Spotlight on the Classics - Hemingway

By Lisa Burns

Hemingway could write ten words about a subject on the back of a matchbook and I would declare the result brilliant. Why? Because in ten words he would simply say what he wanted to say and say all that needed to be said. The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway’s “tiny” novel, is that ten words on a matchbook. I first read The Old Man and the Sea when I was nine, then again at twelve, then fifteen, then once again at nineteen. When I was nine it was a great fish story and I felt really sorry for both the marlin and the old man. At twelve I envisioned myself as the little boy who had learned so much about fishing and the sea from the old man. By fifteen I knew where my life was going and I knew my great love and my great nemesis was a man I would never meet except on the pages of his books…Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea inspired me and caused me moments of despair. The story and the writing were both seemingly simplistic, yet I was so caught up in his writing and that fish story that I wanted to throw away all the extra words in my life and live a big life in a small way. I wanted to write a massively impressive story with the perfect blend of the precision of a true craftsman and the ease of a barroom storyteller. I wanted to appear like a gold-medal Olympic figure skater who makes skating look so easy that an out-of-shape slob could do it.

But, just as an out-of-shape slob can’t skate like an Olympian, a writer who is not dedicated to their craft will never come close to Hemingway. I don’t mean writing like Hemingway; I’m talking about understanding and effectively executing the craft while adding your own distinct signature to it.

Don’t know the story? Here it is in a nutshell: Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, has a run of bad luck. He knows it, the village knows it and the young fisherman who loves him knows it. But what the heck, when he is given a couple of fish, he decides to use them as bait. He gets in his boat, ventures beyond the shallow coastal waters and ends up in the Gulf Stream, where he hooks the largest marlin he has ever seen. The marlin struggles for his freedom and his life; Santiago struggles because he is a fisherman and it’s his job to catch the fish. After a great battle, both Santiago and the marlin are bloodied and tired but Santiago prevails…for a brief moment. Smelling blood, dozens of sharks circle the boat, and while Santiago does his best to ward them off, they rip off and devour the flesh of the great marlin. By the time Santiago reaches shore, all that’s left is the skeleton of the “great fish,” an exhausted but “lucky” old man, the boy that loves him and a reader crying their eyes out. Why do we cry? Because Hemingway has clearly and beautifully shown us a truth that we knew but could not articulate: For every triumph there is a loss, and the true victor in life is the one who can persevere in the face of both