Blog #5: The Old Man and the Sea

When I think of the 1950’s, I think of Elvis Presley, drive-in movies, and Grease. Most teenagers have not noticed how things were for other cultures in the 1950’s. Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, was written in 1951. The story tells of a Cuban fisherman named Santiago. Santiago is poor, uneducated, and has nearly nothing to live for. Santiago’s story is something completely different to the 1950’s history most people are familiar with. The Old Man in the Sea shows what life was like outside of America in 1951 with its historical value, settings, and contrasting social standards.

Santiago lives in a shack in a Cuban fishing village(Hemingway 26). His only knowledge of the outside world consists of what the newspapers say about America’s Major League Baseball. A simple man, Santiago dreams of lions in Africa and waits patiently for the day he will catch his big fish. The Old Man and the Sea paints a vivid picture, showing the other side of the story written in history books. With a simple character living in poverty with only a fishing skiff, Hemingway takes the readers away from the well-known world of 1951, and shows them another side of its history.

The setting of The Old Man in the Sea is a poor fishing village on the coast of Cuba. In this village, there is no talk of nuclear weapons, wars, or the world’s leaders. In Santiago’s village, all the men are fishermen. The fishermen live in one-room shacks with dirt floors, cots, and no indoor plumbing. Santiago wakes up before the sun each day, makes his bed of newspapers and straw, and drinks black coffee. On his way out to his fishing skiff, he meets fellow fishermen. The old man spends all day out at sea with no luck. He comes back into shore empty-handed with no supper, fish, or money. Santiago goes to sleep and wakes up to start the next day just like the one before.

Ernest Hemingway did an excellent job of showing the unthinkable. Everyone thinks of the 1950's as the time when the country's culture was roaring, but Hemingway showed the opposite end of the spectrum!

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print