The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway’s novella *The Old Man and the Sea* came out in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction the American author saw published in his lifetime. The story follows Santiago, an old fisherman, through his prolonged battle to land a giant marlin.

Hemingway wrote the book in Cuba between December 1950 and February 1951. At the time, his personal life was in turmoil: his previous novel, *Across the River and Into the Trees*, had been poorly received, his marriage to Mary was strained, and he had fallen for his muse Adriana Ivancich. After finishing one volume of a planned sea trilogy, he added a story about an old man and a marlin—a tale first told to him fifteen years earlier. He wrote roughly a thousand words daily, completing the 26,531-word manuscript in six weeks.

Over the next year, Hemingway grew convinced the piece could stand alone as a novella. *Life* magazine printed the full text in its September 1, 1952 issue. Scribner’s released the first edition a week later, on September 8. Buoyed by strong early reviews and word of mouth, demand was so high that both the magazine and the book were widely bootlegged. *Life* sold 5.3 million copies in two days; Scribner’s moved tens of thousands. By the end of 1952, the novella had been translated into nine languages and spent six months on the *New York Times* bestseller list. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953, and when Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, this was the only work specifically cited.

Initial reviews were enthusiastic, with many critics hailing it as a return to form after the disappointment of *Across the River and Into the Trees*. Over time, however, praise cooled, and some literary critics came to feel the early reception had been exaggerated. Whether *The Old Man and the Sea* ranks below or alongside Hemingway’s other work has since been debated. Thematic analysis often focuses on Christian imagery and symbolism, on how the novella’s themes echo earlier Hemingway works, and on the character of Santiago himself.

**Plot**

Santiago, an elderly fisherman, has gone eighty-four days without a catch and is considered *salao*—very unlucky. A boy named Manolin, whom Santiago once trained, has been sent by his parents to work on a luckier boat. Still, Manolin helps Santiago prepare his gear each morning and evening and brings him food. They talk about baseball and Joe DiMaggio before the boy leaves and Santiago sleeps. He dreams of his youth and the sights he once saw.

On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago takes his skiff out early, rowing far into the Gulf Stream. He catches only a small albacore in the morning before hooking a massive marlin. The fish is too heavy to reel in and begins towing the skiff farther out to sea. Santiago holds on through the night, eating the albacore after sunrise. He sees the marlin for the first time—it is longer than his boat. He grows to respect and feel compassion for the fish. A second sunset comes, and he manages some sleep; he is jolted awake when the fish panics but regains his balance. On the third morning, the marlin begins to circle. Nearly delirious, Santiago pulls it close and harpoons it. He lashes the fish to his boat.

A mako shark, drawn by the blood, takes a forty-pound bite from the marlin. Santiago kills the shark but loses his harpoon. He lashes his knife to an oar as a makeshift spear and kills three more sharks before the blade snaps. Cursing himself for going out too far, he apologizes to the mutilated carcass. At sunset, he clubs two more sharks, but the marlin is now half-eaten. During the third night, a pack of sharks arrives and leaves only the skeleton. Santiago reaches shore, sleeps in his shack, and leaves the skeleton tied to his skiff.

In the morning, Manolin cries when he sees Santiago’s condition. He brings coffee and sits with him until he wakes. He insists on accompanying Santiago from now on. A fisherman measures the marlin at eighteen feet. A pair of tourists mistake the skeleton for that of a shark. Santiago goes back to sleep and dreams of lions on an African beach.

**Background and publication**

*The Old Man and the Sea* was Hemingway’s sixth major novel, following *The Sun Also Rises* (1926), *A Farewell to Arms* (1929), *To Have and Have Not* (1937), *For Whom the Bell Tolls* (1940), and *Across the River and Into the Trees* (1950). Though the latter sold 75,000 copies in its first month and stayed on the *New York Times* bestseller list for twenty-one weeks, critical reaction was largely negative. As his marriage to Mary deteriorated, Hemingway deepened his feelings for his muse, the young Italian Adriana Ivancich, who spent the winter of 1950–1951 with the Hemingways in Cuba. Finding himself able to write again in early December, he finished one book (published posthumously in 1970 as *Islands in the Stream*) of a planned sea trilogy. As his passion for Ivancich cooled, he began another story.

In the mid-1930s, the Cuban guide Carlos Gutiérrez had told Hemingway a story about an old man and a giant marlin. Hemingway later retold it in an *Esquire* essay titled “On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter.” According to Mary Cruz, the tale likely originated with the Cuban author Ramón Meza y Suárez Inclán in 1891 and was passed down by fishermen for forty years. Hemingway’s own extensive experience sailing the Gulf Stream over decades also shaped the novella.