I have a hard time believing your text is 200 pages long. How many pages is the article? Very interesting further assessment. Is this a topic you think you might be interested in furthering? 10/10
1st Criticism - The Old Man and the Sea Pages: 200 Bibliography: Valenti, Patricia Dunlavy. Understanding The Old Man and the Sea: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series). New York: Greenwood Press, 2002. Print. Summary: Cuban Culture - Language
In Spanish, nouns have gender—masculine or feminine—whereas in English, most nouns are neuter: for example, “book” in English is a neuter noun, but the Spanish equivalent, libro, is a masculine noun. The critic argues that in The Old Man and the Sea, the narrator elaborates upon the association of the sea with both the Spanish feminine and masculine articles to illustrate Hemingway’s perspective on women. La mar is what the sea is called by people who love her, even if they are angered by her. El mar is what the younger fishermen who rely more on advanced technology such as buoys and motorboats call the sea. These men regard the sea as a masculine competitor, their adversary. Santiago, however, “always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought” (30). Santiago’s perspective on the sea reveals his perspective on the female, calmness, a presence that is emphasized by opposing images in The Old Man and the Sea and in Hispanic culture generally.
It is interesting how the author combined the complex Spanish articles to hint his perspective on women. The different connotations in la marandel mar make The Old Man and the Sea a more complex piece of story.
I agree with the critic's idea that Hemingway uses Spanish articles to illustrate his idea on women, but I believe there is a deeper meaning to his usage.
A man with longing, such extreme lonesomeness, such detachment from passion and exchange of pure human emotion is the character of Santiago in Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel The Old Man and the Sea. In The Old Man and the Sea, the loss of Santiago’s wife and his gentle worship and adoration of the sea leave him to view the sea as a symbol of a type of “eternal feminine” life form, and transform the novel into a surprisingly tender give-and-take love story between an old man and a body of water.
Santiago’s personal life is explored through a visit to his home, which amounts to no greater than a shack containing “a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal” (15). And as if this tiny shamble of a home does not produce enough sorrow for one old man to bear, Santiago must deal with the emotions of sadness stemming from the passing of his wife; this subject is explored as the line “Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it” is the first direct indication in the novel of Santiago’s extreme loneliness (16). Yet he keeps the photo “on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt” as to never forget his loved one and to never be completely without the memory of her, proving to readers that Santiago truly does long for a compassion and shared human emotion he once had with his beloved wife.
Santiago, a lonely old man who seeks friendship, views the sea as a living, breathing woman who has varying moods and, like any living being, is capable of great delicacy as well as cruelty. “Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?” Santiago asks himself, “She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly…” (29).
The sea becomes a companion to Santiago, filling a deep, dark void in his soul from the passing of his wife. The passage is proof of a companionship and spiritual connection between not only Santiago but many fishermen and the sea, a companionship these men may or may not have at home with wives or other loved ones. The sea is Santiago’s wife, and he experiences a relationship with the sea which greatly resembles the relationship between a man and a woman in that one partner does “wild or wicked things” and the relationship has definite ups and down, but both partners remain bonded together, connected through mutual feelings of love (30). Santiago returns to the sea alone on his tiny skiff month after month even after going 84 days without a catch—“Eighty-five is a lucky number” (16)—not for the profit of catching the biggest fish or the glory of defeating the sea but for the love of the journey, the longing of floating atop the sea he loves.
Santiago as protagonist of the work suggests a balance, a co-dependence as the two genders (sea the female, Santiago the male) seem to compliment and even complete one another in creating a harmonious aesthetic which brings a great degree of fulfillment to the work. Santiago, without the sea, exists only as a poor, lonely old man living in a rundown shack without sufficient means to purchase food, drink or even a simple newspaper. On the other hand, the sea, without Santiago, is a simple body of water whose tides and moods and beauty are wasted as it has no lover, no companion to acknowledge them. Santiago and the sea complete one another as males and females complete one another; both groups are inherently drawn to one another for the purpose of creating beauty and fulfillment to drown out the sorrow and despair of an otherwise lonely existence. Indeed, this loving connection between Santiago and his “eternal feminine” makes The Old Man and the Sea a uniquely beautiful love story.
