, this is a great book for non-native speakers to enhance their reading skills. Its knowledgeable, entertaining, and thoroughly enjoyable. Have fun!

Biography of the Author

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July 21, 1899. His father, Clarence, was a doctor, and his mother, Grace Hall, was a socialite, involved with various civic and church duties. He was the second oldest of the six children in the family, four girls and two boys. He had one older sister and three younger sisters, and a younger brother. Oak Park was a rather conservative, upper middle class, mostly Protestant, small town, which tried to isolate itself from the much larger and more liberal city of Chicago, ten miles away. It was a town that valued strong religious beliefs, a physically sound body, hard work, and self-determination. Sundays were devoted to church in the Hemingway household, and his mother and father were very devote and strict about church attendance. Although those core values can be seen as motifs in many of his works, Hemingway was to later depict his hometown as a place of wide lawns and narrow minds. His father encouraged him to be manly and strong, while his mother developed his more artistic side, and taught him to read and sing. He was to later sing in the church choir. The Hemmingways had a summer house on Walloon Lake in northern Michigan where Ernest learned to hunt and fish. He loved the lakes and forests, and the trees and streams, and he loved the fish and animals that inhabited the natural wilderness. His father taught him about camping and how to hunt and fish. He caught his first fish before he was three years old, and later, on his twelfth birthday, was given his first shotgun. In high school, Hemingway was scholarly and athletic. He learned to box and canoe, and wrote articles for the school newsletter, The Trapeze. He was a strong young man, defiant, and afraid of nothing.

Upon his graduation from high school in 1917, he took a job, against his parents wishes, who wanted him to go to college, as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star newspaper. He covered lesser crimes and accidents, and interviewed anyone famous who came to the city. He was a good reporter but considered his job somewhat mundane. He wanted to do something more exciting, more adventurous. The First World War (1914-1918) had been going on for several years, but America had not committed to it until April 1917. Ernest saw this as an opportunity to serve his country and fulfill his desire for adventure. He longed to see the great cities of Europe he had only read about, and meet the people of the vastly different cultures on the other side of the ocean. So, he decided to enlist in the army. Because of poor eyesight in one of his eyes, he was not accepted. But Ernest was determined to get to Europe, and on his return to his job at the Star, he met a young reporter, Theodore Brumback, who told him about an opportunity to work for the Red Cross as an ambulance driver. Ernest and his friend applied immediately. They were accepted and soon thereafter boarded a ship for Bordeaux, France. Their ultimate destination was Milan, Italy, where heavy fighting was taking place, but were permitted a few days stopover in Paris before going on to Milan. One of their first assignments upon arriving in Milan, was to pick up the bodies of the dead and take them to the mortuary. Two days later they were transferred to Schio, a small city about fifty kilometers from Milan. There was no fighting taking place in Schio, so Ernest and Theodore had no causalities to attend to; they simply helped the civilians of Schio in whatever way they could. But Ernest wanted something more challenging, something more exciting, so he volunteered to work in a canteen on the battlefront, giving out food and drinks to the troops doing the fighting. On July 18, 1918, less than a month after arriving in Milan, Hemingway was seriously injured when a mortar round landed close to him. The explosion killed an Italian soldier standing nearby and seriously

wounded several others around him. Hemingway was knocked unconscious by the blast and wounded in the legs by shrapnel. It is claimed by some, that upon regaining consciousness he attempted to help those more seriously injured, and while carrying one of the injured away from the area, was hit in the leg by machinegun fire. Over 200 pieces of shrapnel and a machine gun bullet were removed from his legs at the hospital where he would spend the next two months in recuperation. While in the hospital, he met and fell in love with one his nurses, Agnes Kurowsky. Hemingway was awarded the Silver Medal of Valor from the Italian Government for his heroism. He returned to Oak Park in January, 1919, a nineteen year old, decorated, war veteran. He once again found his home town dull, but agreed to do some civic speaking engagements for the Red Cross about his overseas experiences. On one of those engagements, he met a well-to-do woman who had a young son at home. He was about Hemingways age, but rather fragile and insecure. He was handicapped by a weak right arm and slight build. She thought that some of Hemingways selfassurance was exactly what her son needed, and offered him a job to look after the young man while her and her husband were on vacation in Florida for the summer. He accepted the offer because it would allow him a salary and some free time. Before leaving for Florida, the young mans father introduced Hemingway to the editor of the Toronto (Canada) Star Weekly. The editor offered him a job as a reporter for the newspaper, which he accepted- he could look after the young man and write at the same time. He received a letter from Agnes who told him their relationship was finished. She was almost ten years older than Ernest and felt that the age difference was too great. She told him she foresaw great things for him in the future, and that they had had some great times together, but it was over. Hemingway never forgot her, and she is often mentioned as being the nurse in A Farewell to Arms who had an affair with a wounded World War I soldier.

