Jenks 1 Taylor Jenks Clay Armstrong English 125 3 December 2011 Looking In Hemingways Mirror The Character of Ernest

Hemingway is one that has been analyzed and criticized; congratulated and placed on a pedestal; and celebrated and disregarded, but one that has never been forgotten. The most obscured and critical of these analyses are the ones that Hemingway has created of himself. Through his interviews, speeches, and fervent presence both in life and in his books, Hemingway has subliminally painted a picture of himself that would put any portraitist to shame. The Old Man and the Sea was the last of these works published in his time, but it was perhaps the most insightful as expatriatism, religion, the ruthless struggle of life, and the integrities of man are examined in introspective terms. It is with veiled text and elusive composition in The Old Man and the Sea that Hemingway sheds new light onto reflections of previously avowed notions, as well as a reflection on his own life; earning him both a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 and a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 (Portway). Hemingways literary career transpired squarely in the middle of major world turmoil, and whether it was his character and natural curiosity that placed him in the middle of the action, or whether it was just pure coincidence, there is no doubt that the events that were taking place around him facilitated his growth as an author. As a Journalist both in high school and for a short time before going to war, Hemingway adopted the style guide of the Kansas City Star, and began writing using,

Jenks 2 short sentences short paragraphs and vigorous English; a characteristic of his work that was never lost but instead, was an addition to what would become his trademark style (The Star Copy Style). Hemingways fascination with the proximity of death, as well as his heroic image of those who could withstand it drove his own pursuit of such proximity as he entered the battlefields of world war one (Portway). As an ambulance driver not only was he exposed to the brutality of death and the suffering of life but he hung in the balance between the two when he came under mortar attack (Portway). The young Hemingways false sense of immortality was quickly undermined, yet the attraction to deaths propinquity only intensified. An appeal to live a life exposed to such furor guided him to each of his stimulating residences, their coupled daring appeals, and resulting literary products respectively. The Old Man and the Sea captures the joys and struggles of travel and expatriatism as Hemingway knew them through his character Santiagos relationship with the community, his past, and of course, the sea. Although Hemingway wrote so as not to show emotion, he certainly evokes it as the reader feels the loneliness of isolation from the community regardless of Santiagos adoption of local culture (Xie). According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, belongingness is a psychological goal that most people strive to achieve; so by not attaining it, Santiago is depicted to be lost in his adopted community much like Hemingway was lost in his own world (Smith et al. 387). Although many of the fishermen made fun of [him,] others were sad but they didnt show it and spoke politely, however pity and misunderstanding dont compensate for amity

Jenks 3 (Hemingway. 11). The one place Santiago finds unity is in the sea, as no man is ever alone on the sea (Hemingway. 67). With flying fish, dolphins, birds, and marlin, he feels companionship with the animals and with the ocean; one that both Hemingway and Santiago lacked on land and especially with women. Where Santiago found such fellowship in La Mar Hemingway found it in his literary works. Rather than hanging pictures of wives or kids upon the old mans walls, Hemingway places the sacred heart of Jesus, and Virgin of Cobre to further show his attempt and subsequent failure at connecting with the local Cuban community as well as one of the many losses in life that was his wife; however faith still appears in one form present. Unfortunately faith is exemplified as almost expired in this short story as Santiago cannot buy luck with eighty four days, nor pray his way to success as he endures the battle with the fish and with life, coming out empty handed. The Christ that to most embodies faith instead characterizes a life of pain and struggle in Hemingways mind and the inevitability of the painful end (Cain). The Fisherman, traditionally being a symbol of a Christ like figure, is the perfect puppet in depicting such a fait. As Santiago paddled and was pulled out to where no other boats could be seen, his and ironically Hemingways fait was being subconsciously sealed and his hands began to tire as if they knew the sacrifice that was to come. The hands of Santiago are his future and his past; they have meant youth and strength as he remembers how he forced the hand of the negro down until it rested on the wood, and yet they show age and experience with deep creased scars as old as erosions in a fishless desert (Hemingway 78, 10). Yet as he lay with his arms out straight

