Assignment on the American literature.
M.A. English -Paper no. 10 The American literature
●Semester - 3
Presented by Prinjal Shiya
Email id. prinjal00123@gmail.com
Batch no.: 2018 to 2020
Department of English-
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
●Submitted to :
Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad,
Head of the Department,
Department of English
MKBU.
◆Question:- Critical analysis of "The Old Man and the Sea".
'The Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemingway is a great novella with many philosophical ideas. He is very careful while portraying characters by writer in this novel. The novella is centered on one major character Santiago. As the title suggest Santiago is an old man. He is of 75 years old Cuban fisherman and he wants to go fishing. Hemingway has presented the character of Santiago with strong determination will power, hope and confidence, this is the plus points of him.
◆Language style
"What do you have to eat?" the Boy asked.
"No, I will eat at home; do you want me to make the fire?"
"No, I will make it layer on, or I may eat the rise cold."
This is the simplicity of the language style.
Here the sea is a symbol of life itself. Man has to sail either it is sea or life to go through. According to Hemingway, in both the sea and in life, there are many possibilities and similarities that the eye cannot see. The first similarity between them is that, both the sea and life are full of mystery, surprise, shock and challenge. However man has to fight bravely and nobly until the end and at the end he gets what he wants. And accordingly, it the man is lucky enough, and then he may discover treasure from the sea. Likewise if the man is lucky then he will gain love, good family, peace and education. However, if he is unlucky than he may not find even a single small fish from the greatest and wide sea.
In American baseball history, DiMaggio is the greatest player of baseball of all time. Though he was handicapped physically, he was determined and strong mentally. Santiago’s frequent returns to baseball players 'DiMaggio' empires him to win the battle in spite to old age. Hemingway has presented lions. They are little cubs who symbolize youthful possibility and great thing to come Santiago often dreams lion playing on African beach. The image of them always makes Santiago happy. They have his good company just like mandolin. The appearance of a lion suggests great strength, nobility, aspiration, victory and ambition.
Marlin a magnificent and glorious fish symbolizes the mysterious world of sea which is full of surprises and challenges and therefore he wants to face it. And after the marlin symbolizes the ideal and worthy opponent. Even Santiago findshimlucky to match against a creature like marlin because it is his battle with marlin that brings out the best in him. Santiago realizes his strength, courage, love and respect due to marlin. Old man gain and try again for fishing.Thirdly, it is only due to marlin, both Santiago and even we realize the unexpected world of sea. Santiago is shocked when he realize marlin’s size power and determination. He is pulled by marlin for a large portion. And apart from this, marlin is even presented as a Christian allegory. Marlin is as calm and cool as lord as Jesus was. Though it is hooked by Santiago, it is not attacked on him instead of tries to guide its followers to win him over. Moreover marlin is also described as a great source of food for others. It means it sacrifices itself so that others may live and survive.
However the sheiks are in great contrast to marlin and he is like getting the way of his goal. The shovel nose shark has attacked the marlin thoughtlessly. They symbolize the destructive force of the universe. They stand for evil. Fish can resemble the Christian faith in this book. Fish are the antagonist of Santiago. Santiago may find the fish as his brother but through the tension of opposites within destruction and defeat fish bring out the best in Santiago. This tension makes Santiago feel a love for fish the fish while struggling against the fish. He has to work hard for them and they are the force that pain him through his crucifixion and allows for his later resurrection.
Throughout the story Santiago has faith and perseveres that he will catch fish like the other entire fisherman. Near the end sharks start killing all of the fish. The shark resembles the evil of the world trying to pick away at him. Santiago never gives up on catching his faith even if the flesh is eaten off he still wants to finish what he started. In short, Santiago has essentially Christian virtues like humanity, sacrifice, love, respect, etc. There are continuous streams of points that imply to the reader that the character Santiago is like Jesus. Throughout the book Santiago displays many key characteristics like Jesus. Santiago also has many relations and makes actions like many said that Jesus would have. One act is “he then shouldered the mast and started to climb. It was then he knew the depth of his tiredness’’. This resembles the crucification of Jesus. The mast can resemble the cross as Santiago climbs a hill like Jesus did before his crucifixion. Actions like these are what set the biblical setting of this book through the comparison of Santiago to Jesus. This comparison makes the reader able to make more connections building the tension of opposites like good and evil in the story. Santiago lives his life as Jesus. Santiago has the sense of sacrifice and moral dignity. In this book there was a quote where Santiago “had the deep- creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. Santiago had scars on his hands from catching the fish. There are more connections to this quote like how his scars are similar to Jesus’ scars from where his hands were nailed to the cross. Santiago sacrificed his in the story to catch fish. Fish has been referred to as the Christian faith. This could build a larger connection that Jesus sacrificed his flash to catch the faith of his people and Sheppard them to enlightenment. Santiago also has a similar process as to catching the fish. Santiago has a deeper personal meaning of fishing and this is why he does not show off his fish like the rest of the fish. The old man and the sea is biblical allusion. There are multiple themes that the core of this book. An example that has been illustrated by Ernest Hemingway is Santiago being like Jesus. This shows that the story is biblical allusion. Overall throughout the book fish is the main catalyst of biblical allusion of Christianity. Finally the example of Santiago and his self sacrifice create a more precise system of moral dignity and people are accepting this concept easily after reading the move.
Summing up:-
I would like to conclude my point with his language style and the use of language. His language in the novel is written in simply and naturally but actually deliberate and artificial language and it's very emotionally. And I find simplicity, freshness, clarity, directness and naturalness in the novel. I think this novel is easy to understand for all readers.
Thank you!
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