Hemingway moved to Chicago in 1920, but continued to work for the Toronto Star. While living in Chicago, he met a young girl named Hadley Richardson and married her in September 1921. Several months later he was offered a position with the Toronto Daily Star newspaper as its European correspondent in Paris, France. Hemingway accepted, and with his new bride, moved to Paris in December 1921. This was to be the starting place of his literary career. While in Paris, Hemingway befriended many noted writers of his time and became known as a gifted reporter and novice fiction writer. When his wife Hadley became pregnant, the family moved to Toronto, Canada, to await the birth of their son John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway, who was born on October 10, 1923. Soon thereafter, they returned to Paris where Hemingway wrote profusely. In 1925, a short story collection called In Our Time was published. It was followed by a short comic novel, Torrents of Spring, the same year. In 1926, his first true novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published. The following year, Men Without Women, a book of short stories, was released. His writing career was accelerating while his family life was deteriorating. In 1927, he was granted a divorce from Hadley and married a part-time fashion reporter for several notable magazines, Pauline Pfeiffer. Hemingway and Pauline moved to Key West, Florida the following year, 1928. Key West was a quiet, sleepy fishing village at the southernmost point of Florida. Hemingway enjoyed the solitude and the Spanish flavor of Key West, as well as the abundance of large game fish in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico that surrounded it. He had started work on a novel called A Farewell to Arms while in Paris and continued to work on it in Key West. He became a father for the second time when his Patrick was born on June 28, 1928. When A Farewell to Arms was published in September 1929, it was an immediate success and was heralded as one of the finest novels ever

written about the First World War. It gave Hemingway the recognition he sought, and acceptance as one of Americas greatest writers. In 1931, Pauline gave birth to their second son, while Hemingway continued to write- Death in the Afternoon in 1932 and Winner Take Nothing in 1933. He took a break from his writing to go on a big game safari in Africa during the summer of 1933 and wrote a semi non-fiction account of his African adventure in Green Hills of Africa which was published in 1935. It was not well received, and although it was well written, Hemingway was criticized for including too many of his personal views and opinions. In 1937, Hemingway returned to reporting when he went to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) for the North American Newspaper Alliance. He had met a young writer named Martha Gellhorn in Key West in 1936, who became his lover. She often traveled with him in Spain and was very supportive of his political views on the Civil War. At home, in Key West, Hemingway had frequently had heated arguments with his wife Pauline about the rightful outcome of the war, with Pauline taking the side of the Fascist Regime headed by Franco, and Hemingway taking the side of the communist Loyalists (years later, he would change his mind about supporting the Loyalists). Eventually, their disagreements would lead to a divorce. In late 1939, he divorced Pauline and married Martha. They moved to an old hacienda in a small town on the outskirts of Havana. It was here that he started writing a novel about the war in Spain. The name of the novel was For Whom the Bell Tolls. When it was published in 1940, it was an overnight success. Although the Pulitzer Prize Committee unanimously voted it the best novel of the year, the committee was prevented from awarding the literary honor to Hemingway due to the political nature of the book. From 1940-1950 Hemingway enjoyed himself and wrote sparingly. He was finally coerced by his wife Martha, in 1944, to go to Europe to report on the Second World War (1939-1945). She

