Old Man and the Sea: Hemingway's Values and Attitude

Ernest Hemingway showed many of his values and attitude in this novel.  Hemingway shows that he values many things.  He obviously values loyalty and friendship.  The reader can gather this because the old man and the boy had such a good relationship.  The way the boy worries about him shows that their friendship is very important.  Also, the boy is always loyal to the old man and wants to keep fishing with him although the old man had not caught a fish for a long time.  The boy always insists to help the old man although the old man does not want it.  Another value that the reader can find is perseverance.  When the old man caught the fish on his line, he stayed awake night and day in order to catch this fish.  The old man said in the novel, "Fish, I'll stay with you until I am dead".  Hemingway obviously values the spirit of never giving up.

The attitude Hemingway wrote with during this book confused me.  At the beginning, it was  a hopeful attitude that began with the old man thinking he was going to catch a fish.  He was ready to go out to the sea and catch something.  The attitude soon changed when the old man actually got the fish on the line.  The attitude changed to a unsure when the old man could not catch the fish right away.  You can tell the old man was losing hope when his hand cramped up.  Hemingway did this to show the uncertainty the old man began to feel while catching the fish.  The attitude of the book also changed when he caught the fish.  It was a very comforting feeling knowing that the old man had finally caught something.  However, this attitude did not last long because a sad and hopeless feeling replaced it when the old man could not keep the sharks from taking bites out of his fish.  This was an emotional part of the novel because Hemingway made the attitude so depressing.  The old man had worked so hard but it was all for nothing.   The attitude in this novel was ever-changing, but it helped with the understanding of the novel.

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