Okay, I agree with your mini essay that fate is a theme. However, just because it is a theme and mediation is a theme, does not make this a disagreement. This becomes your own essay stepping totally outside what the author was discussing. You found some good examples of your own for mediation. Is fate a possible essay topic? Interesting because I think many would argue that Hemingway resists the argument of fate. What might some of your research say? 9/10
2nd Criticism - For Whom the Bell Tolls Pages: 17 Bibliography: Sanderson, Rena . Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Contributions in American Studies). New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. Print. Summary: Hemingway's Code: The Spanish Civil War and World Power
The critic emphasizes the emotional balance or mediation as a theme presented in “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. He takes Jordan and Pilar as examples. Jordan fails to kill Pablo, who eventually hinders Jordan from dynamiting the bridge. If Jordan hadn’t felt uneasiness about killing, he would have executed Pablo, as he claims he was able to do. In addition, Pilar has an appetite for killing, but she is not perfectly soldier to kill people. Her account of how her fellow villagers executed the Fascist sympathizers among the village leaders shows how even Pilar became disenchanted with the pleasures of the killing that is tolerated in wartime. Through Jordan and Pilar, the critic clearly states that everyone in the novel somewhat mediates situations.
It is interesting how the critic spot mediation within characters. After reading this criticism, I can clearly notice some examples of mediation. For example in chapter 3, readers can see Jordan’s personal justification for killing men, an excuse not to go against his morale. When Anselmo tells how the paw of the slain bear is nailed to a hut in his village and how killing animals is different from killing men, Jordan explicitly says “I feel nothing against it when it is necessary. When it is for a the cause.” It is evident that Jordan established mediation to not go against his morale in killing as he mentions a condition in which men can or cannot be killed.
I disagree with the author that mediation is one of the themes in the novel. Instead, I believe fate is one of the major themes. The examples that the critic brings up are small, disconnected segments that should have been connected for a bigger picture. It is evident from the beginning that Jordan is not going to end up tanning on a beach in California with a piña colada for each hand when all is said and done. This knowledge is always lurking right around the corner of every chapter. From the start, he doesn’t really go along with Pablo, who used to be the leader of guerrilla peasants (this is one of the first examples that the critic mentioned to justify the theme of mediation). Jordan appears at first to accept this with remarkable poise, but he becomes less rational as the novel progresses as he feels pleasure in killing without a cause, which totally contradicts his justification for killing mentioned in the discussion between Anselmo (the second example that the critic notes in his criticism). Interestingly, although other characters, especially Pilar, deal on some level with fate, Jordan is the only character Hemingway chooses to lay so relentless a destiny for.
As the novel opens, Robert Jordan is a machine-like man who operates without much emotion as a volunteer for the Republican Cause against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. He is logical and rational to an extreme in carrying out his missions as an explosives expert. However, after he encounters the highly superstitious Pilar, who reads omens in nature and everyday occurrences and who can even small death in others, he begins to consider that perhaps there is, after all, a supernatural power that coincides with sound scientific judgment. In chapter one he hears that Pilar can prophesy the future by reading palms, and he wonders what she would see if she examined his palm. In chapter two, she examines his palm but drops it quickly, as if burned, and answers "nothing," to his inquiry about what she saw.
It would seem then, that a logical man would dismiss this palm reading incident as an entertaining interlude, but the incident circulates in Jordan's mind throughout the novel. He knows on some level that Pilar saw his death-a short life, perhaps-and this realization makes him more aware of life. Indeed, perhaps it provides the catalyst for him to fall so deeply in love with Maria. After he falls in love, Jordan becomes much more spiritual. Indeed, the couple's love-making at times seems like a ritualized religious encounter, a mystical union that Jordan has never experienced before. His love for Maria comes to interfere with his cold-minded belief in the Cause. Now that he has found her, he doesn't want to lose her, and the possibility of a happy future together begins to dominate his mind instead of the mission he feels he must carry out with total objectivity. In this regard, he becomes preoccupied with the omen Pilar saw in his hand. As time passes, Jordan becomes much more aware of the world and begins to consider that there is after all, another reality beyond the physical. And by the end of the novel, he comes to believe in Pilar's prophesies to the point where she reassures him that what she saw in his hand was just nonsense. They both correctly believe, however, that he will soon die.
Again, you have the beginnings of a mini-essay. Interesting outside source. It IS interesting to see how they gel together. Um . . . how would the book look putting it through each step of logic of the Apology? 10/10
3rd Criticism - Apology Pages: 1??? ( I found the full text of Apology so I skimmed through section 1 and closely read section 2. There are no pages marked in this online text. http://pd.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/ ) Bibliography: Plato. "The Apology." Sparknotes. Sparknotes, n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2010. <pd.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/>. Summary: Heroic Ideal
Socrates refuses to beg for the death penalty to be commuted, as Socrates believes the penalty to be unjust. His alternative is not a lighter penalty, but a reward. His suggestion of being treated like a hero of the Olympic Games is one of the comparisons he makes between himself and more generally recognized heroes. For instance, at Section 2, he compares himself to Achilles, the hero of The Iliad, in his determination to fulfill his duty regardless of the danger, and at Section 1, he alludes to the Labors of Hercules in connection with his own project of showing the ignorance of others.
