The Analysis Of The Narrative Point Of View In The Old Man And The Sea

The Analysis of the Narrative Point of View in The Old Man and the Sea
By WinnieYin
【Summary】This paper is dedicated to a study on the narrative point of view in Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea. Possibly Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring work of fiction, it is noted for its narrative art, in which the narrative point of view plays a huge part. The story is sometimes told in the narrator’s third person omniscient point of view, sometimes in an observer’s view and sometimes in the character’s. The paper centers on the illustration of the alternation of focalization and its influence on the theme.
【Key words】narrative point of view, focalization, man, nature Ernest Hemingway, an American author and short-story writer, is one of the most famous American writers of the 20th century. His novella The Old Man and the Sea earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. In the novella, the author explores the human interaction with the natural world. The sea, where life begins and evolves, is the origin and development of human culture. If the old man represents the human being, the sea is to represent the nature, our living environment. The old man’s contradictory psychological state towards the sea and other living creatures reflects the harmonious and contradictory relationship between human and nature.
In many ways, all that can be known of The Old Man and the Sea is revealed in its title. It is a simple, brief story of an old man, a Cuban fisherman named Santiago. He is a poor, solitary man whose possession consists of little more than the clothes he wears. However, Santiago is rich in determination and perseverance, and he refuses to succumb to a streak of luck. When the novella opens, he has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish, in other words, without success in making a living as a fisherman. On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago sets out his journey to the sea, lasting three days and nights, again alone and, after an enormous struggle, he catches the biggest marlin he has never seen or imagined, only to have it destroyed by sharks. At the end of the story, Santiago’s material situation is no different than it was at the beginning. He is alone in his shack without having brought to shore a fish to sell at the market.
The bulk of the story is presented in the narrator’s third person omniscient point of view. Sometimes it is also told by an observer and sometimes by character himself. With the alternation of focalization, the narrator tells the story on multiple levels. The narrative with zero focalization, from the narrator’s third person point of view, tends to be more objective, for the narrator stands outside the story and his eyesight is relatively clam, allowing a free, clear and comprehensive narration of the whole thing. However, it keeps a narrative distance with readers and reduces the reliability. The narrative with external focalization, from the perspective of an observer, prefers implying to showing. With this kind of focalization, the narrator stands outside the story as an observer. His eyesight is relatively objective but his narrative scope is limited to the outer world of the character, such as utter dialogues between characters. The employment of external focalization requires readers to learn the development of the event as an observer and to imagine. The narrative with internal focalization makes the narrative reliable but it is always limited by one character’s perspective which prevents a free and clear narrative. Hemingway employs the alternation of focalization to make full use of the advantages of three kinds of focalization to present a clear, objective and reliable narrative.
Hemingway begins the story with zero focalization:

He was an old man who fished alone in the skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four day now without taking a fish. P1

Hemingway adopts the third person omniscient narrator to tell readers the protagonist and the event objectively. He is an old fisherman. Besides, he was alone and trapped into a tough situation that he did not catch a fish during eight-four days. The omniscient narrator at first does not tell the name of the old man, nor much information of him. Instead, he calls his character “he”. By this way, the author narrows down the narrative distance with readers. On further inference, maybe the author intends not to tell the exact name of the old man partly for the reason that he wants Santiago to represent the human being. The narrator continues to describe the characteristic features:

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated. P3

“Old” describes the objective feature of the old man while “cheerful” and “undefeated” show the narrator’s positive attitude to the old man’s optimistic spirit towards life and great resolution towards the defeat. There are many other examples of narrative with zero focalization, such as:

It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. P1

The word “sad” reveals the boy’s sympathetic feelings towards the old man.

They sat on the Terrace and many of the fisherman made fun of the old man and he was not angry. Others, of the older fisherman, looked at him and were sad. But they did not show it and they spoke politely about the current and the depths they had drifted their lines at and the steady good weather and of what they had seen. P3

It reveals that the old man is actually a loser in fishing. The younger fisherman laughed at and looked down upon the unlucky old man while the older were sad for him but did not show it. In this case, with the help of the omniscient narrator, readers can have a glimpse of the inner sympathy of the older fisherman towards Santiago.
To narrow down the narrative distance and increase the reliability of the story, the author then adopts the integration of external focalization and internal focalization. Readers only know the name of the old man through the conversation between the boy and him:

“Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. “I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.”
“No,” the old man said. “You’re with a lucky boat. Stay with them.” P2

The narrator stands outside the story as an observer. The zero focalization has become the external focalization.
From more external focalization, readers can tell that Santiago is a strange, resolved and humble old man.

