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“Struggle
for the Survival/existence in the old man and the Sea by Hemingway"
Name:-Khamal
Krishna R
Roll no:-15
Class :-M.A-PART 2 –Sem-3
Paper no:- 10 (American Literature)
Assignment Topic- “Struggle for the Survival/existence in the
old man and the Sea by Hemingway”
Batch Year:- 2016/18
Submmited to :- Department of English,
Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
The Old Man and the Sea is novel written by
the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 and published in 1952.
It was most famous work of his life.
It centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with
a giant Marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and the Sea was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize For Fiction in 1953 and was cited by
the Noble Committee as Committee as contributing the awarding
of the Noble Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.
About
the Author:-
Old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway is a great novelist with many philosophical ideas. Hemingway is
very careful while portraying characters in his works. The novella is centered
on one major character Santiago. As the title suggest Santiago is an old man.
He is of 75 years old Cuban fisherman. Hemingway has presented the character
of Santiago with strong determination will power, hope and confidence.
Hemingway has borrowed a surprisingly abundant supply of facts from his own life for his novels. The books have therefore something autobiographical about them. Something of the author's character and personality is attributed to the hero of the Hemingway novel. But in The Old Man and the Sea the identification between the author and the hero is complete: and the story is an interesting personal allegory. ( Hemingway)
Struggle
for existence in old man and the sea
Struggle means to
fight, hard work great effort to over come difficulties. And survival means staying
alive after facing life threatening danger. When these two words get together
so it becomes struggle for the existence. In this novel the
main protagonist Santiago in whole novel struggle for to keep himself alive .In
this novel represent the picture of the struggle of the old Santiago who fight
with big sharks and other creatures of the sea. In this whole novel Santiago
faces many struggle and difficulty in
this story. The major difficulty is that he faces everyday it was that how he
get food to eat to keep him alive. He did not any money and he had luck with
fishing.
“But he thought, I keep them with
precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? May be today. Every day
is new day. It is better to lucky. But I would rather be next. Then when comes
you are ready’’
Old fisherman Santiago’s power represents a
strong struggle and faith
Old fisherman Santiago is a respectable hero,
who is not only able to overcome death but also a brave man. He battled with
the nature and ferocious sharks again and again desperately. This is the
process that the hero survived from death again and again. He fought with the
sea, it is not just the general struggle to conquer nature, it is the battle
with the life. The old fisherman Santiago showed us the philosophy of life by
his own experience. He is striving for the implementation of self-worth. But,
just as a literary critic Buehler said, when death comes, the protagonists of
Hemingway’s novels will never commit suicide, on the contrary, they will
understand how to face it. So it goes with what Santiago said, people can be
destroyed, but not defeated. In his fight with the sharks, he comprehend the
philosophy of life. The fight is a very effective mechanism of self-reflection
and spur, and it strengthened his belief in self-flagellation, and sublimated
his own personality. The tone of the novel” the old man and the sea” is so clam
and objective that it reveals the old fisherman Santiago's endless grace under
pressure. As a lonely old man, and also an old man make a living by fishing. In
order to survive, he must go to sea to go fishing. Although fishing alone in
the sea means putting himself under great danger, especially confronting the
threat of death. However, no matter under the helpless environment, or in
fierce fighting of survival, the old fisherman Santiago did not show a spark of
emptiness and confusion. This stems from the countless times’ survival from the
desperate situation by his firm faith and confidence. From the beginning to the
end, old fisherman Santiago confronted the possible failure with a very calm
attitude. Therefore, hence very common mentality to challenge the possible
arrival of death. Now that it has come, let the storm come more violently. In
such a cruel and harsh environment under such a fierce battle, the old
fisherman Santiago fully demonstrates his firm belief, and his elegant
temperament -grace under pressure, shows his strong personality power.
What a moment it is! When a
person anthropomorphizes a creature and has to kill whom he starts liking and
loving. Killing Marlin, whom he loved ,was a real struggle for Santiago like Arjuna
who fought with his own relatives in the Kurukshetra in Mahabharata. At this juncture, it is
quite natural that he seems like Hamlet who creates a confusion out of a
question like,
“To
be, or not to be, -- that is the question :--” (Shakespeare, 54)
Prodigiously
abstract moment but hard to tackle by a common man when he is put in such a
situation when he is told to kill a loved one. Santiago goes for ‘to be’. It
means ‘to kill’ is to survive him and ‘to survive’ is ‘to struggle for’. Such a
crucial moment is to be realized. Somewhere between life and death, this impeccable
indispensible. treasure is to be kept in Manolin’s self as a gift of pastness to
its presence. This is how the nature of all life consists of a
passing on collective knowledge and memory from one generation to the next, as
well as a passage from youth to the old age.
