Hemingway’s Old Fisherman –Santiago and the Philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita
Introduction: -
Ernest Hemingway’s The old Man and the sea, published in 1952 is an example of man’s struggle with the world of nature, of his courage and endurance, tells of the Cuban fisherman Santiago who for eighty-four days has roamed into the Gulf Stream in quest of fish.
The Philosophy of Bhagavad Gita:-
“Karmanye Vadhikaraste, Ma Phaleshou Kadachana, Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani”. -Bhagavad Gita, Chapter II, verse – 47
Meaning: “you have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of an action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities and never be attached to not doing you duty.”
The Philosophy of an Old Fisherman – Santiago: -
“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
As a fisherman it is the duty of Santiago to go for fish every day. It is secondary matter whether he manages to catch any fish or not. Everyday he goes to the sea to perform his duty (‘karma’). He is not disturbed even if he is not getting any result in the form of fish. He goes on performing his duty even if he is an old man.
One of the most striking characteristics of Hemingway’s novels is ‘the Hemingway hero’. Almost all his heroes are alike so the critics call them ‘the Hemingway hero’. The main thing about Santiago is he faught bravely without sufficient help and without considering the result of his gigantic task. At the end of the fight and struggle he get nothing but a skeleton of Marlin fish but he performed his ‘karma’ bravely and whole heartedly.
Santiago – Alone and Unsafe in the Sea: -
Man’s 70 yours cycle is compressed in three days mission to death by Robert Jordan- the hero of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Similar situation is presented in Hemingway’s another novel The Sun Also Rises in which we see Romero’s fifteen-minute encounter with death in the bull – ring. The same is the case with the hero Santiago also in The Old Man and the Sea.
In the life of Santiago there is no love, no glamour of war and no death. There is none to help him. Except Manolin who left him after first forty days without a fish. Manolin’s parents consider Santiago an unlucky fisherman. There are only two sources of courage for Santiago’s mental strength, one is Manolin and the second is the baseball player Joe Dimaggio. Both are absent from the scene when Santiago struggles with the fishes.Santiago is fighting with the biggest fish for hours all alone. His left hand cramped. He is hungry, he is tired and full of physical fatigue. Apart from this, his tiller is broken. All his weapons- club, oar knife, rope and harpoon are lost, On the top of all these adversities, Santiago is an old man.
Santiago – The supreme code hero: -
Santiago is called the “apotheosis (raising to the highest possible level) of the code hero”. The code hero cannot be a man who is helpless and tragic person in the face of situations,no matter how adverse the situations may be. Santiago’s struggle reminds us Manuel Garcia the hero of Hemingway’s short story The undefeated. Santiago fights the other sharks. He wonders “how the great Dimaggio whould have liked the way” and then he hit the shark (Mako) in the brain. He prepares a new weapon by tying his knife to his oars and he thinks still he is not unarmed. He has new hope. “It is silly not to hope,” he thinks. Not to have hope is also a sin. Santiago thinks whether in killing the marlin, he had committed and sin? He finds that he had not committed any sin because he loved the marlin before and after killing it. “If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him.”
Victorious Defeat: -
After killing marlin, Santiago had fierce fight with the sharks. The sharks prove more formidable enemy than the marlin. In fact, Santiago shows more heroism while fighting with the sharks than fighting with the marlin. In his fight with the marlin, he proved victorious. In his fight with sharks, he suffer a defeat but looking at the heroism of Santiago this defeat is not less than a victory. When he kills the first shark (Mako), he remembers Dimaggio. Santiago says , “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
While fight with the fishes, Santiago expresses his mind through interior monologue. He says –
1.He is a great fish and I must convince him, he though. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run.
2.I’m clear enough in the head, he thought. Too clear. I am as clear as the stars that are my brothers. Still I must sleep. They sleep and the moon and the sun sleep and even the ocean sleeps sometimes on certain days when there is no current and a flat calm.
3.I cannot be too far out now. he thought. I hope no one has been too worried. There is only the boy to worry, of course. But I am sure he would have confidence.
After two days and two nights struggle, the old man tows the dead marlin home. The sharks attack on the dead marlin. He kills many of them with broken tiller. This fight is an unequal fight. The sharks eat all the flesh of the marlin leaving only the skeleton behind. Even after victorious fight Santiago returns home with just skeleton of the marlin.
Conclusion: -
Hemingway’s old fisherman – Santiago would not have read the Bhagavad Gita. But of course his struggle reflects the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita when he says:
“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
References: -
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