Jenks 4 and the palms of his hands up in his bed, they had become his sacrifice (134). After accomplishing the feat of catching the marlin, his accolade is attacked by the first of the sharks and fait presents itself in a crucifying form. Santiago exclaims Ay as his marlin is attacked, a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood (119). It is as though the effort of life and the battle with the fish come down to the same inescapable result as the life of Christ did; one where regardless of sacrifice mortality awaits. As the bloody hands shouldered the mast and started to climb, Santiagos exhaustion and pain raise question as to why (133)? Why would one fish the seas for days on end when in the end they are closer to death than when they began; and why would one write one hundred and forty pages about this venture? To question the norms of the times was quite common as the modernist movement began Post World War one, and Hemingway in the company of his expatriate friends and fellow soldiers were prevalent in expressing their concerns. To contemplate the Lost Generation, as many of them did, was to contemplate the reasons for joining the war, the reasons for enduring any pain or sacrifice, and in extreme cases, the reason for life, if death is inevitable(Curnutt). The detail used by Hemingway to explain how the fish had their livers removed, their fins cut off and their hides skinned out and their flesh cut into strips for salting, accentuates his experience and knowledge of deaths graphics (12). Without such deliberation, the same approach was used by Wilfred Owen in Dulce et Decorum Est in order to transfer the experience to the reader and hope that it evokes emotion but without ever palpably saying how the reader should feel. The mindset that he is my

Jenks 5 brother. But I must kill him, is the attitude that modernists such as Hemingway and Owens are questioning, and as the fish and other young men are conquerable opponents, it is a good thing we dont have to try to kill the stars, for the unconquerable would drive man to hopelessness (65, 83). By referring to the fish as a brother, with huge bulk and huge pectorals spread wide, Santiago sees his catch as an admirable adversary (99). The opponent that is the fish has been humanized and for the first time the old man appears nervous as he was sweating now but from something else besides the sun (100). Unlike so many soldiers of the lost generation, this opponent was respected as an individual being, and the worthiness of his life was pondered and established at a level equal to his victors, regardless of the fact he was only a fish. Santiago attains a certain sense of humility in his character, although he knows it [carries] no loss of true pride, as he remains the man who reflects on the accomplishments of his youth while still accepting help from the young boy and the community (14). The lions that are recollected in the old mans dreams reflect on pride in his past endeavors however Santiago is not too proud as to show compassion and respect for his inferiors even if they are only so through trickery.

The moral characteristics that comprise Santiago and resemble a Christ like figure would suggest moral success. Success in terms of Santiago being able to look at himself in the mirror that he without doubt doesnt own, but perhaps in the moonlit water and be pleased with the honorable man he is. What Santiago lacks in monetary and material success he makes up for with morality and faith. As Santiago

Jenks 6 proclaims, a man can be destroyed but not defeated, as he has yet to be (114). No matter the adversity that projects itself into the old mans life, he remains true to his beliefs and never takes the path of least resistance or moral decay. The double dicho that Delbert Wylder suggests is that not only when man is destroyed can he not be defeated, but also when he becomes defeated he is not necessarily destroyed (217). Everything about Santiagos body exemplifies destruction and age, even the sail of his skiff advertised a pitiful survival but his eyes remained cheerful and undefeated, as they upheld hope against all odds (10). They were the same color as the sea after all, and the sea presents hope for a re-birth, even of an old man. The old man that was in need of a re-birth was Hemingway himself; he unlike Santiago was not destroyed but instead was victorious in his own life. With travel and experience, money and accolades, Hemingway had not failed at his livelihood like Santiago had but instead surpassed any and all expectations that could be asked of a man from Chicago. Yet even with all the material success that Santiago lacked, Hemingway still could not be a man without defeat. It is to say that the resolve of an individual creates victory or defeat, not material accomplishment itself. The Old Man and the Sea is written not only as a reflection on the values in a world of shifting standards as Kirk Cornutt points out, but also as a reflection on the life of Santiago and that of Hemingway himself. The ever-present dreams of past experiences, and the desire for youthful company in the form of Manolin suggest Hemingways longing for his own youth. A time when his hands could uphold in an arm wrestle or fishing battle, a time when there was more of the world unexplored and words not yet said. The longing for Manolin also represents a desire for

