Review: The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway

The book revolves around the main character Santiago (remember the main character from Alchemist) who is fisherman by profession. Santiago hasn’t caught a single (big?) fish for the last 84 days. He used to go fishing with a boy named Manolin, but his parent has forbidden him from going with the unlucky old man. Santiago takes a skiff and goes into deep water with the hope of finding a big one on this eighty-fifth day, alone.

I’ve tried to keep it spoiler-free as much as possible.

Characters

Santiago

Santiago is an old wise, calm fisherman, who doesn’t even know what he would have been if he were not a fisherman. Many a time, he has seen the bad phases where he had been unlucky for days or weeks before he found a fish.

He has sailed a lot in youth, and have seen the sea. He has gone for turtle-ing, caught huge fishes, dolphins, marlins in his life. He was so strong during his youth, he has won in arm-wrestling with one of the strongest men after hours (yes, the referees had to take turns to complete their sleep).

He lives a simple (rather poor) life in a shack. He follows baseball and cheers for Yankees and some teams. Even his dreams usually consist of a peaceful beach and lions roaming and playing on it.

After his wife’s death, he doesn’t have anyone to care for him except for a boy named Manolin. The boy had been sailing with Santiago since he was 5. But Manolin works with some other fisherman, after his parents forbade him from fishing with unlucky Santiago.

He doesn’t own a radio not does he read books during his time on skiff. He talks to himself aloud (as no one can get bothered by him ) when alone, and misses the boy and the help he used to provide.

He is aware of the work he is doing, and how it’s a sin that he has to kill animals that don’t even intend to harm mankind for living.

Manolin

Manolin is a fisherman boy who started working with Santiago since he was five. He has a unique bond with Santiago and feels for him. He has no shame in begging or stealing to ensure Santiago is taken care of. He believes he has so much to learn from Santiago.

The Sea (or Nature)

Nature is the most complicated character to explain out of these. It mostly involves marine life, the whole ecosystem, how temperature/day affects the human body, the physics and procedure of how to fish. Forgive me for my inability to explain it in detail.

Major themes observed (May contain SPOILERS):

A complete lifecycle of an accomplishment of a goal

Generic story: An ambitious man wants to achieve a goal. He starts planning for it, attempts to reach it, succeeds after many sacrifices. In this process of achieving the goal, probably loses sanity, takes permanent/temporary damage. After accomplishing the goal, finds out that whatever he has achieved has its cons, and to maintain it is a harder task which he hadn’t thought of. And loses what he had gained in the process. All that is left in the end is an experience.

Some relatable examples:

• The journey of a failed(?) startup founder
• The life synopsis of a dedicated person losing his youth and other things to earn money, only to lose it for family and health
• The life in general

The Ageing

Ageing is something everyone has to go through. I remember my chemistry teacher teaching

The world conspires to increase the overall entropy.

• An older/experienced man’s nostalgia
• The realization that you’re not capable of doing things you were capable of

You’re never experienced enough / you learn till your last breath

No matter how prepared you go to fight a battle, at the end of it you will always have some learning.

What could have been better?

I found that at some places the “showing” made me feel I wanted to skip a few paragraphs, for I was not very familiar with the terminology and jargons used. Especially, for the species in the sea, the procedure of fishing and the tools of a fisherman. Other than that I found it a really good quick read.

NOTE: I believe the review or synopsis of the book is already written by so many people, and in a much better way than I will be able to write in my lifetime. This just what I felt about the book.