I am half way through The Old Man
and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The
point of view switches from third to first person frequently, with the old
man’s thoughts running into the narration of the story. The old man considers
the fish he has caught his brother, but he is still determined to kill it. He
feels sorry for it, he loves it and pities it, but he does not question what he
must do to it. Not being a fisherman, I cannot fully understand that concept,
but I respect it. The man respects the fish, he calls it noble, but all the
while, he is wishing it dead. His love for the great fish cannot interfere with
his need to catch it. To make him feel better he thinks of all the people the
fish could feed, but even so he knows no one would be worthy of eating the
fish.
I have no respect for people who
kill animals just to kill them – for the thrill of the hunt, for the pride of
having the head mounted on a wall to brag about, or in excess, so many
carcasses go to waste so it is not just a waste of a life but a waste of whatever little good might have come from its death. But I do have some respect for the old man, who only
kills as much has he needs to feed himself and others. He was brought up this
way, he says that fishing is what he was born to do, and it is what he must do
to survive. It is how he makes his living, it is his way of life, and he though
he does not like that he must kill his brother, the fish, he knows that this is
how life works, and what he must do. This relates to my last blog post about
Hamlet’s musings on the circle of life. The old man only knows that this is the
way things are, they cannot be changed, the fish must die.
The old man recounts the story of
the marlin he and the boy had caught, with the male fish that refused to leave
the female even after she had been caught, dragged aboard, and killed. The old
man remembers how sad he and the boy were about the situation, so they said
sorry and butchered her promptly. Their sorrow for the lover-fish was separated
from their requirement to catch the fish. The old man has very strong emotions,
he feels deeply for everything, the ocean, the moon, the stars, the fish. But
he keeps these emotions separated from his job, which must be to kill that
which he loves. It is an outstanding feat that he can do this, seeing as his
line of work makes him go against all his emotions.
The old man has much determination,
and it never even crosses his mind to give up and let the fish go, not when it
starts pulling him out past the sight of land, or when he is in so much pain
from holding the line. This must be the determination of a fisherman. The fish
(as of yet) has not even begun to slow down or show any signs of weakness, but
the man does not even think of admitting defeat. He is determined to outlast
the fish and catch it, despite all the risk he is putting himself in. He is
either very courageous or very stupid to continue on this journey out to sea,
and I am conflicted as to who I want to see come away alive.
I have become attached to the old
man as he reminisces and switches his trains of thought and talks to himself
and to the fish all alone out on the open sea. But his thoughts and feelings for the fish are
so heart-felt that I feel for the fish as well, and I do not want him to be
caught. I would love for them both to win, but with him being a fisherman, the
only way he can win is by catching a fish, and so the fish must die for the man
to win. It is a sort of “neither can live while the other survives” situation,
so I guess I’d rather they both die, than have only one live. I do not know if
Hemmingway intended for his audience to feel so strongly for both the man and
the fish, or if it is just me being all animal-lover-human-hater. Even
though the man kills animals for a living, because I know so much about him I cannot
help but sympathize with him. I would think that Hemmingway intended this to be
so because of how the old man describes his love for the fish in the personal
first-person, making the reader think as the old man thinks, and feel as he
feels. This is a clever strategy, making the reader unsure of how he/she wants
the story to end, and so building the suspense and keeping the reader
interested to find out what actually happens. This story makes me think about
many things, I have not even mentioned all the language, the use of Spanish, religion, the interconnectedness of all things, and many other ideas that this book brings to my attention, and hopefully I will
have many more ideas to mull over once I finish the book.