In reference to the victorious Olympic athletes, Socrates says, " he only gives you the appearance of happiness, and I give you the reality" (Section 2). While heroic feats might allow us to admire and bask in perfection, Socrates teaching allows us to strive for perfection of ourselves. It is interesting how Socrates claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. He asks to understand and find meaning and value in life. Again, goodness is associated with wisdom, making the life of the philosopher--the lover of wisdom--the most desirable life of all. If we refuse to question ourselves and the world, we will act without reason, unable to distinguish between good actions and bad actions. Without philosophy, Socrates argue, humans are no better off than animals. It is intriguing to see how his idea and Hemingway’s philosophy are similar as they both claim that the good life is one in which we make both ourselves and the only way to pursue that life is to pursue wisdom and self-knowledge.
I totally agree with Socrates and his idea can be reflected in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Nineteenth century was the period of the boon of humanity. There was industrial rise and scientific progress. Mankind was enjoying global peace and stability. Man was thinking that he had conquered the beast in him and had learnt to live peacefully. But them, this wide spread scientific progress brought two most destructive and fierce worldwide wars. With the advent of these wars, all the thoughts and dreams of a peaceful and progressive future shattered. People look refuge in sensual pleasure like drinking, free sex and wandering and avoided thinking. These people, after the wide spread devastation of wars, were pronounced as the Lost Generation. Hemingway writes his stories, to guide his lost generation. They are expatriates, confused and frustrated beings, indulged in drinking, gambling and sexual pleasures. Hemingway wants to give them a code of life, higher than any ethical code. This is a code of “constant struggle”.
Hemingway creates a microcosm of the post war scenario in this story and delineates his characters, very close to real men, with their tensions and conflicts. Almost all of his protagonists are representatives of lost generation. They are all disillusioned with war, but each experiences this situation differently. Yet one thing is common in all of them that they have to struggle for life. Jordan knows that war is destructive; he wants peace and is aware of the feet that to attain peace, it is necessary to suppress force, by force.
Hemingway perceives life as a struggle, in which man has no choice except to fight. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago has to go far away, on the sea, to fight with evil, regardless of any loss. Robert Jordan has to blow up the bridge without considering its usefulness. It also gives a view that duty, must be done at any cost, and a duty assigned to an individual should be considered special in its way. Jordan says: “If I have to do what I think, I will have to do; it will be very select indeed”. Besides fighting with the outer circumstances, Hemingway’s protagonist also fights a battle of inner self. He knows the worthlessness of his act, yet he fights to prove his courage and strength by accomplishing that act. Jordan realizes the futility of his act and at the same time, he loves life and feels: “This world is a fine place”. Within his inner conflict between duty and love for a girl named Maria, Jordan struggles to find a way in his life.
Further extending to this theme of constant struggle in life, Hemingway also feels that winner gets nothing in this struggle. The victory of his protagonist is never physical but always moral. Santiago, after successfully achieving victory over Marlin loses it during his journey back to home. Jordan successfully blows the bridge, yet, in the end, his is a loser–loser of his life. All that is achieved in all this exercise is the insight that one must go on struggling come what may and what ever is the cause. Though the winner gets nothing yet he attains moral dignity. Jordan says: “You can do nothing for yourself but perhaps you can do something for another”. Hemingway holds the view that whatever has to be done, has to be done with good grace. He says in “Old man And The Sea”: “Pain does not matter to a man.” Robert Jordan repeatedly wishes for the arrival of Fascists, to the end of the novel, because of his increasing pain. Yet he does not choose to kill himself. He feels that to die a courageous death is better than to live, as a coward in owes own eyes. He says: “I wish, they would come now”. He fights bravely and does not lack courage. He proves: “A man is not made for defeat.” Jordan fights till end and sacrifices his life for duty. He dies not only for Spain, not only to save Maria, whom he loves, but also for his own sake and in fulfillment of a moral duty. So, his only reward is the consciousness of duty done. Thus he proves that: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”.
