The Old Man and the Sea

I watched the movie version of this movie yesterday on Turner Classic Movies yesterday. One of Hemingway's great books the book did not offer much for a movie to be made of on first look.

However it did become a good movie. Spencer Tracy played the old man and the movie is just as the book was. A simple tale of a man, a fisherman in Cuba, who has not been succeeding in the last months who finally on day like all the others hooks a big marlin. The fish pulls him out to sea way out into the current, far away from land. Truthfully too far away from the shore for such a small skiff.

The lure of the big fish is too great. On the third day the fish starts to surface and as the fish loses the capacity to keep below surface he starts to pull it in.

My son asked me if there was a metaphor in the story. There may be several. Of course one can compare the story with Moby Dick and the hunt for the great white whale. One can also remember the story of Icarus and remember the repeated speech of the fisherman " that he just went out too far. Much as Icarus went to close to the sun.

In the end after catching the fish he loses it too the sharks as he brings his catch in. The villagers in measuring the carcass still tell him about what a fish it was and there must be some acknowledgment of his skill.

The man says that are never defeated only destroyed and thus one can infer that as long as he is not destroyed he is not defeated.

One we should all remember in times of trouble.