The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Table of Contents
Key Facts
Title: The Old Man and the Sea
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Type of work: Novella/short story
Genre: Fiction, parable, tragedy
Language: English
Year written: 1951
Place written: Cuba
Date of first publication: September 1, 1952
First publisher: Life magazine
Narrator: Anonymous
Narrator's point of view: Third-person omniscient
Tone: Informative, yet respectful and sympathetic
Tense: Past
Setting: The late 1940s
Location: A fishing town near Havana, Cuba; the Gulf of Mexico
Protagonist: Santiago
Antagonist: The marlin; the sharks
Primary conflict: Santiago spends three days battling the biggest fish he has ever tried to catch on his own.
Exposition: Santiago has gone 84 days without catching a fish, which has made him an outcast in his fishing village, as well as lost him his young assistant.
Rising action: Santiago tells his young assistant that he will go far out into the sea and is still strong enough to catch a big fish. He does find a large marlin who takes his bait, but he can't reel it in. The fish spends three days towing him out to sea instead.
Climax: When the marlin starts circling Santiago's small boat, Santiago musters up enough strength to harpoon him, killing the huge fish.
Falling action: Santiago rows back to his village with the marlin's body, but sharks follow the body's bloody trail and eat it. Even the sight of the marlin's majestic skeleton is enough to earn back the respect of the village fishermen, however, and...
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