Hope & Confidence In Earnest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea.docx

Hope and Confidence as Reflected in Ernest Hemingway’s the Old Man and the Sea

Often in life people encounter the feel of losing hope and confidence and end up feeling so desperate. Consequently, they cannot think straight to solve the problem. To the worse extent, they may choose a foolish shortcut which is by ending their life. However, if someone can keep his hope and confidence shining in himself, it is best believed that he can make his life more worthwhile. The spirit will move him forward, keep him aware of the mistakes and lessons learned, and enable him to think rationally to face the problem. It is true that to always maintain such spirit is not easy. The key to that is the intention from oneself and that is the driving force. The nature of having hope and confidence can be obviously analyzed towards a character namely Santiago in a short story by Ernest Hemingway, the Old Man and the Sea. Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was one of the most well known writers for his short stories and novels which later influence many other writers. Hemingway has the writing style that is economical in which he used a few to give the most. He could express many ideas in a few, simple words and grammar. In the short story the Old Man and the Sea, he made dialogues with words that are accessible to common readers, and there are many repetitions of words to remind the readers what he has been talking about in which this phenomenon can be seen that words of ‘confidence and hope’ are repeated for many times. The Old Man and the Sea is the final work of Hemingway written in 1951 after he had not been producing many writings. Hemingway then was able to draw the

confidence of his readers again to his work. There is such similarity between Hemingway and Santiago in the story where Santiago had not obtained any fish for 84 days and that made other fishermen to look down on him and lose the faith and hope in him. He was no longer fishing with his fishermen partner since then. Hemingway shows the struggle and the fight in the story, especially when it comes to fighting the shark, and enduring the pain in the middle of the sea for 2 days and at the same time believing that Santiago will bring the fish home. In the beginning of the story, Hemingway has already introduced the element of confidence that Santiago does not require many baits but one is enough when Manolin, his young friend offers him four. Santiago is able to reassure Manolin of his capability despite of his misfortune by saying “I may not be as strong as I think, but I know many tricks and I have resolution.” This statement strongly suggests that with the experience he has, he is able to resolve the problem. He still has the hope and confidence to succeed. When he is fishing, Santiago thinks that “he keeps the fishing with precision. Only I have no luck any more. But who knows? Maybe today. Everyday is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.” With all the lesson learned, he prepares himself and anything he needs. Following that, he has a very hopeful statement that is “my big fish must be somewhere.” When we relate this to the reality, often people can be motivated for the first few minutes. But then that spirit can easily be gone, disappear, and off. However this is different from Santiago whose motivation can stay light up no matter what the situation is. What fires the vigor is the fact that if he does not get a fish, he can’t prove to other fisherman or even to the boy that he is still capable of being a fisherman and he believes he is born to be one. This responsibility will then create the intention . This is presumably the driving force of Hemingway in writing this short story

in the later year of his life, when he was already old, as he wanted to show that he was still competent to write, he was still a good writer. The book was first featured in a magazine and five million copies of the magazine were sold in two days. Furthermore, when the short story was published in book form, it managed to sell fifty thousand copies. This led Hemingway to become an international celebrity. Hemingway successfully portrayed Santiago as someone with perseverance to achieve the goal. It is very admirable that Santiago has a great faith in making his effort. When he is struggling in the middle of the sea, waiting for the fish to show itself, he tells himself “I can always come in on the glow from Havana. There are two more hours before the sun sets and maybe he will come before that. If he doesn’t, maybe he will come up with the moon. If he does not do that maybe he will come with the sunrise. I have no cramps and I feel strong.” A thought that is filled with hope and eminent confidence. People normally do not have the hope as strong as Santiago has because the situation has let them down in the first place. Santiago on the other hand can always find a logical excuse to keep the spirit up. He tells himself to think of what he is doing. He must not be stupid. He should play with the chance or he loses without trying. That attitude is also supported by a line on Santiago’s thought “although it is unjust. But i will show him what a man can do and what a man can endure.” Santiago believes that a pain does not matter to a man and therefore he had better be fearless and confident. Santiago is portrayed as a smart man as he likes to question why and what, and think rationally. Implicitly, Hemingway is trying to tell readers that man as the creature with the most prominent intelligence, they can always overcome the pain, the obstacle with the brilliant mind. Men think. They should not commit the same mistake and do

something stupid. They learn. Those qualities are devoted to achieve the goal. Hope and confidence are one perfect match of nature that a man should have to live this life. Relating this further to the real life, when a man is looking out to earn, to make a living, he should start with confidence that he is capable of it. He must have a hope to catch. Without hope and confidence, this man will have no motivation to do his best to achieve the goal. He could not possibly feed his family when he has no intention, no spirit to make an effort to earn. In this short story, Santiago tells himself “I could not fail myself and die on a fish like this” when he is striving in the middle of the sea with the movement of the fish he catches. Everyone surely meets obstacle on their way to success, and it is the same as Santiago when facing the problem and in particularly he is alone. Despite the respective fact, he is able to keep the fire in himself on by telling himself that he should not fail or die in such situation. To survive, he must continue fighting. To live, he must have hope and confidence as the driving force. He also says that a man is never lost at sea and it is a long island. Again, this implicitly means that a man can always find a way out of the maze he is in with the intelligence he has. When Santiago is in the critical condition where he loses his only harpoon, he comes up with an impressive quote “but man is not made for defeat; a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” At the same time while lashing his knife as the alternative weapon, he also thinks that it is silly not to hope. Besides, he believes it is a sin. The quote tells men that they are the ones responsible to control themselves and turn every hardship to victory. Although Santiago does not manage to bring home the flesh of large fish he catches but merely the skeleton of the fish, he still can proudly come home with the knowledge that he went through a rough path to be obtained which not all people

can have the same experience. It is his conscious decision to keep the spirit to fight, and to act to avoid the defeat. Santiago’s experience should be the mirror to every man who is facing the critical situation, and feel beaten that life must go on. It is silly not to hope. Life will have no meaning and there is nothing to pursue. People should keep trying when it comes to failure until they achieve the goal. That will yield the satisfaction and makes the life more worthwhile. The failure should not mean being defeated as it should be taken as the stepping stone to do better. It is just another lesson to learn. Many people would agree that such idea is easier said than done. To resolve that, as mentioned earlier, this life will be much more valuable when there is something to pursue. The responsibility to prove something is what keeps someone being motivated. It will then trigger the intention from oneself to start the engine and eventually work it out. When you have the intention, the hope and confidence will follow and that is what keeps someone alive instead of sitting down, with the head down without any spirit. Without the hope and confidence, the intention will not push someone hard enough to go on. Although someone has the intention but if they do not have the faith and confidence in working it out, they may as well stumble and fail. Another example is a physically handicapped person often amazes the normal people when they are capable to smile in the condition they are in. Some of them even manage to make some accomplishments such as winning the Olympic Games, or become the role model to motivate the society which consists of more normal people. These people are able to keep striving and be alive regardless of the misfortune they have.

The same

phenomenon can be observed in Hemingway when people were saying he was no longer able to write. He managed to make that hardship turn to a triumph. He taught the lesson through his writing on “the Old Man and the Sea” and he answered the

question of people about his capability at his old age. He showed people the fact that man can be destroyed as they age but the spirit can never be defeated. We all fight for our lives. What Hemingway is trying to convey in this story is that if we have faith, if we keep believing ourselves, the energy will drive the body to realize it. We may be at some point beaten up but it is the matter of the intelligent mind of human’s to control the self, to get up again, to avoid the defeat.