The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway: Life of stoicism a content analysis

Abstract

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella of life process and the method of how one can meet this difficulty in the real field of our own lives. The author Hemingway, regarded positive stoicismas the most important thing in life. Positive stoicism is spirit that one can feel in the course of doing his best in every moment to attain his aim in life. He valued more the efforts that one had made than achievement of goal that one had pursued. Specifically, this study aimed to: (a) identify the following elements of the novel in terms of characters, setting, plot, symbols, and theme, (b) determine how the main character’s stoicism helped him cope with his struggle with nature. In the process, psychoanalytic criticism, cognitive dissonance theory and iceberg theory were applied to determine each element. The found out that Santiago seemed to be the very picture of Hemingway himself, who urged himself to take continuing bad luck, and practicing positive stoicism. He was able to overcome trials of the impossible, and eventually achieved his aim with moral victory. In this respect, Stoicism is truly important and vital in the novel; it expresses to practice the sincere life, an attitude which a man should cultivate throughout his life in spite of despite hardships.