The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Study Guide
Website needed to read the story and listen to it online:
http://esl-bits.net/ESL.English.Learning.Audiobooks/The_Old_Man_And_The_Sea/index.html
I. Overview
Author: Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
 born in Oak Park, IL
 loved hunting and fishing
 was an ambulance driver in Italy during WWI
 renowned for novels: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old
Man and the Sea
 1953--won the Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea.
 1954--won the Nobel Prize.
 committed suicide on July 2, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho.
Hemingway and Cuba
 1930s--WWII
 lived in Cuba
 involved in attempting to hunt down German shipping taking on a vigilante style role in the waters of the
Caribbean.
 Fascination--a neighbor of the US living in third world conditions of what was principally but not entirely
a subsistence economy.
 cultural context--grinding poverty and subsistence, yet one in which the most apparently ordinary of
people can achieve heroic status and retain an inner dignity, integrity and self control despite what seems
to be, in worldly eyes, failure.
Escenario
 Una pequeña aldea de pesca cerca de Habana, Cuba; las aguas en el golfo de México en los años
cuarenta.
Personajes
 Santiago
 el hombre viejo
 Manolin
 su joven amigo
 El mar
 otro personaje importante
Los conflictos
 el hombre viejo vs. el mar
 edad vs. juventud
 el hombre viejo vs. tiburones
 el hombre viejo vs. su mismo (su mente y su mano)
 el muchacho vs. sus padres
Los símbolos
 Leones—fuerza
 Costa de África—los sueños de la juventud de Santiago
 Tortugas—fuerza, estoicísmo, no dar por vencido
 También se usa Joe DiMaggio
 Santiago como figura de Jesucristo
 Es pescador pobre
 Es pobre
 Sufre por 3 días
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Study Guide

El imagen de la cruz al final
II. Vocabulary
In the story, the following Spanish words come up, find them in the reading and write down the sentence it is used in, the
English meaning of the word and the page and line you found it on.
1. Salao
2. guano
3. bodega
4. brisa
5. calambre
6. fuegos
7. un espuela de hueso
8. El Campeón
9. dorado
10. galanos
11. San Pedro
12. tiburón
13. Que va
14. agua mala
In the story, the following places/people come up, find them in the reading and write down the sentence it is used in, a
description of it and the page and line you found it on.
1. Havana
2. Mosquito Coast
3. Virgin de Cobre
4. Joe DiMaggio
5. Dick Sisler
6. John J. McGraw
7. Leo Durocher
8. Canary Islands
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Study Guide
9. Catalan
10. Cienfuegos
11. Rigel
In the story, the following words come up, find them in the reading and write down the sentence it is used in, its definition
and the page and line you found it on.
1. Skiff
2. Gaff
3. Benevolent
4. Phosphorescence
5. Albacore
6. Fathom
7. Ineffectually
8. Iridescent
9. Myriad
10. Bitt
11. Sounds (nautical term)
12. Gunwale
13. Undulation
14. Ptomaine
15. Bone spur
16. Cross trees
17. Mast head
18. Sustenance
19. Norther
20. Interminable
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Study Guide
III. Comprehension Questions
Using the book, answer the following questions in your own words and include a line from the book that supports you’re
answer when possible.
Part 1 pages 1-25
1. Who is Santiago? Describe his physical appearance and personality.
2. Who is Manolin (the young boy)?
3. Describe Santiago’s relationship with the young boy.
4. Describe Santiago’s home. What does it say about him as a man?
5. Why do the other fishermen make fun of or pity Santiago?
6. Who does Santiago admire and why?
Part 2 pages 25-54
1. Why can the reader consider Santiago a superior fisherman? Give examples.
2. How does Santiago describe the sea? How is this different from other fishermen?
3. How does Santiago compare himself to a turtle on page 37?
4. How are women portrayed in this novella?
5. How does Santiago feel about the marlin? What does it symbolize to him?
6. Santiago contemplates his choice on page 50. What was this choice?
7. Does Santiago possess any flaws?
Part 3 pages 54-76
1. How is Santiago similar to the warbler?
2. Describe the developing bond between Santiago and the marlin.
3. Is Santiago afraid of death? Explain.
4. Describe the marlin. (pages 62-63)
5. What part if his body does Santiago not trust? Why?
6. Why does Santiago worship baseball and Joe DiMaggio?
7. How does Hemingway develop Santiago as a Christ-like figure?
8. What is man’s place in nature? In the life cycle?
Part 4 pages 76-122
1. What does it mean to be a man or “to suffer like a man”? (page 92)
2. Why does Santiago “not care who kills who”? (page 92)
3. How does the marlin transcend his death? (page 94)
4. How is the Mako Shark similar to the marlin? How is it different from the shovel-nosed sharks?
5. How does Santiago feel about hope? (page 104)
6. Why can Santiago not look at the mutilated marlin?
7. How does Hemingway continue to develop Santiago as a Christ-like figure?
8. How does Santiago justify what he has done to the marlin? Do you feel he is justified? Why or
why not?
9. Do you feel that the marlin has died in vain? Why?
10. Explain the significance of: “The boy keeps me alive.” (page 106)
Part 5 pages 122-128
1. Explain: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (page 103) Was Santiago defeated by the
shovel-nosed sharks?
2. Although Santiago will probably never have the chance to catch another big fish, how does he
transcend “the death” of his fishing career?
3. Why is it significant that the novella ends with Santiago dreaming of the lions?
4. How does Hemingway develop the theme that there is honor and beauty in defeat?
5. How is pride seen as a virtue?
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Study Guide
6. How is the idea that life comes from death illustrated in the novella?
7. What does the marlin come to symbolize for Santiago and his life as a fisherman?