Synopsis Between Two Novels of Ernest Hemingway - Research Paper Example

A Comparison and Synopsis between Two of Ernest Hemingway's Works The Old Man and the Sea To Have and Have Not") Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea in 1951 in Cuba. It is the story of Santiago, an old fisherman who is never successful in catching fish. Finally, when Santiago goes out to the sea with determination to catch fish, he is rewarded with a big fish but it is a great ordeal, which the novel describes. To Have and Have Not was written by Hemingway in 1937. It is the story of a man who is forced to practice illegal means of livelihood because of economic compulsions. Hemingway was quite aware of his shortcomings as a writer. His work To Have and Have Not is a social novel beautifully designed and wonderfully composed. It is a depression novel of Hemingway, as one can derive from the last words of the title, ending with “Have Not”. It clearly points towards dispossession. Critics have found fault with fragmentation and missing links of the novel but the division of the novel shows the theme, which pervades in many of Hemingway’s novels. This novel is the first of such symptoms of collapsing of the characters (Gurko 143-146). The novel To Have and Have Not does not arouse any feelings because of lack of action for which it is criticized but the same drawback becomes a strong point as terms of its success are Hemingway’s own. The novel is deficient in scope and breadth but Hemingway compensates it with his descriptive prowess. The presentation of outside world is so total that world of the mind gets easily ignored. To Have and Have Not is just like Morgan himself, one armed (Gurko 150-151). Comparing To Have and Have Not with Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, it is full of heroic possibilities. There are hurdles and boundaries of the cruel and evil world but opportunities also abound to prove that men can accomplish heroic tasks understood as impossible. Santiago’s heroic courage and determination bring him out of the pain and sadness of life, which is unlike Morgan of To Have and Have Not. Morgan is under depression but Santiago is although old but is full of vigour to change the stigma of bad luck labelled on him for remaining unsuccessful in catching fish. Santiago is not disillusioned like Morgan; he gathers courage to fight back for his catch. Santiago puts his life in danger by taking risk like a hero and finally defeats death (Gurko 164- 165). The protagonist of The Old Man and the Sea is strong in mind to stretch to the absolute limit to turn the wind in the desired direction, while that of the To Have and Have Not shows the depression trends of the time. It was also incidentally the time of Great Depression when Hemingway wrote this novel To Have and Have Not. To Have and Have Not also depicts the time when economic depression was taking its toll by compelling people to adopt unfair means of earning livelihood like Morgan (Gurko168 69). The Old Man and the Sea is the journey of man from the social to the natural, cutting connection with the world outside. The protagonist of The Old Man and the Sea like Hemingway takes emotional break from his work as he cannot fulfil his job due to illness and death (Gurko 171-74). In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway walks on the Imagist doctrine and puts the sentiment in the selection of the hero to secondary. Santiago is totally pathos—lonely except for a boy to assist; he is poor, unlucky, and old; yet he is proud and brave for linked with the arch young lions (Wagner 518). In a way, Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is a story of adventure of Santiago, his fight with the giant marlin and its capture after two days, resembling the fight of Hemingway for his artistic ethics. Critics have sought meaning in The Old Man and the Sea, finding the presence of deep symbolism but Rahv (p. 198) is unable to find it. Fiedler, on the other hand, finds To Have and Have Not a depression book, comparing it to an ill-planned game enough for Humphrey Bogart. It presents various stages of Hemingway’s life, when he was twenty-three years old beautiful young man with uncountable wounds, presenting himself through Harry Morgan for the public view, the old man with beard who “became the "Papa" of cover-stories in Look and Life: his own doomed father, his own remotest ancestor as well as ours” (Fiedler 9-19). The same is true of The Old Man and the Sea, where Hemingway is attempting to regain the same horror but could produce only an echo; he gets failed in offering the best. Hemingway was himself well aware of this. That’s why after the writing of The Old Man and the Sea, he could not come out of self-doubt, as the perceived failure of his The Old Man and the Sea underscored his confidence, creating chaos about his identity whether he was Papa, Gary Cooper, or Nick (Fiedler 9-19). To Have and Have Not, on the other hand, depicts the tough social tradition. It not only exemplifies toughness but shows a significant but ignored dimension of the tough socio-economic dimension, showing class difference and social injustice. Such a roughness is not visible in The Old Man and the Sea. To Have and Have Not unfolds an ambiguity: the masters of the tough hero are rich and high-profile while his opponents are mostly poor people. The attachments of the tough hero of To Have and Have Not lie with the poor than with the rich. Additionally, he is always working to make the lives of his rich bosses comfortable and it is his job to ensure that the poor criminals get caught as the outcomes of their misdemeanours. The end result is so predictable that treachery of the thugs, hoodlums, conmen and blackmailers is punished who threaten the rich. The rich are also equally degraded people if not more than treacherous people, which is highly disgusting, as it is wrapped in disguise of sophistication of manners and honour (Grebstein 18-41). The world of To Have and Have Not is a tough world unlike Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. It is a world possessed by crime and injustice that law and order has lost its value. One can remain alive only through the use of might, money and ready to take others’ lives to save one’s own. Comparing this situation of To Have and Have Not with The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago also fights to catch fish with all his determination and finally wins in catching a huge fish but reaches on the shore only with the skeleton of the fish. Situation is equally tough in The Old Man and the Sea but there is no social hypocrisy at work. It is more related to the mental and physical courage of Morgan; when he reaches home, his deep sleep is symbolic of the great feat accomplished by him. The worlds of Santiago and Morgan in both the novels are different but they represent the life aspects of Hemingway who feels tired of writing based on his life experiences and there is nothing new left in his life to reflect through his writings. Hemingway himself seems tired of his life when Morgan takes a deep sleep to get away from the harsh realities of the world into the dreams of his youth when his creative abilities were at peak. Works Cited Fiedler, Leslie. “An Almost Imaginary Interview: Hemingway in Ketchum.” Partisan Review, 1962. Print. --- “The Death of the Old Men.” Waiting for the End. Stein & Day (1964): 9-19. Print. Grebstein, Sheldon Norman. “The Tough Hemingway and His Hard-Boiled Children.” Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties, Ed. David Madden. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968. Print. Gurko, Leo. Ernest Hemingway and the Pursuit of Heroism. Crowell, 1968. Print. Rahv, Philip. “Hemingway in the Early 1950's.” The Myth and the Powerhouse. Farrar, Straus, 1965. Print. Wagner, Linda W. “The Poem of Santiago and Manolin.” Modern Fiction Studies 19.4 (Winter 1973): 517–29. Print. Read More