was already reporting on the war in Europe and criticized Hemingway for not using his talents appropriately. When he was injured in a car crash in London, and hospitalized with a concussion and a severe cut on his head requiring 50 stitches, she flew to London to visit him, but offered little sympathy, instead, accusing him of being responsible for his condition by his rowdy and drunken lifestyle. It was the beginning of the end of another marriage. Hemingway met a woman in London named Mary Walsh. She was affectionate and caring and offered him the ego rewarding compliments he needed. She stayed with him while he covered the war in Europe and later became his fourth and final wife. After returning from Europe in 1946, Hemingway started work on a novel about the war. Its name was Across the River and Into the Trees. When it was published in 1950, the critics panned the novel. Although well written, they claimed it was too narrow in its coverage of the war, and including a retelling of a relationship Hemingway had had with an Italian woman named Adriana Ivanovich. Hemingway was stung by the criticism of what he considered to be a great literary achievement but was determined to regain his rightful recognition as Americas best writer. He had been thinking of writing a novel about a great fish for many years and started to write The Old Man and the Sea. When it was released as a supplement in Life magazine in September 1952, over 5 million copies of the magazine were sold. The following week 50,000 copies of the book were released by the publisher- another overnight success. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for The Old Man and the Sea in 1953. In early 1954, Hemingway and his wife Mary returned to Europe for a vacation and then went on to Africa, one of Hemingways favorite places. While visiting Lake Victoria, a small plane they were traveling in flew too low and hit some telegraph wires. In the crash, Hemingway was

unhurt but Mary suffered several broken ribs. They accepted a boat ride across the lake to catch another plane. Unfortunately, that plane had barely left the runway when it also crashed. This time Hemingway was not so fortunate. He suffered a skull fracture, several discs in his spine were cracked, his right arm and shoulder were dislocated, his liver, right kidney and spleen were ruptured, his sphincter muscle was paralyzed by compressed vertebra on the iliac nerve, his arms, face and head were burned by the flames of the plane and his vision and hearing were impaired. He was reported to be dead by several news organizations. Mary was not seriously hurt in the second crash, but for Hemingway, although he survived, it was a mortal wound to his psyche- he was no longer the strong, dominant, self-determined, masculine figure he portrayed in his novels and life. Ernest and Mary returned to Cuba where he could recuperate from his injuries. On October 28, 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature but was unable to attend the ceremonies in Sweden due to his physical condition. Instead, he sent an acceptance letter that was read to the Nobel Committee by the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, John Cabot. He had finally been given the recognition that he bitterly felt had been denied him by a spineless literary critic clique. After 1954, Hemingway was unable to write anything worthy of publishing other than an article on bullfighting for Life magazine. In 1960, Mary and Hemingway left Cuba and moved to Ketchum, Idaho, a small town near the Sun Valley ski resorts. The land was heavily forested, a great area for hunting and fishing. Hemingway started to experience mood swings and often became quite despondent, frequently speaking of suicide. The despondency turned to deep depression and his wife had to have him hospitalized in the fall of 1960. At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, New York, he was treated for depression with a series of 15 electro-shock treatments, a method of treatment for depression that was acceptable at that time. However, one of the potential, maybe even probable, side effects of

electro-shock, is the loss of memory. Sadly, Hemingway could no longer recall the facts or images needed to write his stories. On July 2, 1961 Ernest Hemingway committed suicide at his home in Ketchum. He put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger, just as his father had done in December, 1928.

The Old Man and the Sea the story

This is the story of a poor, old, Cuban fisherman, named Santiago, and his struggle with a great fish he has caught, far out in the sea. It is also the story of a young Cuban boy named Manolin, who loves and respects the old fisherman. Santiago taught the boy how to fish when he was five years old, and treated him as an equal. Together, they had been on many previous fishing trips, and Manolin was a great help to the old man. They caught many large fish together over the years, and the small proceeds from the sale of the fish were the only income the old man had, some of which he shared with his young assistant. The old man had been to sea for eighty-four days without catching a fish. For the first forty days the boy had gone to fish with the old man, but the boys father considered Santiago unlucky and after forty days without fish, made the boy leave him and go to work for another fisherman. The boy was saddened as he watched Santiago return each day with his empty skiff, its flour-sack patched sail furled around the mast. It looked like the flag of permanent defeat. Santiago was a great fisherman, but his body was old, worn, thin and gaunt. His skin was wrinkled and brown from the sun, with blotches of a harmless skin cancer from the suns reflection on his cheeks, and his cracked and wrinkled hands had many scars from his numerous battles with large fish. Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. On the eighty-forth day, the boy watched Santiago get out of his empty skiff and offered to buy him a beer at the fishermans tavern nearby. Why not, the old man said. Between fishermen.

