The Old Man and the Sea question #8

I think "The Old Man and the Sea" reflects events in history quite accurately. Although the book is pretty straight forward just about Santiago's epic journey on the sea, we can still get a peek at the history going on around him through the setting and such. "The Old Man and the Sea" was written in 1951 and published in 1952. To kind of get a glimpse at what times were like during this period you can look at what Hemingway wrote about the setting. This story takes place in a small fishing village in Cuba and then the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Back then, resources were not as plentiful and a lot of people had to provide food for themselves and their families by catching or growing it themselves. This is what Santiago did. One of the struggles with this is that if you cannot provide for yourself, then you simply would not eat. This is what Santiago struggled with but luckily he had the boy, Manolin, who helped keep him fed. One set of responsibilities I think Ernest Hemingway believed existed was between workers and bosses. In "The Old Man and the Sea" this could apply to Santiago and Manolin. Manolin was very loyal and I think genuinely cared for Santiago. He came to him every morning and always did whatever he could to help him. Manolin stayed loyal to Santiago even when he was away for three days catching the marlin and came to his shack every morning to see if he had returned. "It was blowing so hard that the drifting boats would not be going out and the boy had slept late and then come to the old man's shack as he had come each morning" (Hemingway, 122). Something that I think definitely influenced Ernest Hemingway when he was writing was the fact that he had served in World War I and World War II, as well as witness the liberation of Paris and the argument in the Cuban Communist party in 1945. These events I'm sure influenced his view of defeat which he then displayed through this book.

 Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.