Themes in Old Man and the Sea

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When first glancing through Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and The Sea”, the significantly small size of the novel is automatically noticeable. “This is an internationally renowned classic novel?” was the first thought that came to my mind. However, the famous saying of “never judge a book by its cover” (quite literally in this case), proved itself once again. To my surprise, this novel was probably one of the most profoundly deep novels in terms of theme and “reading between the lines”. Hemingway connects with his audience and to an even greater extent, the world, with universal themes that humankind endures or has endured in a lifetime, such as the relationship between man and nature, isolation and friendship. Hemingway’s elaboration of these themes is why this novel is a classic. Throughout the history of mankind, man has been defeated by nature, however man has defeated nature as well. Santiago appreciates nature, but at times the natural surroundings of Santiago do not give the same appreciation to Santiago. “He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her” pg. 27 (Hemingway). In Spanish, the word “mar” is sea, which takes the masculine article of “el”, meaning the word is masculine. However, Santiago refers to the sea as a feminine word by using the feminine article of “la”. Therefore Santiago’s passion for the sea is equivalent to his passion for women. “All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is painful” pg. 30 (Hemingway). Santiago admits nature’s defeat over him by the physical damages it causes. The 1950’s in Cuba (setting of novel), was a crucial

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