Everyone unanimously agrees that Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is his greatest work. The novella is moving and engaging enough to hook the readers through its simple and effortless composition.
The Iceberg Theory, proposed and employed by Hemingway in most of his works, extends so much substance and weight to an otherwise simple piece of fiction revolving around the universal themes of resilience and high spirits.
The theory emphasises that there is more to the loneliness of a ridiculed old man. The daunting waters and mighty fish hint at some other forces, people or entities. Moreover, the relentless struggle of the old man is a reflection of other motives and sensibilities.
The iceberg theory asks the audience to come forward with an investigative lens, and the reader’s position becomes substantial in interpreting the text. It is the reader’s duty to extract the inner monologue, the writer’s motives and the hidden sensibilities from a text following symbolic, metaphorical and implied cues. This position is definitely comparable and relevant to the role of symbols, images and their significance in Jungian analysis.
On the surface, the novella is a concise fictional piece with very few characters, a realistic treatment of the objective of the storyline and a very true-to-character and unpretentious landscape. The protagonist is old and physiologically frail. His fishing career is almost over, and he is ridiculed for his consistent inputs despite embarrassing outputs. Eventually, the old man defies his physical and circumstantial limitations by hunting the desired fish. He still lost a significant portion of the trials of the tumultuous journey through wild waters, and the skeleton remained the only souvenir of his epic struggle.
The initial moving away from the surface of the storyline expounds themes of a rigid dichotomy between the human condition and nature and the forces of nature. While nature nurtures humanity and its vulnerability, it also intimidates and overpowers the man-made rules. Moreover, other themes elucidate the meaning and some futility of struggle, as the end result is not guaranteed. However, the eventual theme of a man’s noble and limitless ambition, which crosses all limiting realities, takes centre stage.
Even though Hemingway himself rejected the symbolism associated with the novella, the parallels between his life and the premise of the novel are very significant and of undeniable importance. The parallels are also substantiated through a documentary known as Ernest Hemingway: Wrestling With Life (1989). The novella incorporates Hemingway’s numerous experiences, both literally and figuratively, as mentioned in this documentary.
Firstly, on a macrocosmic level, this novella signifies Hemingway’s struggle with ageism, deteriorating health and declining memory through the problems faced by the old man. Hemingway was unable to embrace the challenges of old age, as he had a dynamic and enthusiastic life prior. A life devoid of writing was not a meaningful life according to him.
This very reason initiated many unsuccessful attempts and one final successful attempt at suicide. By writing the story of the old man, he materialised a world where adventure was still taking place, despite its sheer absence from his life. The specific air of habitual indestructibility of Hemingway was disrupted by the collective attack of head injuries, severe pneumonia and skin cancer. His condition was exacerbated by his drinking habits.
Hemingway defied traditionalism and despised religion. Similarly, the old man in the novella has disregarded religion. The old man prayed at a few points in the face of adversity, but Hemingway made it clear that the old man was relieved because of his own actions instead of prayers.
The documentary ‘Wrestling with Life’ featured the model behind the character of Santiago, and his name was Gregorio Fuentes. The major premise of the novella revolves around the professional nature and experience of deep-sea fishing. The detail-oriented storytelling reflects Hemingway’s excellence in regard to the navigation of the marine world and its flavours and intricacies. The reason behind his excellent knowledge of the marine world was the actual old man from Havana, Gregorio Fuentes. Gregorio Fuentes mentored Hemingway in his adventurous years as a hunter.
Hemingway’s numerous and frequent writing career failures turned him into a laughing stock, earning him the contempt of critics. Likewise, the old man was declared the most unlucky fisherman because of his consistent failure in capturing a fish. Eventually, all those who ridiculed the old man were visibly impressed by his capture of Marlin. This parallel indirectly hints at Hemingway’s reaction toward his critics by presenting the resolution that your best work will eventually obstruct all the reproaches. Therefore, there was an inextricable link between the restoration of Hemingway’s reputation and the revival of the old man’s virtue and noble impression in the eyes of others.
The old man in the novella complained about his cramps as the disloyalty of his own body worked against him. It also signifies Hemingway’s irritation at his own injuries, as he believed he lost all his acquired strength to these physical ailments. This is also important regarding the element of nostalgia, as Hemingway reminisced about the glorious strength of his body during World War I, and an old man was nostalgic for his efficient days as a fisherman.
Hemingway’s chauvinism and disregard for women also marked their place in the novella. In the novella, the old man referred to the troublesome fish as a ‘whore’, and the fish of enormous strength was labelled a male. Additionally, the old man referred to the sea as a woman while reflecting on the destructive contents of the sea.
The little boy in the novella shared an avoidant and estranged relationship with his parents. Hemingway hinted at his own unhealthy and abusive relationship with his father through this seemingly transient detail.
Masculinity described in the novella is exaggerated and hyperbolic. The glamorised notion of masculinity in the novella mirrors the hypermasculine ideals set by Hemingway in real life.
The old man mentioned the dreams of African lions, which signify Hemingway’s own daydreams of returning to the jungles during a time when he was not allowed to travel due to his deteriorating health.
By the end of the novella, the old man has very introspective moments on the themes of sin and morality. The old man voiced the notion that nothing is immoral in the pursuit of survival and extraordinary ambition. It subtly indicates Hemingway’s own indulgence in the inhumane hunting of innocent animals.
The iceberg theory urges the readers to grasp every detail which seems ephemeral and far-fetched at first sight. The biography of the author and his most talked-about sensibilities, coupled with the relevant archetypes in the novella, helped create the aforementioned associations and thus brought unconscious and hidden elements to light.