Comparing Hemingway's Jaws And The Old Man And The Sea

During Ernest Hemingway’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he talked about how writers must be “driven far out past where [they] can go” to write an original work. Both Steven Spielberg and Ernest Hemingway were “driven far out” when they created the groundbreaking stories Jaws and The Old Man and the Sea; however, both of these stories ended up exploring a similar topic. For instance, Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea shows one man’s determination against the forces of nature. Santiago uses his years of fishing experience to catch the marlin and trump nature. Similarly, Spielberg’s Jaws follows 3 men’s battle with a great white shark. In the end, they too accomplish their goal of beating nature. Overall, The Old Man and the Sea and Jaws show
For example, in The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago's left hand cramped up, and he could not open it. Even though he was in pain, he continued to fight. Santiago said, “I will open [my hand], no matter what the costs” (Hemingway 98). This shows Santiago’s tenacity because he continues to fight, despite of his pain. In Jaws, when the great white shark attacks Brody’s son Michael, he goes into shock. At this moment, Brody could have easily resigned as chief of police, out of fear of this shark. Instead, he continued to fight through and showed tenacity, similar to Santiago. As for man’s intelligence, there are also other examples. After catching the fish, Santiago had to fight off sharks. When the first shark took his harpoon, his only defense against the foes, Santiago had to be clever. Santiago concluded, “I can lash my knife to the butt of one of the oars” (Hemingway 104). This shows that Santiago is dominant over nature because he used the human skill of reasoning to craft a tool that would help him defeat the forthcoming sharks. In Jaws, when Brody, Quint, and Hooper are on Quint’s boat, they shot harpoons at the shark. Attached to these harpoons were large yellow barrels, which acted as a “tag” to better see the beast. Man triumphing over nature reveals itself here because this human invention allowed for the three men to better see the shark, and in the end kill
This was evident through the many times that the protagonists were creative and continued fighting, despite unfavorable odds. Throughout history, there are many examples of people overcoming the forces of nature. One clearcut example of this is the Neolithic Revolution in 10,000 BC. Before this time, nomads were forced to follow the migration routes of animals for their food. Then, a group of people using their human intelligence got together and controlled nature by planting crops for harvest. With this sustainable food source, nomadic groups thrived and turned into established, permanent civilizations, as they no longer had to follow animals to stay alive. This was a major step in human development because it led to the prosperous civilizations that we have today. It showed that man could use brainpower to overcome nature in order to thrive. Both The Old Man and the Sea and Jaws try to prove this point, but in a much more modern way. Armed with this knowledge, humans today can go into the world, realizing that their intelligence and tenacity make them who they