Author and Novel Background

 1899 born in Illinois  Father was a doctor (reflected in short stories)  Ran away from home at age 15  1917 began writing career as a reporter for the Kansas City Star  WWI ◦ eye injury prevented him from enlisting in army ◦ Volunteered as a ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy (injured) ◦ Decorated for bravery  1919 – married 1 st wife, Hadley Richardson

 Became a reporter for Toronto Star after the war  Moved to Paris in 1921 ◦ Met Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound ◦ Published The Sun Also Rises (1927) to capture the “Lost Generation”  Returned to the States in 1927, married 2 nd wife, Pauline Pfeiffer (writer for Vogue)  Published A Farewell to Arms (1929)

1930s  Traveled widely ◦ Bullfighting aficionado in Spain ◦ Big-game hunter in Africa ◦ Deep-sea fisherman in Florida  ◦ Covered Spanish Civil War ◦ Used experiences in For Whom the Bell Tolls

 1940 married Martha Gelhorn  WWII ◦ submarine spotter in Caribbean for the U.S. Navy ◦ War correspondent in Europe  1944 Married Mary Walsh  Published Pulitzer Prize winner Old Man and the Sea (1952)  1954 won Nobel Prize for Literature and the Award for Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters  July 2, 1961 died of self-inflicted gunshot wound

The Iceberg PrincipleThe Iceberg Principle: “If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.”

 Setting: Cuban village near Havana; the sea  Characters: ◦ Santiago – old Cuban fisherman ◦ Manolin – young boy who looks up to Santiago ◦ A marlin – the fish that Santiago struggles to catch for most of the story

 Style ◦ Concise ◦ “bare bones” ◦ Pay attention to diction ◦ Images are clear, crisp – reader fills in associations  Symbols ◦ Marlin and Sharks – good and evil ◦ Santiago – Literally “St. James” – Christ-like images