1st Criticism - The Old Man and the Sea
Pages: 200
Bibliography: Valenti, Patricia Dunlavy. Understanding The Old Man and the Sea: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series). New York: Greenwood Press, 2002. Print.
Summary: Cuban Culture - Language
In Spanish, nouns have gender—masculine or feminine—whereas in English, most nouns are neuter: for example, “book” in English is a neuter noun, but the Spanish equivalent, libro, is a masculine noun. The critic argues that in The Old Man and the Sea, the narrator elaborates upon the association of the sea with both the Spanish feminine and masculine articles to illustrate Hemingway’s perspective on women. La mar is what the sea is called by people who love her, even if they are angered by her. El mar is what the younger fishermen who rely more on advanced technology such as buoys and motorboats call the sea. These men regard the sea as a masculine competitor, their adversary. Santiago, however, “always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought” (30). Santiago’s perspective on the sea reveals his perspective on the female, calmness, a presence that is emphasized by opposing images in The Old Man and the Sea and in Hispanic culture generally.
It is interesting how the author combined the complex Spanish articles to hint his perspective on women. The different connotations in la mar and el mar make The Old Man and the Sea a more complex piece of story.
I agree with the critic's idea that Hemingway uses Spanish articles to illustrate his idea on women, but I believe there is a deeper meaning to his usage.
A man with longing, such extreme lonesomeness, such detachment from passion and exchange of pure human emotion is the character of Santiago in Ernest Hemingway’s famous novel The Old Man and the Sea. In The Old Man and the Sea, the loss of Santiago’s wife and his gentle worship and adoration of the sea leave him to view the sea as a symbol of a type of “eternal feminine” life form, and transform the novel into a surprisingly tender give-and-take love story between an old man and a body of water.
Santiago’s personal life is explored through a visit to his home, which amounts to no greater than a shack containing “a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal” (15). And as if this tiny shamble of a home does not produce enough sorrow for one old man to bear, Santiago must deal with the emotions of sadness stemming from the passing of his wife; this subject is explored as the line “Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall but he had taken it down because it made him too lonely to see it” is the first direct indication in the novel of Santiago’s extreme loneliness (16). Yet he keeps the photo “on the shelf in the corner under his clean shirt” as to never forget his loved one and to never be completely without the memory of her, proving to readers that Santiago truly does long for a compassion and shared human emotion he once had with his beloved wife.
Santiago, a lonely old man who seeks friendship, views the sea as a living, breathing woman who has varying moods and, like any living being, is capable of great delicacy as well as cruelty. “Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?” Santiago asks himself, “She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly…” (29).
The sea becomes a companion to Santiago, filling a deep, dark void in his soul from the passing of his wife. The passage is proof of a companionship and spiritual connection between not only Santiago but many fishermen and the sea, a companionship these men may or may not have at home with wives or other loved ones. The sea is Santiago’s wife, and he experiences a relationship with the sea which greatly resembles the relationship between a man and a woman in that one partner does “wild or wicked things” and the relationship has definite ups and down, but both partners remain bonded together, connected through mutual feelings of love (30). Santiago returns to the sea alone on his tiny skiff month after month even after going 84 days without a catch—“Eighty-five is a lucky number” (16)—not for the profit of catching the biggest fish or the glory of defeating the sea but for the love of the journey, the longing of floating atop the sea he loves.
Santiago as protagonist of the work suggests a balance, a co-dependence as the two genders (sea the female, Santiago the male) seem to compliment and even complete one another in creating a harmonious aesthetic which brings a great degree of fulfillment to the work. Santiago, without the sea, exists only as a poor, lonely old man living in a rundown shack without sufficient means to purchase food, drink or even a simple newspaper. On the other hand, the sea, without Santiago, is a simple body of water whose tides and moods and beauty are wasted as it has no lover, no companion to acknowledge them. Santiago and the sea complete one another as males and females complete one another; both groups are inherently drawn to one another for the purpose of creating beauty and fulfillment to drown out the sorrow and despair of an otherwise lonely existence. Indeed, this loving connection between Santiago and his “eternal feminine” makes The Old Man and the Sea a uniquely beautiful love story.
Okay, I agree with your mini essay that fate is a theme. However, just because it is a theme and mediation is a theme, does not make this a disagreement. This becomes your own essay stepping totally outside what the author was discussing. You found some good examples of your own for mediation. Is fate a possible essay topic? Interesting because I think many would argue that Hemingway resists the argument of fate. What might some of your research say? 9/10
2nd Criticism - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Pages: 17
Bibliography: Sanderson, Rena . Blowing the Bridge: Essays on Hemingway and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Contributions in American Studies). New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. Print.
