The American Literature In this I am trying to read this novel through the Ecocritical lens. How nature is represented in this text.

1. Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Department of English
Sem : 3
American Literature
Prepared by : Ravina Parmar
Roll No : 17
Email address : ravinaparmar827@gmail.com
Betch year : 2019 - 21
Date : 2 December 2020

2. Topic :
Ecocritical reading of the
novella The Old Man And The
Sea by Ernest Hemingway

3. ❖ Table of content :
- Objective of my Presentation :
- Introduction of Author :
- Brief introduction of the novella.
- Ecocriticism :
- Ecocritical reading of the novella The old man and the
sea
- Conclusion :
- Work cited :

4. ❖ Objective of my presentation :-
● Interpreting a text through an Ecocritical lens,
with an eye towards nature, examining an
Ecocritical trope within the text.
● How nature is represented in this text.
● How the natural setting is portrayed in the
Novella.

5. ❖ Introduction of Author :-
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( 1899 - 1961)
● He was an American novelist, short-story
writer, journalist, and sportsman.
● He was noted both for the intense
masculinity of his writing and for his
adventurous and widely publicized life. His
succinct and lucid prose style exerted a
powerful influence on American and British
fiction in the 20th century. ( Philip young ,
Britannica)
● He was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1954.

6. ❖ Introduction of the novella :-
●The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel
written by the American author Ernest
Hemingway in 1951 in Cayo Blanco
(Cuba), and published in 1952. ( “From
Ernest Hemingway to the Editors of
Life".)
●One of the most famous work by him.
●Famous quote by Hemingway in the
Novell:
“ But man is not made for defeat. A
man can be destroyed but not
defeated.” ( The Old Man And The
Sea)

7. ❖ Ecocriticism :-
The term eco-criticism was coined by William Rueckert. In 1978,
Rueckert published an essay titled literature and ecology: an
experiment in eco-criticism.
Ecocriticism, also known as Environmental criticism and “green”
criticism (especially in England), is a rapidly emerging field of
literary study that considers the relationship that human beings
have to the environment.
Taking an ecocritical approach to a topic means asking questions
not only of a primary source such as literature, but asking larger
questions about cultural attitudes towards and definitions of
nature.
Definition : “ ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between
literature and the physical environment” (Glotfelty xviii).

8. As Cheryll Glotfelty noted in the Introduction to The Ecocriticism
Reader,
“Just as feminist criticism examines language and literature form
a gender-conscious perspective, and Marxist criticism brings an
awareness of modes of production and economic class to its
reading of texts” (viii),
environmental critics explore how nature and the natural world
are imagined through literary texts.
After many years of slow development, eco-critical consciousness
took shape of an organization known as ‘The Association Of The
Study Of Literature And Environment’ famous as ‘ASLE’.

9. Ecocriticism and The Old Man and The Sea :
❏ In the title of the novella we come to the conflict between
humanity and natural elements.
❏ The whole text we can see that nature 's presence is very
influential.
❏ Nature plays an important role in Hemingway’s The Old
Man & The Sea. The major setting of the novel is in the
wilderness of the sea.
❏ We find that old man’s relation with the creatures of nature
is friendly, but he lacks eco-critical consciousness .
❏ He is united with his environment we find that he knows the
sea very well.

10. ● It seems that Hemingway is aware of the fact that
everything has a role to play in this world. ( Santiago,
Marlin and Sharks roles)
● Sharks are represented as a powerful position, because of their
strength.
● Here we can say that Santiago is trying to empower Marlin.
At the same time sharks empowered or oppressed Santiago's
will.
● But in spite of his closeness with nature he is not aware of
the fact that killing the endangered species like marlin, even
if a small creatures may lead to breakdown as well as
disorganization of environmental structure.
Continue...

11. ❖ Conclusion :-
● This shows that Hemingway himself has ambivalent
attitude towards nature. by the manner of his description of
his environment in “The Old Man &The Sea” it seems that he
is very close to nature &he likes the natural environment. By
the manner of his glorifying the killing of fish it reflects that
he is not aware of ecological balance, but at the same time he
is aware of the man’s helplessness in front of nature. At the
end of the story Santiago returns to the harbour with the
Skelton of fish, from the Santiago ,Hemingway makes us
aware of the repercussions of human beings going against
the elements of nature.

12. ● Santiago wasn't aware that
he had made a disaster in the
cycle of nature.
● Here we connect
autobiographical reading that
is Hemingway also not aware
about it.
Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

13. Ernest Hemingway on safari, Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania), 1934.
Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection/John F. Kennedy Presidential
Library

14. ❖ Work cited :-
- Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm ,eds.The Ecocriticism Reader
Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens:U of Georgia Press,1996.
- Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. London: Arrow
Books, 1993.
- The Editors (August 25, 1952). "From Ernest Hemingway to the
Editors of Life". Life. Time Inc. 33 (8): 124. ISSN 0024-3019.
Hemingway's work is a 27,000-word novel called The Old Man and
the Sea.
- Young, Philip. Ernest Hemingway. 17 July 2020,
www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingway.