Ernest Hemingway – 6

Like all progressive people throughout the world, Hemingway realized that fascism was a threat to peace, a great danger for mankind. When the war began, he lived in Cuba and for some months in 1942-1943 he patrolled the Cuban coast in his own boat chasing fascist submarines. In 1944 Hemingway went to Britain as a war correspondent and finished the war as a soldier, taking an active part in the struggle against German fascists. After the war he returned to Cuba and from that time on he lived in this country. It is in Cuba that Hemingway wrote his masterpiece” The Old Man and the Sea”, for which he received the Nobel Prize for literature.

In order to write this story, Hemingway learned about the life of fishermen, their interests, customs and traditions. He fished himself, too, and knew very well that fishing was hard labour.

The story is very simple, but it is full of allegory. Santiago, an old fisherman, had gone many days without catching any fish. But he did not lose heart; he was sure that some day he would hook a big fish. And that day came at last. The fish Santiago had hooked was big and strong. Santiago was alone in his boat and a long struggle between the old man and the fish began. The fish had the line in its mouth and swam on and on. The old man had to hold the line against his back with all his strength.  He was tired but he thought of the fish with respect and admiration: "I wish I could see him (he called the fish ‘he’). He is wonderful and strong and who knows how old he is. Never have I had such a strong fish or one who acted so strangely.”

In the long struggle, which lasted for three days, the man turned out to be stronger than the fish. It lay dead at the side of the boat and it was so big that Santiago couldn’t lift it into his boat.

The old man had conquered the fish, but the battle with the sea had not ended. Very soon sharks attacked the dead fish. Santiago killed the first shark, but there were a lot of sharks around the boat and he realized that the struggle was hopeless. Still he didn’t give up the fight. He said to himself: "Man is not made for defeat. Man can be destroyed but not defeated.” And he fought the sharks, beating them with his oars and striking them with his knife. But at night many more sharks came and they had eaten the fish. Nothing was left but the skeleton.

Yet the man had won the battle. He showered what man could do and what man could endure. His words "man can be destroyed but not defeated” is the main idea of Hemingway’s story and the main idea of Hemingway’s creative work.