Critique of The Old Man and the Sea
Our life is full of struggle and at that time I recall some lines of the poem “Agnipath” by Harivansh Rai Bachchan,
“Agnipath, Agnipath, Agnipath
Tu na Thakega Kabhi
Tu na Thamega Kabhi
Tu na Mudega Kabhi . . .”
The above mentioned lines are somewhere relevant to “The Old Man and the Sea”, Ernest Hemingway has presented the story and the character of the Old Man in a way that they have become an Inspirational one for us. Same way the Old Man struggles to live his life in a dignified manner. The indomitable spirit of the Old Man propels him and gives him courage to cope with the situation like, when he is surrounded by the Sharks in the Sea. This novella motivates us that we should try to do the things which we have never done in our life. “BE COURAGEOUS, AND NEVER GIVE UP”, perhaps Hemingway would have tried to convey this through the character of the Old Man. While reading this novella, somewhere one may have question like, Why the Old Man? Why not the Young Man? Here, some autobiographical elements may be possible. Hemingway wanted to join the Army but he was deferred because of his poor vision in the left eye. By reading some aspects of his life, we can say that Hemingway had some desires to do adventurous job but he failed to fulfill those desires so by portraying such character like, the Old Man and showing him as an Adventurous Hero, he fulfilled those desires. Because the things that he couldn’t achieve in his youth, he tried to achieve them by his writings in his life. Here, we can also find the Archetypal Image of the Old Man who symbolizes for his Wisdom, knowledge, experience and purity. We can see all these aspects in the character of the Old Man but somewhere and somewhat the Old Man of this novella is different from the image which Archetypal Literature says. When he goes too far in the sea at that time he thinks that I should have not come too far in the sea. So being an experienced and knowledgeable Fisher Man, he does mistake in his fishing and this incident shows his Error of Judgment. It means lack of Knowledge in the thing in which you are Master. So this is how the character of the Old Man differs from the Archetypal image of the Old Man.
