Hemingway Dualism

In the writings of Hemingway, one can easily observe his sharp, journalistic style, often simple and unadorned, which captures snapshots from the every‑day lives of men and women caught up in some of history’s most momentous events. More than his contemporaries writers, Hemingway captured, throughout his books, the struggles of individuals against nature, society, or within each others. In The Old Man and the Sea the relationship between man and nature is fundamental for the understanding of the novella. For Santiago, the old cuban fisherman, the sea represents a living being, which he often comparers with a woman: wild and wicked. In my opinion, the greatest achievement of Hemingway is the allegorical illustration of the dualistic fight

As he declares in a letter to Wallace Meyer at Scribner’s, it makes “the epilogue to all my writing”; here, he explores not only the struggle of individual, but also makes use of one of his dearest and well known settlements: Cuba. After leaving Paris, in the 1930’s Hemingway lived a period in Key West, Florida, and later moved to Cuba. The autobiographical elements he uses in The Old Man and the Sea are based on his personal experiences; from the people he had met during his stay, to the religious beliefs and economical situation existing at the moment. For example, in the conversations between Santiago, the old fisherman and Manolin, the author marks the beliefs of the traditional Cubans in religion and luck: “Now we fish together again (..) No. I am not lucky. I am not lucky anymore."

By using repeated allusions of precise actions that one has to make in the process of fishing, the author revels a society in which the hopes and expectations are set in the hands of God or simply the hazard. In this manner, Hemingway portraits a rather primitive society in which resolutions are separated from the individual and only specific rituals and practices can help people transcend beyond themselves and achieve their final

However, if we take into consideration its mythological aspect of a parable, the story appears similar to an ancient form of narrative in which the characters become archetypes. The old fisherman is represented as a “primitive figure”, nearly a religious man. He does believe in God, but he considers himself a bad catholic. However, if he will succeed in catching a fish after eighty-four successive days without luck, he will: “say ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys, and make a pilgrimage to the Virgen de Cobre." On the other side, he is self aware of his situation and he relies on his forces to catch the great Marlin: “That which I was born