The Old Man and the Sea - Author's Values and Attidues ; Perspective

In my eyes, I see the old man of The Old Man and the Sea as Ernest Hemingway. I feel that all of the thoughts and perspectives on life that we hear from the old man are the thoughts and perspectives that Hemingway has on life. I also have a feeling that the Hemingway enjoyed fishing. Considering that he wrote a novel all about an old man and his fishing, I think we could all accurately assume this.

Through the events that take place in the novel, I see how Ernest Hemingway actually understands life. He seems to understand all of the struggles between life and death. Hemingway could not just have the fish give up and let himself be reeled in. The marlin wanted to live, just as much as the old man wanted to capture the marlin and continue living. The sharks that eventually ate the marlin did not eat the marlin to be mean, they ate it to survive. All of the characters in the book seemed to be driven by something –often the will to survive- and through the way it is shown, I can see Hemingway’s personal values and his understanding of life. He also seems to understand natural human failures. We are not always right. We mess up sometimes. “And what beat you, he thought. ‘Nothing,’ he said aloud. ‘I went out too far.” (Hemingway 120). Despite his realization that he messed up, went too far out, and pushed himself to hard, he decided that nothing has truly broken him. From this statement, I can see that Hemingway has a positive look at life. He realizes that it is in human nature to mess up, and he realizes that in life people will either live or die. In spite of this, his attitude towards life seems to be pretty understanding and optimistic.

The perspective of this novel was not set in stone. It appeared to be a mix of an omniscient (all knowing) narrator and a first person narrator. Occasionally, when a specific character was being focused on, their thoughts would be told in first person. I liked this style, although it was confusing sometimes, because it allowed the readers to understand what the characters were thinking as well as what was going on in the background. Also, both were told in great detail, so I believe this was a unique and intriguing perspective for the novel to be written in. 

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.