Ernest Hemingway’sThe Old Man and the

SeaAuthor and Novel Background

1899 born in Illinois Father was a doctor

(reflected in short stories) Ran away from home at age 15 1917 began writing career as a reporter for the

Kansas City Star WWI

◦ eye injury prevented him from enlisting in army◦ Volunteered as a ambulance driver for the Red Cross in

Italy (injured)◦ Decorated for bravery

1919 – married 1st wife, Hadley Richardson

Ernest Hemingway

Became a reporter for Toronto Star after the war

Moved to Paris in 1921◦ Met Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound◦ Published The Sun Also Rises (1927) to capture

the “Lost Generation” Returned to the States in 1927, married 2nd

wife, Pauline Pfeiffer (writer for Vogue) Published A Farewell to Arms (1929)

Ernest Hemingway

1930s Traveled widely

◦ Bullfighting aficionado in Spain

◦ Big-game hunter in Africa◦ Deep-sea fisherman in

Florida 1937-1939

◦ Covered Spanish Civil War◦ Used experiences in

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

1940 married Martha Gelhorn WWII

◦ submarine spotter in Caribbean for the U.S. Navy◦ War correspondent in Europe

1944 Married Mary Walsh Published Pulitzer Prize winner Old Man and the

Sea (1952) 1954 won Nobel Prize for Literature and the

Award for Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

July 2, 1961 died of self-inflicted gunshot wound

Ernest Hemingway

The Iceberg Principle:“If it is any use to know it, I always try to

write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.”

Hemingway the Writer

Setting: Cuban village near Havana; the sea

Characters:◦ Santiago – old Cuban

fisherman◦ Manolin – young boy who

looks up to Santiago◦ A marlin – the fish that

Santiago struggles to catch for most of the story

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea Style

◦ Concise◦ “bare bones”◦ Pay attention to diction◦ Images are clear, crisp – reader fills in

associations Symbols

◦ Marlin and Sharks – good and evil◦ Santiago – Literally “St. James” – Christ-like

images