Notes on "Old Man and the Sea"

I have recently "read" (listened to the audio book of) a good many Hemingway novels in the past year or so: To Have and Have Not, A Farewell To Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, so I thought it was only fair when I saw it at the library a few weeks ago that I ought to renew my acquaintance with The Old Man and the Sea. I read it last, as might be expected, in High School. I wondered if I might see something different in it now that I am better acquainted with the author. I have to say that I have never been a big Hemingway fan. The themes and subject matter, a sort of ethic built around an idea strangely calvanistic and borderline sadistic idea of masculinity, have never held a lot of interest to me. I do like the way he tells a story though. I like the spare prose style. The ball starts rolling on page 1 and from then on it is following the ball whereever it leads. As an engineer I like that Hemingway is careful to describe detail with precision. He doesn't just tell us that the old man ate the tuna, but he tells how it was done while keeping track of the fish; how it was laid out, what was done with the remains and where the knife was placed after. If one was sufficiently attentive one could have a fair chance of knowing exactly how to prepare a tuna in a skiff while being dragged through the sea by a mythological beast, should the circumstance arise.

In style, the Old Man and the Sea is most like For Whom the Bell Tolls. I think a lot of that is because when quoting the speach or thoughts of Spanish speakers, it is almost as if Hemingway is transcribing a babylfish translation. It is not the New York Yankees. It is the Yankees of New York.

There were many aspects of the story I am sure I missed, but it is sure that I failed to appreciate the running joke of the old man frequently comparing his own suffering unfavorably to the unimaginable suffering from bone spurs of the great Joe Dimaggio.

-- J

(The marlin image is from wikicommons and is in the public domain.)