Review of The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway – Experience the Iceberg Theory

Review of The Old Man And The Sea – By Earnest Hemingway

When you finish reading the last sentence of this book and when the story ends, the first feeling that arises inside you is of missing something.

What is this feeling?

You turn the page to check if the book really ended. You knew you were reading the final chapter, but you still need to confirm it’s over. Don’t get me wrong—the ending isn’t abrupt. The story reaches a logical conclusion. But when it ends, you feel intrigued.

You confirm the story has ended. Your mind wanders back through the pages, seeking meaning in what happened. You replay the entire story in your head. Thoughts flood in. The more you think, the more meanings emerge from the narrative. Every reader will find their own deeper meaning.

This experience is exactly why I read this book. Now I recommend it to you with all my heart.

It’s a story of an old fisherman who lives in shanties and to make things worse, he experiences an unfortunate spell of not finding any fish for many days. What does he do to end this phase of bad luck? How does he fight back? What does he achieve in the end? It’s all about this.

Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

Hemingway’s iceberg theory is a writing technique. The surface narrative reveals only a small part of the story. Deeper meanings and emotions remain unspoken. Readers must infer them from what the author leaves out.

We all know icebergs floating in the oceans. They show only a tiny part on the surface. Most of it lies invisible below the water.

This story gives you the same experience. The actual story is that small visible part of the iceberg. You explore the remaining hidden part with your mind.

The Iceberg Theory mirrored Hemingway’s own struggles.

As a WWI veteran, he wrestled with trauma he couldn’t openly discuss. Like an iceberg, much of this pain stayed hidden from view. The same thing later showed up in his writing. This method came from Hemingway’s journalistic background. People celebrate it for its clarity, subtlety, and emotional power.

I had heard about Hemingway’s Iceberg theory and wanted to explore it. ‘The Old Man and The Sea’ was the perfect place to start.

Reading Insights

You can read this story in about two hours. Then you can take your time to think about it and find your own takeaways. That’s how Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory works.

It’s a small and simple read. No difficult words or hard-to-understand paragraphs. The story flows smoothly and keeps you hooked. It makes you curious at many points.

Everyone talks about the Iceberg theory, but I found another unique thing in this book. Hemingway describes scenes with simple, limited words. He brings the scene vividly before our eyes.

This book makes a great companion on a short flight or while sitting at a window seat on a train during monsoon season.

About the Author (From Goodreads)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. He’s best known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers. People often romanticize him for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image.

Hemingway published most of his works between the mid-1920s and mid-1950s. These include seven novels, six short-story collections, and two non-fiction works. His writings became classics of American literature. He won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. Publishers released three novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works after his death.

Hemingway grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school, he spent six months as a cub reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I. He was seriously wounded in 1918. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms.

He married Hadley Richardson in 1921—the first of four wives. They moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. There, he fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s’ “Lost Generation” expatriate community. Publishers released his debut novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926.

He divorced Richardson in 1927 and married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War, where he had worked as a journalist. This experience formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. He and Gellhorn separated after he met Mary Welsh Hemingway in London during World War II. Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris.

He maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, in the 1930s and in Cuba in the 1940s and 1950s. On a 1954 trip to Africa, he was seriously injured in two plane accidents on successive days. This left him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. In 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho. There, on July 2, 1961 (a couple weeks before his 62nd birthday), he killed himself using one of his shotguns.

My Favorite Quotes

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

“Age is my alarm clock,” the old man said. “Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.

“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her?

Get this book

You can buy The Old Man and The Sea Here