The Old Man and the Sea

An Introduction

April 1936 – Esquire Magazine

On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter

Planning as early as 1939

Written in Havana in 1951

Historical Context

•The Cold War

•The Arms Race

•The Korean War

•Socio-economic change

Socio-economic

Change

•Human Labour

•Connected to

nature

•Close community

•Code of honour

•Mechanised

•Environmentally

negligent

•Individualistic

•No code

Santiago – ‘everyman’

•Culturally a Spaniard

•A journeyer in Africa

•A Cuban

•An American

(Old & New world)

Santiago’s Struggle

•Age

•Poverty

•Loneliness

•Mortality

•Identity

•Luck & the battle with the fish

Allegory

•Allegory is an extended

metaphor

•Its underlying meaning has

moral, social, religious, or

political significance.

•It therefore operates on 2

levels -literal and symbolic.

Hemingway’s Style

•The sparse, simplistic language of the

reporter

•Repeated images allusions, actions &

themes

•Repeated sounds, rhythms &

sentence structures

Animation (20 mins)