- Title
- A Natural History of the Blue Marlin in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
- Author/Creator
- Susan F. Beegel
- Publication Details
- Animals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction, pp.216-239
- Annotation
- Although Beegel begins with the natural history of "one of nature's most powerful swimming machines," she also examines the natural history of Hemingway himself. His lifelong study of science extends from his boyhood training in observing nature. It continues through his meticulous accounts of Gulf Stream ichthyology and sport fishing to the sensitive, man-versus-nature narrative of The Old Man and the Sea. Describes the evolution of Hemingway's attraction to the blue marlin as fisherman, macho angler, and writer and later as a conservationist concerned about industrial over-fishing and the capacity of the marlin and other species to experience pain. Raises an issue of Hemingway's "egregious error" mistaking Santiago's marlin as a male and wonders whether our reading of the novel would be different had he properly gendered the fish.
- Publisher
- Texas A&M University Press; College Station
- Academic Unit
- Hemingway Bibliography
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Record Identifier
- 991015212021203691
Book chapter
A Natural History of the Blue Marlin in Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
Animals in the American Classics: How Natural History Inspired Great Fiction, pp.216-239
Texas A&M University Press
2022
Appears in Hemingway Bibliography
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