An Interpretation of Hemingway¡¯s The Old Man and the Sea as a Parable of Existentialism

An Interpretation of Hemingway¡¯s The Old Man and the Sea as a Parable of Existentialism
By Cathy Gao


The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel by Ernest Hemingway, about an old Cuban fisherman Santiago and his battle with a great marlin and then the sharks. For 84 days, Santiago does not catch a single fish but he dose not feel discouraged. On the 85th day, he goes far out into the sea and hooks a giant marlin. A desperate struggle ensues in which Santiago manages to kill the fish and tie it to his boat, only to find that on the way home he has to fight a more desperate struggle with other dangerous giant sharks, which eat up the marlin, leaving only a skeleton. The old man brings it home and goes to bed to dream, almost dead with exhaustion. Santiago¡¯s struggle in The Old Man and the Sea is presented by Hemingway like the struggle of the famous existential model of Sisyphus, who is doomed eternally to roll up a hill a vast stone that will always fall back just as he is almo...