Earnest Hemingways Books

Earnest Hemingway’s BooksEarnest Hemingway’s Books
Many of Ernest Hemingway’s books have had
different meaning and all could be interpreted in different way, but there
has never been so much written about his other stories. Well the Old Man
and the Sea had more written about it than any of his other novels and
there have never been so many different types of interpretations about
his other novels. The Old Man and the Sea is a book in which can be interpreted
in many different ways. Here you will read what many critics have composed
about the story of a great writer, Ernest Hemingway. Many of the critics
have the same outlook on the works of Hemingway. Hemingway’s work The Old
man and the Sea can be looked at in many different perspectives. All the
critics believed that his styling of writing was very defined.

In 1944 Ernest Hemingway went to Havana,
Cuba and it was there he wrote a letter to Maxwell Perkins which states
he has a idea on a new novel called The Old Man and the Sea ( Nelson and
Jones 139). Hemingway first got his idea for The Old Man and the Sea from
the stories that he had heard in the small fish cities in Cuba by a man
named Carlos Gutierrez. He had known of this man for about twenty years
and the stories of the fighting marlins. It was then that he imagined that
man under the two circumstances and came up with the idea. After about
twenty years of pondering on the story , he decided that he would start
on the novel of The Old Man and the Sea. The story The Old Man and the
Sea is about a old man named Santiago who has to over come the great forces
of nature. Things seem to always go wrong for him because originally he
started out going to fish for some dinner, then he caught the biggest marlin
ever and it pulled him out in the bay of Cuba even more then he was. After
he was pulled out, he hurt his hands and couldn’t risk going to sleep because
of the risk of sharks. When the sharks finally attacked he lost the marlin
which had become a great part of him because he knew that no one would
believe him when he told them the size of the marlin. This has to be one
of the most memorable fights in a novel that I have ever seen, but I think
that the way he put the novel together was just as good as that of the
fight.

When he put them together it was then that
he relized that what he was actually writing about was a struggle of man
vs. nature. He liked the idea of man vs. nature and decided to use it in
the struggle scene with the marlin. Magill wrote,” the book can be seen
as a fable of the unconquerable spirit of man, a creature capable of snatching
spiritual victories from the circumstances of disaster and material defeat”
(Magill 4325). Also it is said,” the conflict is of the strength of a ordinary
man and the power of nature”(Magill 4325). I feel that Santiago plays a
large role in the novel by being able not to give in and prove to the element
of nature that he would over come them in the long run.

Magill wrote,” The Old Man and the Sea
is a direct descendant of Moby Dick”(Magill 4326). He feels that the struggle
between Santiago and the marlin is very much like that of the whale and
the captain in Moby Dick. The similarities between The Old Man and the
Sea and Moby Dick are extremely noticeable after reading both of the stories
back to back, but there are differences in the story line. The main difference
is that Santiago never comes out with anything unlike the captain in Moby
Dick. Santiago was left with just a broken boat, a bad fishing pole, and
the misery of defeat.

The story could also be interpreted as
being religious because of the struggle that Santiago was put though. Also
it is felt by some people to be religious because of the way he only cut
his palms( from the rope), his feet( on the front of the boat) and his
head(when the bow hit him in the head). It is often portrayed as that of
Jesus on the cross. I don’t know if I really agree with this interpretation
of it being religious. The reason I don’t agree with this is because if
everytime someone got cut on the hands and feet in a movie or book then
I guess that they too resemble that of Jesus on the cross.

This story has many different interpretations
to it, but would the interpretations be if the story contained everyone
from the village in it and sowed how the were raised, born, educated, and
bore children. This story could have been well over a thousand pages if
the above were included (Plimpton 125). The big question that I ask is
though, if all the above were included in the novel, how different do you
think that the interpretation would be? I feel that the interpretations
would be so very different because the whole story be circled around that
of the battle between Santiago and the marlin. Also, I believe that the
religious interpretations would be not as strong because of dealing more
with the life of the city people and that of Santiago.

Hemingway is a writer who creates things
out of his head. If he wasn’t a genius then how come did he win a Pulitzer
Pride for the story The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway states,” I knew two
or three things about the situation, but I didn’t know the story” ” I didn’t
even know if that big fish was going to bite for the old man when it started
smelling around the bait. I had to write on inventing out of knowledge.

You reject everything that is not or can’t be completely true.”(Bruccoli
179) I think that Hemingway is a genius for writing this novel because
in my point of view it shows the battle between human and nature and that
really caught my attention rereading this novel for the third time. I also
caught the moral of the story in my point of view, and that is not everything
good that you have is always going to be there. To me that means alot because
that moral also refers alot about your family as well as friends.

Hemingway is looked upon as one of the
greatest writers to ever set foot on this earth in the twentieth century.

He is a writer who is know for leaving very little left unsaid or leave
you wondering, for example, what’s going to happen, is he gonna die or
not. As you could see in this novel he got to the point in a direct manner
without leaving anything unsaid and he definitely didn’t leave you thinking
about if Santiago was going to live or not.

Many people do not like the writings of
Ernest Hemingway because they feel most everything that he writes about
is unhappy or make believe. Fredrick Busch said at one point in time ,”
He didn’t want to read that of which was unhappy or make believe” referring
to Hemingway’s work (Bryfonski 130). Many have said to believe that The
Old Man and the Sea was written about the life of Ernest Hemingway, which
in reality it was written about a Cuban by the name of Carlos Gutierrez.

However some of the parts in this story do relate to things Hemingway has
experienced.

In conclusion, The Old Man and the Sea
can be interpreted in many different forms, but I think it isn’t how you
interpret it. Don’t get me wrong some people like to read to see how many
ways you can interpret it but , you should read a novel to learn from others
mistakes and also for the pleasure of expanding you knowledge American
and English literature. I could name many different books in which I have
read that have actually left a impact on my life in some sort or another.

Bibliographies
Bruccoli, Matthew J. Conversations with
Ernest Hemingway. Mississippi: UP Mississippi, 1986
Bryfonski, Dedria. Contemporary Authors.

Michigan: Bok Towers,1984
Magill,Frank M. Masterplots. 8 vols., New
Jersey: Salem Press,1976
Nelson, Gerald B., and Glory Jones. Hemingway:
Life and Works. New York: Facts on File Publications,1984
Wagner, Linda W. Ernest Hemingway, Five
Decades of Criticism. Michigan: Michigan State UP, 1974
Wagner, Linda W. Ernest Hemingway, Six
Decades of Criticism. Michigan: Michigan State UP, 1982