Manolin told the old man that he will catch fish soon and offered to go fishing with him again since he had made some money with the other fisherman. Santiago told him to stay with the lucky boat he was with, since it had been catching fish and he was making money. Manolin then helps the old man carry his fishing gear home. The old man carries the patched, furled sail and Manolin takes the old mans fishing box, with its coiled, hard-braided lines, gaff and harpoon. Left behind, in the stern of the boat, are the dried bait in a bait box and the club the old man uses to subdue big fish. These are, basically, the old mans only possessions other than the few meager things he has in his tiny, palm-leaf shack- a table, chair, a worn out blanket, a small bed with newspapers that cover the springs, and two pictures, the Scared Heart of Jesus, and the Virgin of Cobre, that were relics of his long dead wife. There was no water in the shack, it was two streets away, no electricity or bathroom, and a hole in the dirt floor was used for cooking. He used his rolled up trousers, stuffed with newspaper, for a pillow, and slept in an old, faded shirt, the only shirt he owned. After talking about baseball for awhile, the boy offers to buy the old man some dinner and two fresh tuna baits, and catch some sardines for him for tomorrows fishing. The old man reluctantly accepts. Keep the blanket around you, the boy said. Youll not fish without eating while Im alive. While they are eating, the boy tells Santiago that he is the best fisherman he knows. And the best fisherman is you. Santiago answers, No. I know others better. Que va, the boy said, There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only you. Thank you. You make me happy. I hope no fish will come along so great that he will prove us wrong. There is no such fish if you are still as strong as you say you are. I may not be as strong as I think, the old man said, But I know many tricks and I have resolution.

After eating, the old man tells the young boy he will awaken him in the morning. He falls asleep and dreams of his youth, the only dreams he has left. In the morning, several hours before daylight, Santiago walks to Manolins home and gently awakens him from a sound sleep. He is apologetic for waking the boy, but Manolin, who has to get up early to go to work on the other boat, tells Santiago not to be sorry, It is what a man must do. The boy again helps him carry the things to his boat and after buying coffee for the old man, says goodbye, and Manolin wishes him luck with his fishing. He has no food in his boat, only a small bottle of water, all he will need for the day. And so begins the odyssey of the old man and the sea. The old man rowed his small skiff far out into the sea, far past where he had unsuccessfully fished on the previous days. Beyond all the people in the world. He meticulously lowered his baits, on lines as thick around as a big pencil, to the exact depth he wanted. But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only 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. The little skiff drifted in the Gulf stream, and the old man talked to himself as he waited for a fish to bite. He talked about the sea and its animals, expressing great knowledge of both. Finally, at about noon, one of his two lines has a small bite. Santiago knows immediately that six hundred feet down a very large fish was thinking about eating his bait. The line grew taut for a second and then went slack. He cant have gone, he said. Christ knows he cant have gone. Hes making a turn. Maybe he has been hooked before and he remembers something of it. The fish was indeed making a turn and gently pulled the line as it took the bait. What a fish,he said. He has it sideways in his mouth now and he is moving off with it. The fish moved off with the bait and the old man waited

