The Old Man and the Sea takes place during the 1950s. There are many ways that you can tell this, one reason being that on several occasions Santiago talks about Joe DiMaggio.(Hemingway, 68) Joe DiMaggio played baseball for the Yankees in the 1950s and he was Santiago's favorite. Throughout the novel Manolin would always ask Santiago to keep him updated on baseball. Also, Santiago's profession is also an indicator of the time period. Fishing was bigger then than it is now, at least the way you fished is different for sure. I'm not one hundred percent positive on this, but Santiago was sort of an outcast and was made fun of alot just because he was having bad luck and could not catch a fish.(Hemingway, 11) That being said, I think that your fishing status made you more "popular" on the social scale, if that makes sense.
The Old Man and the Sea's thematic significance is that there are two different types of success. There is materialistic success, and then there is a spiritual and emotional kind of success. Like I said in earlier blogs Santiago did not end up getting the fish. However, he got something so much more important. Although it seems that Santiago did not end up getting anything worth while to physically hold when he got home, the story can be about undefeatable spirit and heroism.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scibner Paperback
Fiction, 1995. Print.
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