BEYOND LIMITS: FIGHTING SPIRIT IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

Transcription

1 BEYOND LIMITS: FIGHTING SPIRIT IN THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA FIRDOOS AHMAD BHAT Lecturer GDC Boys Baramulla, J&K Abstract: The Old Man and the Sea was published when critics had lost hope in Hemingway as an author of any great future potential. The novel has been read an answer to the critics who had called it a day for Hemingway as a writer. The novel restored his literary reputation and all his previous work was reexamined in light of this modern classic. The novel is full of symbolism, religious and otherwise. It is an addition to the same shelf of books that one needs to read again and again to renew and reconnect with our own selves and with the larger environments we are a part of and to get a boast for accomplishing our cherished goals. I will try to look at the novel from the same perspective. Key words: struggle, hope, endurance, consistency The Old Man and the Sea reclaimed Hemingway s reputation as a great writer. The novel was published in 1952 and received positive responses from readers and fellow writers. Hemingway is prolific writer. Before this he had published works: The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to the Arms (1929), Death in the Afternoon (1932), Green Hills in Africa (1935) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) His own life is one of an adventurer. Born in 1899 he was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. He started his career as a reporter for The Kansas City Star. He served as an ambulance driver for the Italian Front during the World War I where from he returned home after getting seriously wounded. He was decorated for his heroism after recovering he moved to France and started working for the Toronto Star. He loved deep-sea fishing. While living in Cuba, his afternoons found him out on his power boat. As a fisherman, he too might have failed to catch a fish for days together as the hero of his last novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is unable to catch one for eighty four long days. It is said that for the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway got the idea from an essay in Esquire magazine entitled On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter. 30

2 The piece contained a paragraph about an old man who went fishing alone in a skiff far out in the sea, caught a huge fish and then lost much of it to sharks. Hemingway worked over this idea and the result is this novella of deep and multi-layered meaning. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in A year later, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and The Old Man and the Sea went a long way in according this honour to him as the Nobel Committee singled out its natural admiration for every individual who fights the good fight in a world of reality overshadowed by violence and death. The old man is Santiago. He is all humanity in himself given to fight till the end against the forces beyond his control. He is a Cuban fisherman who sets out to the sea and fails for eighty- four days in catching a fish. His only help, apprentice and friend, Manolin, is removed from his company by his parents as they do not see any hope left in the old man. As a fisherman, people have written him down but Santiago is hell bent not to give up. For him, every new day comes with a new hope and a new beginning. He consistently keeps his hope of winning alive in him. And that is what keeps him going during rough weathers. After toiling at the sea for eighty-four days putting in all the efforts that he could he does not succeed in his pursuit. But that does not weaken his spirits and he continues to abide by his set theory of life that: a man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. (OMS 103). He does not accept the defeat instead sails beyond the island s shallow coastal waters and ventures into the Gulf Stream. On the eighty fifth day, as usual, Santiago prepares his lines and drops them. After toiling hard as always he is able to bait a big fish (a marlin) one hundred fathoms deep in the waters. The fish is as big as he had never confronted before. He is unable to pull it, instead the fish starts pulling his boat. Here starts the epic struggle between the old man and the fish. He is an old man who has to fight the greatest battle for the biggest catch of his life. The fish keeps pulling the boat all through the day, through the night, through another day, and through another night. Although getting injured due the strain of the fishing line and toiling for so long with it, the old man feels a deep empathy and admiration for the 31