until he was sure the fish had swallowed the bait, then gave a mighty tug of the line, then another, nothing happened. The fish continued to move away dragging the small boat with it. I wish I had the boy, the old man said aloud. The old man kept the tight line in his hands and over his back, for if he tied the line to the boat the fish could make a sudden run and snap it. All night the big fish pulled the skiff away from land, out to sea. In his cramped position, holding the big fish, Santiago could barely move. With his one free hand, he could just reach the small tuna in the stern with the gaff. The flesh of the fish would give him the strength he needed to continue fighting the great fish. During the night the great fish had made a sudden surge that pulled Santiago down on his face and made a cut below his eye. Fish, he said softly, aloud, Ill stay with you until I am dead. By morning, there was no land in sight, as the big fish continued seaward without tiring. Another surge by the fish cut Santiagos right hand badly and almost pulled him overboard. Then his left hand cramped. I hate having a cramp, he thought. Its a treachery of ones own body. During the day the fish surfaced once before going down again. It was two feet longer that Santiagos sixteen foot skiff and weighed over fifteen hundred pounds. It was the biggest fish he had ever seen and the biggest he had ever heard of. The old man both understood and respected the great fish he referred to as his brother, but was determined to bring him home to show the boy. The battle lasted for two days and two nights until, exhausted, the great fish was pulled in close to the skiff with Santiagos last bit of remaining strength. The old man drove his harpoon deep into the fishs body, and the fish gave one last, dying, jump before it rolled over onto its back, dead. The old man lashed the fish to his skiff and headed back to land. It was so big it was like lashing a much bigger skiff alongside. Santiago though about how much money the fish would bring at the market. Maybe this is all a dream, he told himself, maybe I dreamed I caught a big fish,

but then he would look at the great, beautiful marlin tied to his skiff and knew he wasnt dreaming. The boy would be so proud of him. The first shark, a big Mako, hit him an hour later. It had followed the scent of the great fish for miles and was closing in on the marlin when the old man spotted it. He knew he couldnt keep this shark, which hunted for its food and feared nothing, from tearing into his catch, but he was determined to make the shark pay a price for its meal. As the Mako tore off about forty pound of the marlin, Santiago, with his mushy, bleeding hands, drove his harpoon into the sharks brain. The shark died immediately but its body continued to thrash the water and move away from the boat. After a few minutes, it stopped moving and sank into the depths below, taking Santiagos harpoon with it. His great, beautiful fish was now damaged, and Santiago knew there would be more shark attacks because of all the blood in the water. He would try to defend his catch, but he knew it would be futile. He was sorry he had ever caught it. He managed to kill and damage a few more sharks in the attacks that followed, but he was a thoroughly tired, beaten old man- close to death- when he finally arrived home the next day. All that remained of his great fish was the head, skeleton and tail. There was no one there to help him, so he shouldered his mast and started to climb home. He fell five times, with the mast across his shoulder, before he reached his shack. He was asleep with his face down on the newspapers and his arms outstretched and palms up when the boy looked in the door in the morning. When Santiago finally woke up, Manolin was there and had a hot cup of coffee ready for him. The sight of the beaten old man brought tears to the boys eyes. You must get well fast for there is much that I can learn and you can teach me everything. How much did you suffer? Plenty, the old man said. Ill bring the food and the papers, the boy said. Rest well, old man. I will bring stuff from the drug-store for your hands. Dont forget to tell Pedrico the head is his.

No, I will remember. As the boy went out the door and down the worn coral rock road he was crying again.

Questions 1. Did you find any religious symbolism in the story? Discuss this in a small (3 or 4) group and give a report to the class. 2. When Manolin says, It is what a man must do, who is he referring to? Why? Discuss your answer with a partner and give a report to the class. 3. Santiago often dreams of lions on a beach. Why do you think he has that particular dream? Discuss this in a small group and give a report to the class. 4. Why do you think Santiago considered his cramped hand a treachery to his body? Please explain your answer. 5. class. 6. Do you find any parallels between the story and Hemingways life? Discuss this in a small group and give a report to the class. 7. When Santiago said he went out too far, beyond all the people in the world, what did he mean? Discuss this with a partner and give a report to the class. 8. Santiago said he had resolution. What do you think? Did he? Please discuss this in a small group and give a report to the class. 9. What do you think of the boy, Manolin? Do you think he will go fishing again with Santiago? Why? Discuss this in a small group and give a report to the class. 10. Do you think Santiago is a great fisherman? Discuss this with a partner and give a report to the class. Do you think Santiago was unlucky? Discuss this with a partner and give a report to the