Santiago
humanizes the fish Marlin, seems very poetic in its nature. He speaks to him
like,
Some lines and paragraph of the text
by which this can be clear that how the Santiago struggled for the
survival
“You better be fearless and confident yourself, old
man,” he said. “You’re holding him again but you cannot get line. But soon he
has to circle. “The old man held him with his left hand and his shoulders now
and stooped down and scooped up water in his right hand to get the crushed
dolphin flesh off of his face. He was afraid that it might nauseate him and he
would vomit and lose his strength. When his face was cleaned he washed his
right hand in the water over the side and then let it stay in the salt water
while he watched the first light come before the sunrise. He’s headed almost
east, he thought. That means he is tired and going with the current. Soon he
will have to circle. Then our true work begins. After he judged that his right
hand had been in the water long enough he took it out and looked at
it.“It is not bad,” he said. “And pain does not matter to a man.”
“He is making the far part of his circle
now,” he said. I must hold all I can, he thought. The strain will [86] shorten
his circle each time. Perhaps in an hour I will see him. Now I must convince
him and then I must kill him.“I
could not fail myself and die on a fish like this,” he said. “Now that I have
him coming so beautifully, God help me endure. I’ll say a hundred Our Fathers
and a hundred Hail Mary's. But I cannot say them now. Ø Santiago ( pg.-24)
I’m tiered than I have ever been, he thought,
and now the trade wind is rising. But that will be good to take him in with. I
need that badly.“I’ll rest on the next turn as he goes out,” he said. “I feel
much better. Then in two or three turns more I will have him.”His straw hat was
far on the back of his head and he sank down into the bow with the pull of the
line as he felt the fish turn. You work now, fish, he thought. I’ll take you at
the turn.
The sea had risen
considerably. But it was a fair-weather breeze and he had to have it to get
home.
“I’ll just steer
south and west,” he said. “A man is never lost at sea and it is a long island.”Ø Santiago (pg.-25
)
“Fish,” the old
man said. “Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill
me-too?”
That way nothing is accomplished, he thought.
His mouth was too dry to speak but he could not reach for the water now. I must
get him alongside this time, he thought. I am not good for many more turns. Yes
you are, he told himself. You’re good for ever.
“Keep my head
dear,” he said against the wood of the bow. “I am a tired old man. But I have
killed this fish which is my brother and now I must do the slave work.ӯ Santiago ( pg.-26)
“Get to work, old
man,” he said. He took a very [95] small drink of the water. “There is very
much slave work to be done now that the fight is over.”“But man is not made
for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he
thought. Now the bad time is coming and I do not even have the harpoon. The
dent so is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. But I was more
intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better
armed.
Ø Santiago ( pg.28 -29)
“I killed him in
self-defence,” the old man said aloud. “And I killed him well.”
‘’Fishing kills me
exactly as it keeps me alive. The boy keeps me alive, he thought. I must not
deceive myself too much. ’’“I have the gaff now,” he said. “But it will do no
good. I have the two oars and the tiller and the short club.”
Now they have beaten me, he thought. I am too old to club sharks to
death. But I will try it as long as I have the oars and the short club and the
tiller.
“You’re tired, old
man,” he said. “You’re tired inside.”Ø Santiago
(pg.30-31)
“Half fish,” he said. “Fish that you
were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed
many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill old
fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing.ӯ Santiago (pg.32)
Conclusion:-
So
by all this sentences and the lines of the paragraph we can imagine
that how Santiago faced lots of struggles when he went for
fishing and if he don’t want this then even he have to do it because for his
struggle for the existence.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest,The Old Man and the Sea. The old
man and the sea,Bangalore: Harrows Publication. 2009.
Hemingway, Ernest. The
Old Man and the Sea. 2011:39-44. PDF File. The old man and the Sea PDF
File. 2011.
<https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/Honors/Fiction%202013/Hemmingway_The%20Old%20Man%20and%20the%20Sea_1952.pdf>.
http://manybooks.net/titles/shakespeetext982ws2610.html
hakespear, william
,Hamlet. Hamlet Prince of Denmark www. manybooks.net.org.gutenburg .org.
<http://manybooks.net/titles/shakespeetext982ws2610.html>.
Nice one, Good job.
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