wound up with. The Indian womans husband lies in the upper bunk during the operation, with the woolen blanket drawn up over his head. When they lift up the blanket, he has cut his throat. It is here that Hemingways long autobiography begins; this is how it feels to be human. Nick, the hero, has received his wound. He is scared to death, and all of his later experiences are more or less repetitions and variations of the same theme (Rovit 98). Hemingways field of vision was filled with cruelty, violence and pain. It bids fair to become his only theme, but soon another is added: What does one do to survive? Hemingways answer: fishing and hunting. This was because Hemingway, at 14, experienced the loss of his father through suicide, and was left with the skills of fishing and hunting that he had learned from his father as a young boy (Young 15). The lonely man with the rod fishing endlessly up and down a river seeks what all fisherman with a spiritual life get out of fishing: peace of soul. In its universality it quite simply belongs with being outdoors, with being alone in the woods and camping out, sleeping deeply, and looking at the river when you wake. The fish has purity as a life element. The fly, hook, or the spoon bait that enters the water sinks in reality down into the mind.The theme of fishing is exemplary in Hemingways The Old Man and the Sea. Here the man and his fate are all alone: man, sky, sea and boat. All external circumstances are taken away, only the human and the battle remain. Deep under this man in his boat there moves a being, wet, shiny, big and strange. This is the fish. It is lifes mystery that he has beneath him. He is on the ocean with life (Brenner 67). The old man pursues this mystery alone on his vessel. For three days it drags him out to sea. He talks to the fish, and he understands it. He is close to the very inmost, ultimate thing in life. And yet he takes the fishes life. He then sails back to lan...
