Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish. Determined to prove his skill and resilience, he ventures far into the Gulf Stream and hooks a massive marlin. What follows is a fierce, days-long struggle between man and nature, testing Santiago’s strength, endurance, and spirit.

Hemingway’s simple yet powerful prose captures themes of perseverance, dignity in struggle, and the bittersweet nature of victory. The novella won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and played a major role in earning Hemingway the Nobel Prize in Literature the following year.