37 pages • 1 hour read
Ernest HemingwayThe Old Man and the Sea
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
The Old Man and the Iceberg
Trained as a journalist to report the facts clearly, Hemingway wrote in a direct, concise style that presents the surface features of characters and events so they are simple and clear yet radiant with deeper meaning. He called this his “iceberg theory,” by which the things left unsaid improve a story.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway uses his iceberg technique to craft vivid scenes that contain implicit depths. For example, he mentions briefly Santiago’s birthplace, the Canary Islands, and describes the dreams the old man has about his youth aboard square riggers. This simple device provides the reader with a back story that suggests a sailor of great experience who has traveled widely and knows well the vagaries of the ocean.
Elsewhere, Santiago recalls his time as an arm-wrestling champion who once went 24 hours with an opponent, outlasting the other in strength and spirit. Without saying it directly, this passage, in combination with the dream passage, make clear the strength, skill, and endurance that Santiago must draw on in his fight with the fish—qualities that, were he to lack them, would make such a titanic struggle impossible. In both passages, simple descriptions hide deeper implications.
On many occasions, Santiago gazes about at the sea and sky; he loves that world and admires it greatly. His musings about the ocean suggest, without saying so, a man of great spirit and wisdom.
In all such cases, the surface description—the tip of the literary iceberg—is direct, concise, and straightforward. The hidden masses of meaning below the surface are left for the reader to discover. The result is a story that can be read on many levels, some of which reveal themselves over time as readers digest what they’ve read.
The Masculine Style
On the homeward journey, Santiago must defend his catch against sharks. He argues with himself, feeling guilty about killing the beautiful marlin despite the fact that its flesh will feed many. Yet he is puzzled that he feels no guilt about killing a shark that attacks the marlin’s corpse. Finally he reaches a conclusion: ‘“I killed him in self-defense,’ the old man said aloud. ‘And I killed him well’” (68).
The old man’s simple, highly masculinized phrasing is a trademark of Hemingway’s style. The combination of his direct, punchy, and simple wording in a quasi-macho voice helped make Hemingway popular in mid-century America. Today, the simplicity remains popular and influential, while the hyper-masculine style garners less of a following in a more gender-neutral age.
For many decades, Hemingway’s distinctive writing style was lampooned at the annual Bad Hemingway Contest, at which many famous writers competed and served as judges. An entry might include lines such as, “I shaved my face. And it was good.” Each winner received a flight to Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy, a favorite haunt of Hemingway’s. Though the contest poked fun at the most distinctive features of Hemingway’s writing, by implication it also celebrated his legacy, given the many famous authors vying to win the contest.
Third-Person Omniscient Viewpoint
The Old Man and the Sea is written in the third person—the characters are described as if by an outside observer—but the viewpoint is omniscient, in that the story listens in on the characters’ thoughts. The tale at first deals almost entirely with Santiago and the boy; its focus on their activities keeps the story simple. Later, the immensity of sea and sky prevent the old man’s oceangoing adventure from becoming claustrophobic.
This viewpoint almost never leaves the company of the old man or the boy. At one point, though, the perspective abruptly shifts away to describe a shark that appears far to the stern of Santiago’s skiff. It follows excitedly the blood trail left in the water by the marlin and attacks the giant fish’s body as it floats, lashed to the skiff. This is the only time the viewpoint abandons the protagonists, and it does so briefly, to introduce the shark as an antagonist.
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By Ernest Hemingway