① “I am a strange old man” “But are you strong enough now for a truly big fish?” “I think so. And there are many tricks.” “Let us take the stuff home,” the boy said. “So I can get the cast net and go after the sardines.” P6
② “Eighty-five is a lucky number,” the old man said. “How would you like to see me bring one in that dressed out over a thousand pounds?” P8
③ “But what about the eighty-seven of your great record?” “It could not happen twice. Do you think you can find an eighty-five?” P10
④ “ And the best fisherman is you.” “No. I know others better.” …… “I may not be as strong as I think,” the old man said. “But I know many tricks and I have resolution.”
P15

The old man regards himself as a strange old man. Meanwhile, he refuses to admit his old age and failure. He redeems himself strong enough to bring back a big fish weighing over 1000 pounds. Though he may not be strong enough, he has strong resolution and tricks. He is also modest, admitting others were better than him at fishing.
With the narrative of external focalization, the scope of observing is limited to the outer world of the character while neglects the inner world of that. After the old man went to sea to take a fish, the internal focalization is widely employed, with the technique of a stream of consciousness, to display Santiago’s endurance towards the apparent defeats and his contradictory mindset towards the sea and other living creatures. Some examples of internal focalization are as follows:

① He was very fond of flying fish as they were his principal friends on the ocean. P21
② He was sorry for the birds, especially the small delicate dark terns that were always flying and looking and almost never finding, and he thought, the birds have a harder life… P21
③ He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her… But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought. P22
④ He loved green turtles and hawk-bills with their elegance and speed and their great value… P29
⑤ “They are good,” he said. “They play and make jokes and love one another. They are our brothers like the flying fish.” P41

Through the internal focalization, it reveals the old man’s admiration, love and respect for the nature: the sea, birds, flying fish, turtles and hawk-bills. ②③ are presented by inner monologue with the adoption of free direct speech. Without the benefit of question marks, it blends with the ongoing narration. It tends to be vivid with character speaking in his style and tone, which reveals the character’s subconscious better. Though the old man loves and respects the nature, in the confrontation with the hooked marlin, he first felt helpless and lonely, yelling for his need of the boy, “I wish I had the boy.” Then, he started to pity the big fish, meanwhile he did not forget his mission as a fisherman and was keen to conquer the fish.

①“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.” P46
②I wish I could feed the fish, he thought. He is my brother. But I must kill him and keep strong to do it. P52
③I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad. P83
④“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” I am sorry that I killed the fish though, he thought. P98

The examples above show the man’s resolution and strong will. For his pride as a fisherman, he tried all his strength and held his courage in the confrontation. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” the human demonstration of endurance is a triumph in its own right. The magnitude of Santiago’s effort represents the epitome of the human spirit.[4]
During his conflict with the fish, he started to think about sin. The thought that it might be a sin to kill the fish suddenly came to him, which grew more intense after his killing the fish and put him in a quandary where he tried to find an excuse to justify himself and meanwhile could not help feeling regretful.

“I killed him in self-defense,” the old man said aloud.
“And I killed him well.”
Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive. P101

Then comes his first regret:

“I shouldn’t have gone out so far, fish,” he said. “Neither for you nor for me. I’am sorry, fish.” P106

After there is nothing left, he knew he was beaten finally and without remedy. He made his regret out loud.

“Nothing,” he said aloud. “I went out too far.”

From the old man’s regret, we acknowledge that in order to live harmoniously with nature, we need to control the measurement of exploring the nature in a sustainable manner. If we can go too far, we will get nothing like the old man.
In The Old Man and the Sea, the alternative of focalization displays the old man’s contradictory psychological state towards the nature in a vivid and dramatic manner. The old man loved and respected the marlin, however, he killed him with strong resolution. The narrator employs zero focalization and externalization to ensure a free, clear and objective introduction of the event and some related background information; internal focalization to present the inner world of the old man, narrowing down the narrative distance and fostering the reliability of the story. The contradictory mindset of the old man reflects the harmonious and contradictory relationship between human and nature. Enlightened by the regret of the old man, in order to live harmoniously with the nature, man should control the measurement of exploring the nature in a sustainable manner.

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