3 marlin, and calls it his brother in suffering, strength, and resolve. Without any rest for three days the old man finally manages to kill the fish. He is very excited while returning back with the biggest prize that he has won. He starts thinking about the price that the marlin will fetch him. However, that is not going to happen and his fight has not ended yet. The oozing blood from the marlin s body attracts sharks. He struggles to save his fish. Although he manages to kill several of these predators but his struggle proves useless when there number multiplies and there is no weapons that the old man can use against this onslaught. Ultimately he is left with a bare skeleton of the marlin. He arrives home exhausted all along reprimanding himself for going out too far and sacrificing his worthy opponent. People are surprised to see the remains of the great marlin the next morning. They are oblivious to the labour the old man has gone through. Manolin, the boy who knows Santiago as a man of extra ordinary courage, is moved to see the old man back home. The novel ends with a resolve made by the two to resume their partnership and the old man going to sleep; dreaming about the lions. Hemingway s protagonists are evaluated by using the definition that he gives to his Code Hero as: a man who lives correctly, following the ideals of honor, courage, and endurance in a world that is sometimes chaotic, often stressful, and always painful. In Old Man and the Sea, the hero in all respects fulfills the criteria set in this code. He is an old man with strong beliefs and ideals, full of hope and who is never going to accept defeat instead risks his own life in the pursuit of his goal. Santiago is a man of firm resolution and worthiness. Nothing on earth can make him stoop or quit as he is an epitome of endurance and courage. He has been unable to get anything from the sea but he must not give up as deep in the heart of hearts he has the firm conviction and belief that somewhere in the sea his big fish too must be waiting for him. He is an experienced fisherman now considered as a salao (unlucky one) by the other fisherman. But he believes that luck or bad luck doesn t matter. He says: To hell with luck. I ll bring the luck with me. (OMS 125) Though he is weak and wrinkled, worn out and wounded, has a cramping hand and all the problems that age inflicts on a man, he still is in possession of that indomitable spirit that has and continues to be the only weapon of man fighting his lone battles in times of adversity and unfavourable circumstances. He is not an ordinary 32

4 man but a strange old man who grapples with the mighty marlin on his eighty fifth day alone to prove his worth and all the time trying not to think but only to endure (OMS 46) Through his story, Hemingway depicts the ageless spirit of man which is not subjected to the onslaughts of time. About Santiago he says: Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. (OMS 10) Santiago is a hero more for his moral fortitude than his physical strength. He deems it all a process in which one day may be against you but another day may be the most favorable one. For Santiago, the sea can both favour you and break you. But he knows many tricks; has the ability to endure that will make his chances of winning more likely and failures less likely. All this keeps things going in Santiago s life for who knows? May be today. Every day is a new day. (OMS 32) Although, Hemingway, did not approve of it that way still there can traced some links through which the novel can be read as having allegorical meaning. Santiago s name has a Biblical origin. It is the Spanish version of James. James was a fisherman and a disciple of Jesus. Manolin s name, too, comes from Manuel that people relate to Immanuel which in Hebrew means God is with us. The Biblical story of the Miracle of the Fish has some parallels between Santiago and Manolin on one side and Saint James and Jesus on the other. When Saint James was unlucky to catch a fish, he asked Jesus what to do and Jesus told him to try again, he did and succeeded in getting a big catch. Manolin, the boy, is a powerful support to our old man who takes care of him and understands the situation he is in. Both of them don t want to give up and keep each other preparing for harsher circumstances. Manolin appears as a continuation of the struggle that must go till the End. He is a dream and an assurance in himself that man cherishes and will continue to fulfill. Nothing will destroy this undying spirit in man. The fight goes on and on and it is only through this fight man reveals the power and beauty that neither diminishes nor surrenders. Santiago is the experience that man attains in his struggle towards fulfilling his goal and proving his worth and Manolin is the extension and continuation of that Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal 33

5 struggle. In Manolin this spirit is born with a renewed energy. Now that the boy has the added benefit of the experience of the past struggles that he inherits from Santiago. We can hope that Manolin will always go an extra mile if he has to in realising his self and proving his mettle. Man, always, has broken the previous records and we must assume that Manolin will toil far out and far beyond than Santiago did. He will endure more than the old man did and will never come back without getting his fish even if he develops more cramps than Santiago had. He will wait for an extra day out in the sea and break the record of Santiago. He will out do and out shine his mentor, Santiago. References: Note: The Old Man and the Sea has been abbreviated as OMAS throughout. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Scribner, November 20, November 17, 2014 The Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved January 31, Huffington Post. The Huffington Post. March 27, Retrieved October 7, November 19, 2014 Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal 34