Classic The Old Man & the Sea is a very short and interesting novel that contains 127 pages and is written by Earnest Hemingway, published in 1952.
The book begins with an old man whose name is Santiago and is a fisherman by profession.
He has not caught a single fish for 84 days.
A boy called Manolin who has worked with the old man is forced by his parents to stop working with the old man as he never gets to catch fish. The boy starts working elsewhere and catches about three fish a day.
The boy feels sad to see the old man who always comes with a skiff but leaves without catching any fish.
Other fishermen and the people around him make fun of the old man, calling him ill-fated.
However, the old man simply smiles to all the criticism.
The boy feels sorry for him and brings food for him whenever he can, often making him coffee as well. One day, the old man tells the boy that he is going very far towards the sea for fishing and the next day old man disappears with his boat.
One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba. In 1953, The Old Man & the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
At night, the old man feels a tugging on his skiff. And suddenly, he sees a big fish. The old man lays the net in the water and is finally successful in catching the fish.
He cannot contain his happiness on his big success.
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” the old man says. The marlin is quite big and heavy and the boat is too small for it so he straps the marlin at the side of the skiff and starts heading home happily but unfortunately, on the way, a shark attacks the skiff and eats the marlin.
The man has gotten quite weak as he has been in the sea for three days without eating properly.
He starts hitting the shark with a harpoon but unfortunately, his harpoon falls into water and the shark meanwhile devours the entire marlin.
The old man comes back from his fishing escapade and falls asleep on his boat. When the other fishermen notice his boat they also spot the skeleton of the marlin which somehow is left on his boat. It measures 18 feet and 5.5 inches.
They apologise to the old man for making fun of him earlier and for calling him “unlucky”. They all express their desire to go fishing with him in future.
This book really inspired me a lot and I enjoyed reading it.
I felt as if I was watching a movie as the details are quite sketchy and this book also motivated me as it talks about believing in oneself and not giving up.
There are many people who quit after failing instead of trying again.
There are so many of us who give in to destructive critique and lose hope in themselves. I really appreciate the writer for writing this wonderful and meaningful novel.
The Old Man & the Sea is a short novel written by American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction by Ernest Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba.
In 1953, The Old Man & the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.
The writer is based in Dale Bazar, Balochistan
Published in Daily Times, March 15th 2019.