Dr.Obaidur Rahman Nadwi
Ernest Hemingway was a highly influential American author, novelist, short- story writer of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
He was born on July 21,1899 in Oak Park Illinois, U.S. and died on July 2,1961 in Idaho U.S.A.
During the First World War, he worked as an ambulance driver in Italy. He was badly injured and was in hospital for a long time.
He was an accomplished journalist. At the age of 17, he joined a newspaper office in Kansas City. After the First World War, he returned to America and joined a Canadian newspaper. He was also sent to Europe as a foreign correspondent and stayed in Paris where he moved in literary circles.
He was a prolific writer. He was also acclaimed as a short story writer. Men Without Women(1927), Winner Take Nothing (1932), The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938) are some of his collections of short stories which established him as a master of the genre.
Undoubtedly, Hemingway was a versatile genius. He was an expert in the art of portrayal of characters. He wrote honestly on his own experience in life. He invented a new kind of hero known as the Code Hero. As a writer, he adopted the Principle of absolute honesty and enthusiasm. He wrote what he actually experienced in life. His taste and talent rested on an active and meaningful life. He was a man of simple living and unostentatious behavior.
He authored a number of good novels. Some of his most important novels are as under:
1.The Sun Also Rises- This is the first novel written by Hemingway in which he says that the mass of men live in desperate state, the virtue of man exists in the courageous acceptance of disaster. The novel appeared in 1926.
- A Farewell to Arms is his another novel. It was published in 1929. Its hero Frederick was a lieutenant with an Ambulance unit serving the Italian Army in the First World War. As G.B.Shaw deprecates war in Arms and the Man, Hemingway also bids farewell to war for ever.
3.To Have and Have Not was his third novel. It was the story of Harry Moron, a native of key west Florida who wanted to keep himself, his wife and children happy. He failed to keep them happy. He took over the job of a snugger and suffered. - For Whom The Bell Tolls is Hemingway’s finest as well as his popular novel. In its general meaning it is simply a story of courageous resistance to tyranny, and that resistance is felt as a concern of all humanity.The protagonist Robert Jordan is involved in mankind not as Marxist, but as a believer in Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
5.The Old Man and the Sea was the last novel of Hemingway which brought him great eminence and the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in 1954.It is a parable of man’s struggle with the natural world.
Santiago was a fisherman, who lived alone on the shore of the sea. His profession was hunting the fish. He had a peculiar nature.
He treated the sea as his mother. It was a natural mother for him. He considered the fish was his brother and he had much love for the animals of the sea. He knew that the killing the creatures of God is sin, yet he had regularly engaged in the act of fishing. He claimed that it was his profession so there was no harm in killing the fish.
Thus, he hunted for 40 days but did not get a single fish. He earned nothing except the title of a Salao, which means an unfortunate fellow. Having come to know of his bad luck, the parents of the boy companion named Manolin was withdrawn from his service. He did not take ill of it. He had been continuously fishing for 84 days. He caught no fish but he did not become disappointed.
Santiago was an adventurist. He believed in the principle-“But man is not made for defeat”. Santiago says, “A man can be destroyed but defeated.” He was religious minded. He was a believer in the mercy and compassion of God.
He met disappointment and despair yet did not lose heart. He was superstitious by nature. He said that 85 was a good number for him.The sum of 8 and 5 is thirteen. Magicians consider 3,7,9, and 13 as good numbers so Santiago waits for 85 day of his adventure.
Truly speaking,
Santiago, an old man of the sea shows special courage, strength and endurance to win the fish Marlin and finally he got the fish but the latter itself is possessed by the Sharks. Santiago gets only the skeleton on the fish and its head which he gives to the owner of the restaurant who had been supplying him food from time to time.
To sum up, the summary of the novel “The Old Man and the Sea” is that a man can fail but not defeated.
Dr.Obaidur Rahman Nadwi
Faculty Member
and
HOD of the Department of Journalism and Languages
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama
Lucknow,U.P.( India)