Summary: Hemingway's Code: The Spanish Civil War and World Power
The critic emphasizes the emotional balance or mediation as a theme presented in “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. He takes Jordan and Pilar as examples. Jordan fails to kill Pablo, who eventually hinders Jordan from dynamiting the bridge. If Jordan hadn’t felt uneasiness about killing, he would have executed Pablo, as he claims he was able to do. In addition, Pilar has an appetite for killing, but she is not perfectly soldier to kill people. Her account of how her fellow villagers executed the Fascist sympathizers among the village leaders shows how even Pilar became disenchanted with the pleasures of the killing that is tolerated in wartime. Through Jordan and Pilar, the critic clearly states that everyone in the novel somewhat mediates situations.
It is interesting how the critic spot mediation within characters. After reading this criticism, I can clearly notice some examples of mediation. For example in chapter 3, readers can see Jordan’s personal justification for killing men, an excuse not to go against his morale. When Anselmo tells how the paw of the slain bear is nailed to a hut in his village and how killing animals is different from killing men, Jordan explicitly says “I feel nothing against it when it is necessary. When it is for a the cause.” It is evident that Jordan established mediation to not go against his morale in killing as he mentions a condition in which men can or cannot be killed.
I disagree with the author that mediation is one of the themes in the novel. Instead, I believe fate is one of the major themes. The examples that the critic brings up are small, disconnected segments that should have been connected for a bigger picture. It is evident from the beginning that Jordan is not going to end up tanning on a beach in California with a piña colada for each hand when all is said and done. This knowledge is always lurking right around the corner of every chapter. From the start, he doesn’t really go along with Pablo, who used to be the leader of guerrilla peasants (this is one of the first examples that the critic mentioned to justify the theme of mediation). Jordan appears at first to accept this with remarkable poise, but he becomes less rational as the novel progresses as he feels pleasure in killing without a cause, which totally contradicts his justification for killing mentioned in the discussion between Anselmo (the second example that the critic notes in his criticism). Interestingly, although other characters, especially Pilar, deal on some level with fate, Jordan is the only character Hemingway chooses to lay so relentless a destiny for.
As the novel opens, Robert Jordan is a machine-like man who operates without much emotion as a volunteer for the Republican Cause against the Fascists during the Spanish Civil War. He is logical and rational to an extreme in carrying out his missions as an explosives expert. However, after he encounters the highly superstitious Pilar, who reads omens in nature and everyday occurrences and who can even small death in others, he begins to consider that perhaps there is, after all, a supernatural power that coincides with sound scientific judgment. In chapter one he hears that Pilar can prophesy the future by reading palms, and he wonders what she would see if she examined his palm. In chapter two, she examines his palm but drops it quickly, as if burned, and answers "nothing," to his inquiry about what she saw.
It would seem then, that a logical man would dismiss this palm reading incident as an entertaining interlude, but the incident circulates in Jordan's mind throughout the novel. He knows on some level that Pilar saw his death-a short life, perhaps-and this realization makes him more aware of life. Indeed, perhaps it provides the catalyst for him to fall so deeply in love with Maria. After he falls in love, Jordan becomes much more spiritual. Indeed, the couple's love-making at times seems like a ritualized religious encounter, a mystical union that Jordan has never experienced before. His love for Maria comes to interfere with his cold-minded belief in the Cause. Now that he has found her, he doesn't want to lose her, and the possibility of a happy future together begins to dominate his mind instead of the mission he feels he must carry out with total objectivity. In this regard, he becomes preoccupied with the omen Pilar saw in his hand. As time passes, Jordan becomes much more aware of the world and begins to consider that there is after all, another reality beyond the physical. And by the end of the novel, he comes to believe in Pilar's prophesies to the point where she reassures him that what she saw in his hand was just nonsense. They both correctly believe, however, that he will soon die.
Again, you have the beginnings of a mini-essay. Interesting outside source. It IS interesting to see how they gel together. Um . . . how would the book look putting it through each step of logic of the Apology? 10/10
3rd Criticism - Apology
Pages: 1??? ( I found the full text of Apology so I skimmed through section 1 and closely read section 2. There are no pages marked in this online text. http://pd.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/ )
Bibliography: Plato. "The Apology." Sparknotes. Sparknotes, n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2010. <pd.sparknotes.com/philosophy/apology/>.
