The Old Man and Sea: Man's struggle against nature

The Old man and The Sea :

the story of man’s struggle against  nature

Name: Minkal Italiya

M.A English semester: 3

Roll no: 19

Batch: 2018-20

Enrollment No: 2069108420190020

Email id: italiyaminkal@gmail.com

Submitted to: Smt. S. B Gardi, Department of English, MKBU

Paper no-10: The American Literature

Topic : The Old man and The Sea :

the story of man’s struggle against nature

Ø Introduction

                                “The Old Man and the sea” is a widely famed work of the 20^th century and read short heroic novel which was brought out in 1952 by American novelist Ernest Hemingway. According to himself, the novel is based on true events, at least partially being an avid fisherman himself. It was his last major fiction which brought to him The Pultizer Prize award as well as was instrumental in winning him the Nobel prize two years later.

In “The Old Man and the sea” we find a use of omniscient narration;  this narrative techniques  provides a wider perspective as it enables the author to stand outside and above the story itself. The tale is related from Santiago’s perspective and through his consciousness. The protagonist of this novel is not like a Hemingway’s other heroes from Nick Adams onwards who were caught in the bleak trap of society and was doomed to struggle,suffer and perish. But in this novel Santiago asserted his individualism in the jaws of nature.

The story of Old man and the sea is not showcases escapism rather it is a battle of desire for liberation.

Ø Central Idea

“The Old Man and the sea” is a widely celebrated novel which touches upon social and cultural aspects of humankind as well as entire novel is quite rich in a term of use of symbolism. As far as social concern of the novel is concerned,

“The Old Man and the sea” is an extreme exploration of humankind’s relation with nature as well as of the human place in nature”

This novel presents a captivating story of Old fisherman named Santiago and his struggle of greatest catch of his life after not catching anything for fourty eight days. The novel is revolved around lonely and unlucky Cuban Old fisherman Santiago who struggles in catching enormous Marlin far out in Gulf Stream of the coast of Cuba.  At the end of the novel Santiago was physically defeated but his spirit remained younger. As it is reflected by Santiago when he says,

“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

This paraphrase showcases that idea of strong will or desire of a human; a person can be killed but can’t be defeated until he/she quit. This statement of old man can be referred through the novel. Let’s have a look on consequence of this statement.

Ø Santiago – Old unlucky fisherman

“He was an old man who fished in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty four days now without taking a fish”.

This is the very first line of the novel which presents the Santiago-an Old man with the immense natural struggle which denies him to catch fish as well as denies his significance as a fisherman. The other fisherman also started mocking on him by addressing as Salao- the worst form of unlucky. During this time his apprentice Manolin had been with him still the fortieth luckless day, after that his father forced him to go on another boat. Since the day Old man started to work alone. He never allowed this unsuccessful journey to be an obstacle in his journey of fishing. Rather than to be disappointed by this journey, he decided to venture too far out in search of proving his manhood and set out on his boat for his adventurous journey. On this journey he also declined the Manolin’s offer to go with him as well as promised him that he would not fail in his adventure because he was equipped with many tricks and strong resolution. His journey for his greatest catch showcases his strength and wit.

Ø Santiago’s fight against nature

In this Hemingway’s tale, he portrayed struggle of man against the sea and showcased nature as an opposing forces of human being. Also at the same time there is a respectful acknowledgement of the puissance of Nature against which man is often powerless.

Ø An unprecedented battle

The long drawn strong fight which ensured between the old man and the youthful fish is such a unique epic battle waged on the vast arena of sea as has not been heard of seen ever before.  And this epic battle can be divided into three days journey adventure rather his three days fight against nature in order to his life’s greatest catch.

Ø Struggle between the old man and the Marlin

The struggle between the old man and the Marlin suggests the never ending battle between man and the mysterious forces of nature, the necessity of

“killing and being killed”.

This is an allegory about a life, it is a struggle against the impossible odds of unconquerable natural forces in which a man can only lose but which he can dominate in such a way that his loss has dignity.The man against whom the fish fights from the deep, dark, invisible place is an embodiment of Christian virtues of compassion, humility, charity, brotherhood and suffering.

i)                  It takes three days for Santiago to harpoon and kill a great Marlin. He was tired but than even he continues to work relentlessly to lure and haul the fish, as he wanted to make the greatest catch of his career.

ii)               Even after catching the Marlin, Santiago could not get the fish into skiff. The struggle of harpooning the Marlin made him to feel tire. The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well.

iii)            At the end, almost the situation came when he had has a need to defend himself against the shark; it was marked as a dangerous struggle of story. But then even he never left her younger spirit behind him. He said that,

“I will fight them until I die”

Ø The significance of sea as natural element

In the novel the sea can be observed as a vast battle-field where the never ending game of killing goes on. For the old man, the sea is a symbol of being mother whose lover is the moon and who gives favor from her children. The sea is like both creator and preserver of life. As Hemingway stated it in the novel when he wrote,

“But the old man always thought as feminine and as something that gave or withheld 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”

In this struggle of Santiago against nature, the worth noticing factor is that this battle was not all about blood and violence but it is about deep sense of brotherhood which was felt by Santiago for the Marlin. In a fact it is struggle of Man against Nature, it is a distinct emotional grandeur. Though he was tired by fighting against unfavorable situation, he felt a deep affection for the fish and admiration for its great strength as it pulled his skiff out into the ocean. As in this nature and man grew closer and closer together in interlude, in spirit as well as in space, Santiago became conscious of the Marlin’s nobility.

However, the old man with his fighting spirit continues to fight even when his hands were pulped and he was blind with the extraneous effort the fish demanded. Though he succeeded in catching the Marlin, his victory was short lived as nature attacked the old man again with galanos- the sharks which were bent upon devouring his prized catch. In spite of knowing that the fight was pointless, he kept on going at the sharks because his spirit never allowed him to let down the efforts in one or another way. His younger spirit made him impossible to give up in between.

Though he succeeded in bringing the marlin at sea shore, the sharks left him with just a long white skeleton to take home. But he was destroyed not defeated.

In such way Hemingway shows that Nature may take from Man all her had but cannot destroy his undaunted fighting spirit, his essential nobility of human striving because of which the battle between Man and Nature has been an eternal one. In every manner Hemingway proves that defeat is sometimes inevitable in this battle but what eventually makes man always victorious in the end is his capacity to struggle to the fullest despite the end results.

Ø Conclusion

In this way we can see the pairing down of struggle in the Old man to one between Nature and Man which provides us an insight into the true essence of man’s bravery. In this novella the Old man’s journey for his greatest catch serves as a seminal example of the man against nature conflict. Also the character of Santiago hints at Hemingway’s life; it can be assumed that he preferred the way old man lived his life.

Works Cited

enotes. What is the major conflict of The Old Man and the Sea? <https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-major-conflict-old-man-sea-11561>.

Grin. The significance of nature in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. <https://www.grin.com/document/110816>.

study.com. Man vs Nature in The Old Man and the Sea: Examples, Symbols & Power. <https://study.com/academy/lesson/man-vs-nature-in-the-old-man-and-the-sea-examples-symbols-power.html>.