Jenks 7 companionship that regardless of its underlying connotations was too a part of his youth, however has become significantly deficient. Hindsight is always 20/20 as Billy Wilder said and as Hemingway reflects on his life, Santiago is the image he wishes to have seen, for Santiago is the portrayal of a hero. As Wylder suggests, Santiago is the modern hero [who] must find his own way, in this case to destruction and back, and how he responds says everything(211-212). Written as a shattered man who maintained grace under pressure, this hero was not unlike any of Hemingways other manifested heroes (Portway). He not only sailed the seas and partook in battle while upholding respect for himself and his opponents but when his body began to fail him he encouraged it and nursed it back to health by eating the bonito. Under the pressure of facing a marlin that was unbelievably large, the old man maintains his wits and talks himself back to his senses in order to complete his catch. As Hemingway aimed to write so as to evoke emotion not explain it, much of The Old Man and the Sea was presented in a composed fashion regardless of the adversity the characters faced; one could say that the novella was written in a Heroic way. Where he portrayed grace in his characters and his writing, Hemingway lacked it in his life. He knew death all too well and understanding the inevitability of such according to Cain is what caused him to write with a gun to his head each day (118). When he felt there was nothing left to say that was worthy of the forever he wished for his work, then he could no longer bare life as just simply an old man. Under the pressure of his own expectations he showed no grace in taking his life.

Jenks 8 Ironically Hemingway wished for his work, an eternal life, which he knew was not possible for himself. It is not always discernible what a man writes, but by taking the time to explore the depth of every strategically placed word, hopefully readers will spend forever analyzing his intentions, and immortalizing the work (Hemingway). It is the subject of the every day that allows readers to relate to the work, but it is the unfamiliar iceberg of knowledge beneath the surface that has and will intrigue the literary world for years; icebergs built on Hemingways international experiences and are the sustenance of his literary success (Xie). The Old Man and the Sea epitomizes the reason we should not ever judge a book by its cover or its surface but instead delve deep into its soul and perhaps come out looking at the reflection of an author that he has created of himself: The lonely struggles of a brilliant man lost in the sea that is his world, destroyed by the ceaseless ambition to do what had yet to be done. Only in this instance, he went too far.

Jenks 9 Selected Bibliography Benson, Jackson J. Hemingway: the writer's art of self-defense. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969. Print. Burgess Anthony. Ernest Hemingway and His World. New York: Scribner, 1978. Print. Cain, William E. Death Sentences: Rereading The Old Man and the Sea. Sewanee Review 114.1 (2006): 112-125. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 17 Oct 2011. Curnutt, Kirk. Ernest Hemingway and the Expatriate Modernist Movement. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. Print. Dupee. F. W. Hemingway Revealed. The Kenyon Review 15.1 (Winter 1953): pp. 150-152+154-155. JSTOR. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. Ernest Hemingway. Great Writers of the Twentieth Century. By Bob Portway. BBC Worldwide. Clark Television. 2001. Videocassette. Ernest Hemingway. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011. Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print. Herlihy, Jeffrey. Eyes the Same Color as the Sea: Santiagos Expatriation From Spain and Ethnic Otherness in Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. The Hemingway Review 28.2 (2009):25+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. Kennedy, J. Gerald. Doing Country: Hemingways Geographical Imagination. The Southern Review 35.2 (1999): p.325. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.

Jenks 10 Michael Passer, Ronald Smith, Michael Atkinson, John Mithell, Darwin Muir. Psychology: Frontiers and Applications. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Ryerson: Toronto, 2005. The Old Man and the Sea. Dir. John Sturges. Perf. Spencer Tracy. Warner Bros. Pictures. 1958. Web. The Star Copy Style. Kansas City Star. Kansas City Star Online, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2011 Valerie Hemingway. "Hemingways Cuba: Cubas Hemingway. " Smithsonian 1 Aug. 2007: CBCA Reference and Current Events, ProQuest. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. Wylder, Delbert E. Hemingways Heroes. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1969. Print. Xie, Yaochen Hemingways Language Style and Writing Techniques in The Old Man and the Sea English Language Teaching 1.2 (2008): n. pag. Web. 15 Nov. 2011