Hemingway incorporates the current events of the time. In Cuba, as well as in America, baseball was the most popular sport in the fifties. All of the names mentioned in the novella related to baseball would have been instantly recognized in 1952, the year of its release. Joe DiMaggio in particular epitomizes the baseball hero, and even sports hero, of the forties and fifties. DiMaggio's hitting streak of fifty-six games in 1941 heightened his fame and idolization, including that among Cuban fisherman much like Santiago's character. In his novella, Hemingway integrates the contemporary events of the time.
This motif is also included to provide a comparison for Santiago between DiMaggio and himself. First, Santiago says, identifying himself with DiMaggio, "They say [DiMaggio's] father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand" (22). He attempts to compare the current conditions of his life to the childhood of DiMaggio. Next, when he remembers how long he has been on the sea and his hope begins to fade, he thinks to himself, "But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of a bone spur in his heel" (68). Finally, Santiago asks himself, "Do you believe the great DiMaggio would stay with a fish as I will stay with this one? I am sure he would and more since he is young and strong. Also his father was a fisherman" (68). Whether placing himself on the same plane as DiMaggio or underneath, Santiago continually compares himself with the baseball legend.
Ernest Hemingway incorporated the motif of baseball and Joe DiMaggio in his novella "The Old Man and the Sea" to provide a link to current events of the time as well as a comparison for Santiago between DiMaggio and himself.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
Shoeless Joe Jackson was banned from baseball by Judge Landis and the fight to have him reinstated still rages on. W.P. Kinsella, author of New York Times Best Selling Novel, Shoeless Joe, expresses his feelings about a time in history when baseball was heart-pounding and thrilling to go and watch Joseph Jefferson Jackson play ball. In Kinsella’s heartwarming story he displays many types of rhetorical devices such as, nostalgia; a desire to return in thought or fact to a former time.…
- 293 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Ralph Terry may be best known for giving up the home run to Bill Mazeroski in 1960 that allowed the Pittsburg Pirates to win the World Series, but many fail to see that he was also the MVP in the 1962 World Series and went on to have a great career in the golf world. The book Right Down the Middle written by Ralph Terry himself along with John Wooley writes out Ralph’s life from growing up in Oklahoma as a child up to him being a professional golfer on the Senior PGA Tour. The book also gives a very neat perspective as to what the overall baseball system was like and how the Yankees operated during their “Golden Age” of baseball. Over the course of this review I will give some of the stories that I thought were interesting and for the first story I will write about the way contracts were debated…
- 522 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The author had to know a ton of historic facts and stories of baseball’s finest. The author had to research and interview people about their stories of major league baseball, their quest to complete the minors, their long career or short. What they did was a story of their own that the author had to know to write this book. For example Babe Ruth had a great story being poor getting into trouble, but he turned out to be a great man a legend. The author had a few main ways to get these facts and stories.…
- 242 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
He is constantly involved with love triangles, gambling, and more than his fair share of death. This book begins with the woes that Roy Hobbs experiences while a member of the Chicago Cubs, and coincidentally, the 2016 World Series just provided the first world victory for the Cubs since 1908. As I watched some of the games a few weeks ago, I could not help but wonder about the extreme highs and the destructive lows which a professional athlete must…
- 796 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Critics view this literary work as an attempt to cash in on a highly controversial and ethical issue. Jose Canseco is characterized as bitter, and angered for having been pushed to the side by the league, owners, and players. His unchanged opinion on the use of steroids and his “irrational” believe that the use of steroids is beneficial, makes critics become furious and they claim Jose Canseco made the allegations to not gain respect or credibility, but to drag down many others with him to include Major league Baseball. The former rookie of the year who was the first player in history to hit…
- 524 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Shoeless Joe is a magical realist novel by W.P. Kinsella set in the 1970’s. At this time period, baseball was the main sport and was often time described as part of the American dream where you can achieve your aspiration. The novel demonstrates the early ideas about baseball because the author uses Ray Kinsella, a baseball fanatic, who allows his imagination of the game to follow his dreams. The aspect of the game is not what draws Ray or the other characters in the story to baseball it is the true meaning behind the game that embodies their love for baseball. Furthermore, I argue baseball symbolizes dreams in the novel Shoeless…
- 112 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
In the year 1947, the war veterans have come home, Jackie Robinson is about to become a dodger and in one closed minded neighborhood, an eleven year old Irish catholic boy named Michael Devlin has just made friends with a lonely rabbi from Prague. For Michael, the rabbi opens up a window to ancient learning and a new life style that he is not used to. For Judah, Michael helps educate the mysteries of America, including the language of baseball. But like their hero, Jackie Robinson, neither can escape the prejudices of their time. Pete Hamill expresses human nature through his novel by representing racism, pressure and friendship through his characters.…
- 980 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Babe Ruth was known as the greatest player ever to play baseball, our national pastime. Babe was known as an idol to the American public and there were a few key factors that attributed to it. Known as a pitcher and a slugger, the “Bambino” set all of the single player records in the major league in his era. By setting dominating America’s pastime every time he touched a bat, Babe created an image that he was the broad shoulders of a booming economic America at time. Another factor to his popularity was that he was good with people and especially loved children because he loved the innocence of the young. In the film, there were many of babe’s friends telling stories of how he would go on the field after the game and sign autographs for hours to make them happy. Another factor that helped make him an icon was that the Babe was a normal person. He…
- 532 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
The movie review, “A Baseball Diamond Becomes the Stuff of Dreams”, written by Caryn James and published in the New York Times, asserted that this movie did a fantastic job in adapting the novel, “Shoeless Joe”, to film. In his article, James first set the stage for his argument by unfolding the appearance of “Shoeless Joe”, an illusory phantom, and then he commended the director’s superb trick which perfectly combined the visual images with the reality via drawing a comparison to the novel version. James continued by discussing two messages received by Ray, “If you build it, he will come” and “ease…
- 1006 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
He not only challenges this couple with life changing decisions, but he also makes these decisions more substantial and pressing, by referencing time in the very first paragraph of his short story. He states “It was very hot and the express from Barcelona would come in forty minutes.” (Hemingway 276). Time now becomes a clear reality, revealing itself like a clock, which now begins to click its way on down.…
- 1952 Words
- 8 Pages
Better Essays -
John Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” was first published in 1964, and because of its popularity, a film was produced that told the story on the silver screen. The author, John Cheever, was born on May 27 1912 in Quincy, Massachusetts and began writing at the age of seventeen after being expelled from Thayer Academy. His first story was appropriately titled Expelled. Cheever was eventually made a Guggenheim Fellow, a grant for writers, which gave him money and the free will to write whatever he wanted (“John Cheever Biography”). Cheever’s short story, “The Swimmer,” revolves around a man named Neddy Merrill who sets out on a journey to swim across the county. Neddy sets out on his journey as a young man with great vitality , but as the…
- 1828 Words
- 8 Pages
Best Essays -
Spalding, Albert. "America." Baseball: A Literary Anthology. Des Moines, IA: Library of America, 2002. Print.…
- 2334 Words
- 10 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Schwiebert, John E. "Milcha Sanchez-Scott, The Cuban Swimmer." Reading and Writing from Literature. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 430-41. Print.…
- 986 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, can be construed as an allusion to the Bible and the struggles of Jesus based on Santiago’s experiences.…
- 1696 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Cited: Hemingway, Ernest. "Hills Like White Elephants." Discovering Literature; Stories, Poems, Plays. 2nd ed. Ed. Hans P. Guth and Gabrielle Rico. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice hall, 1998. 22-25.…
- 760 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays