The Old Man and the Sea Book Review
- Liana Gonzalez-Blanco
- Dec 28, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
The Old Man and the Sea Book Review
By: Liana Gonzalez-Blanco
December 28, 2025
Ernest Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea primarily in Cuba, at his home Finca Vigía, where he finished the novella in the early 1950s. The story is deeply rooted in Cuban fishing culture and the waters of the Gulf Stream, inspired by the fishermen Hemingway knew in the village of Cojímar. While the book is set in Cuba, Hemingway’s earlier years in Key West played an important role in shaping it. During the 1930s, he spent countless hours deep-sea fishing from Key West aboard his boat Pilar, gaining the firsthand experience that gives the novel its realism and emotional weight. Hopefully, this book review will encourage others to read The Old Man and the Sea. Every fisherman will certainly love it, but everybody will identify with the humanity of the main character. This book is for anybody who has ever struggled in life, and at the end of it all, stood stronger and better because of it.
This novella earned Hemingway the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was a major reason he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, cementing its reputation as one of his greatest and most enduring works.
The Old Man and the Sea is one of Ernest Hemingway’s most powerful and enduring works—and easily one of his greatest novels. First published in 1952, this short but emotionally heavy story is set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba and centers on Santiago, an aging fisherman locked in an epic struggle with a giant marlin and, ultimately, with his own limits.
Santiago has gone 84 days without catching a fish. His luck has grown so bad that the parents of his young apprentice, Manolin, have forced the boy to fish on a more successful boat. Even so, Manolin remains deeply devoted to Santiago, caring for him each night, helping with his gear, bringing him food, and talking baseball—especially about Santiago’s hero, Joe DiMaggio. Though others quietly doubt him, Santiago’s spirit remains cheerful and undefeated. Convinced his luck is about to change, he decides to sail farther out than usual.
On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago ventures deep into the Gulf Stream and hooks an enormous marlin. He knows immediately this is no ordinary fish. What follows is a brutal, days-long struggle as the marlin pulls the skiff farther out to sea. Unable to tie the line to the boat without risking it snapping, Santiago bears the strain with his own body—his shoulders, back, and hands absorbing the punishment. The line cuts him badly, his muscles cramp, hunger and exhaustion set in, and sleep becomes impossible.
Despite the pain, Santiago feels deep respect for the marlin. He sees the fish as a worthy opponent, even calling it his brother in suffering, strength, and resolve. Alone on the sea, he talks to himself, to the fish, and to the birds that pass by. At one point, a tired warbler rests on his boat, mirroring Santiago’s own exhaustion. Hemingway uses these moments to expand Santiago’s suffering beyond himself and into the natural world around him.
On the third day, the marlin finally tires. Santiago, battered and nearly delirious, pulls the fish close and kills it with a harpoon thrust through the heart. The marlin is the largest he has ever seen. He lashes it to the side of the skiff and heads home, proud not of the money it will bring, but of the greatness of the fish itself—and worried that those who will eat it are unworthy of such a noble creature.
That pride is short-lived. The marlin’s blood attracts sharks. Santiago kills the first, a powerful mako shark, but loses his harpoon in the process. One by one, more sharks attack. Santiago fights them with whatever he can—first a makeshift spear, then an oar, then the tiller—but the outcome is inevitable. By nightfall, the sharks have stripped the marlin to its skeleton.
Beaten and exhausted, Santiago returns home before dawn. He chastises himself for going “out too far,” collapses into his shack, and sleeps deeply. The next morning, fishermen gather around the massive skeleton still tied to the skiff, stunned by its size. Nearby tourists mistake it for a shark, unaware of the struggle behind it. Manolin, who has been worried sick, finds Santiago safe and weeps when he understands what the old man endured. The two agree to fish together again.
At its core, The Old Man and the Sea is about suffering, endurance, and dignity. Santiago faces external conflicts—the marlin and the sharks—but the deeper struggle is internal: pain, doubt, age, and isolation. Critics have long noted the Christ-like imagery in Santiago’s wounded hands, which resemble stigmata, and his willingness to endure suffering rather than abandon his purpose. Like Christ, Santiago does not refuse the ordeal. He accepts it.
The climax comes with the marlin’s death, but the true test follows in Santiago’s hopeless fight against the sharks. Even when defeat is certain, he refuses to stop fighting. “I’ll fight them until I die,” he says—and he means it. Though he returns without the fish, he returns undefeated in spirit. The fishermen gape in awe. Manolin understands the cost. Santiago dreams of lions playing on African beaches, a symbol of youth, strength, and life still within him.
The ending is deliberately ambiguous. Santiago has not broken his unlucky streak, but he has proven something far more important: that meaning comes from the struggle itself. Victory, Hemingway suggests, is not measured by outcomes, but by how a person endures loss.
Short but unforgettable, The Old Man and the Sea is Hemingway at his most focused and humane. It’s a novel about resilience, honor, and what it means to keep going when everything seems lost. It deserves its place as one of the greatest works of American literature. This book review isn't enough to capture how powerful this story is. Once you read The Old Man and the Sea, it will stay part of you forever.
Liana Gonzalez-Blanco
Liana is a Key West native who loves writing about her island home. She taught English to students in grades 6–12 for nearly 35 years in Key West schools, sharing her love of literature and language with generations of local students. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Florida and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Central Florida. Liana is the owner of Conch Media Group, LLC, and the creator and manager of The Key West Post. Her goal is to keep readers informed about the issues that matter most in Key West. As a lifelong local, she offers a perspective often missing from corporate media and from journalists and bloggers who are new to the island. When Liana isn't writing and managing this website, she enjoys spending time with her friends and family. On most days, you’ll find her walking, biking, or running outdoors, soaking up the natural beauty, friendly people, and diverse cultures that make Key West so special.
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