Summary: Heroic Ideal
Socrates refuses to beg for the death penalty to be commuted, as Socrates believes the penalty to be unjust. His alternative is not a lighter penalty, but a reward. His suggestion of being treated like a hero of the Olympic Games is one of the comparisons he makes between himself and more generally recognized heroes. For instance, at Section 2, he compares himself to Achilles, the hero of The Iliad, in his determination to fulfill his duty regardless of the danger, and at Section 1, he alludes to the Labors of Hercules in connection with his own project of showing the ignorance of others.
In reference to the victorious Olympic athletes, Socrates says, " he only gives you the appearance of happiness, and I give you the reality" (Section 2). While heroic feats might allow us to admire and bask in perfection, Socrates teaching allows us to strive for perfection of ourselves. It is interesting how Socrates claim that the unexamined life is not worth living. He asks to understand and find meaning and value in life. Again, goodness is associated with wisdom, making the life of the philosopher--the lover of wisdom--the most desirable life of all. If we refuse to question ourselves and the world, we will act without reason, unable to distinguish between good actions and bad actions. Without philosophy, Socrates argue, humans are no better off than animals. It is intriguing to see how his idea and Hemingway’s philosophy are similar as they both claim that the good life is one in which we make both ourselves and the only way to pursue that life is to pursue wisdom and self-knowledge.
I totally agree with Socrates and his idea can be reflected in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Nineteenth century was the period of the boon of humanity. There was industrial rise and scientific progress. Mankind was enjoying global peace and stability. Man was thinking that he had conquered the beast in him and had learnt to live peacefully. But them, this wide spread scientific progress brought two most destructive and fierce worldwide wars. With the advent of these wars, all the thoughts and dreams of a peaceful and progressive future shattered. People look refuge in sensual pleasure like drinking, free sex and wandering and avoided thinking. These people, after the wide spread devastation of wars, were pronounced as the Lost Generation. Hemingway writes his stories, to guide his lost generation. They are expatriates, confused and frustrated beings, indulged in drinking, gambling and sexual pleasures. Hemingway wants to give them a code of life, higher than any ethical code. This is a code of “constant struggle”.
Hemingway creates a microcosm of the post war scenario in this story and delineates his characters, very close to real men, with their tensions and conflicts. Almost all of his protagonists are representatives of lost generation. They are all disillusioned with war, but each experiences this situation differently. Yet one thing is common in all of them that they have to struggle for life. Jordan knows that war is destructive; he wants peace and is aware of the feet that to attain peace, it is necessary to suppress force, by force.
Hemingway perceives life as a struggle, in which man has no choice except to fight. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago has to go far away, on the sea, to fight with evil, regardless of any loss. Robert Jordan has to blow up the bridge without considering its usefulness. It also gives a view that duty, must be done at any cost, and a duty assigned to an individual should be considered special in its way. Jordan says: “If I have to do what I think, I will have to do; it will be very select indeed”. Besides fighting with the outer circumstances, Hemingway’s protagonist also fights a battle of inner self. He knows the worthlessness of his act, yet he fights to prove his courage and strength by accomplishing that act. Jordan realizes the futility of his act and at the same time, he loves life and feels: “This world is a fine place”. Within his inner conflict between duty and love for a girl named Maria, Jordan struggles to find a way in his life.
Further extending to this theme of constant struggle in life, Hemingway also feels that winner gets nothing in this struggle. The victory of his protagonist is never physical but always moral. Santiago, after successfully achieving victory over Marlin loses it during his journey back to home. Jordan successfully blows the bridge, yet, in the end, his is a loser–loser of his life. All that is achieved in all this exercise is the insight that one must go on struggling come what may and what ever is the cause. Though the winner gets nothing yet he attains moral dignity. Jordan says: “You can do nothing for yourself but perhaps you can do something for another”. Hemingway holds the view that whatever has to be done, has to be done with good grace. He says in “Old man And The Sea”: “Pain does not matter to a man.” Robert Jordan repeatedly wishes for the arrival of Fascists, to the end of the novel, because of his increasing pain. Yet he does not choose to kill himself. He feels that to die a courageous death is better than to live, as a coward in owes own eyes. He says: “I wish, they would come now”. He fights bravely and does not lack courage. He proves: “A man is not made for defeat.” Jordan fights till end and sacrifices his life for duty. He dies not only for Spain, not only to save Maria, whom he loves, but also for his own sake and in fulfillment of a moral duty. So, his only reward is the consciousness of duty done. Thus he proves that: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”.