This paper examines the masculinity and its limits in Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea by comparing the comtemporary other writers such as William Faulkner, and Fitzgerald who represented the 1920s. As most young men had been drafted into the army during World War I, American society had concentrated its authority on men. For this reason, male—chauvinistic and male-centered thoughts were prevalent at that time. The three post-war writers had also a male-centered attitude while they considered women only as subservient to men.
F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby takes on an anti-feminist masculist attitude which is much the same one that he has himself expressed. Faulkner,born in a male-centered Southern family,wrote often about the Southern aristocrats. Through his works he often belittled women and exposed his own anti-feminist stance. Hemingway is considered the most masculist writer of the three. The characters Katherine in Farewell to Arms and Maria in For Whom the Bell Tolls are the ones merely subservient to men. Moreover, The Old Man and the Sea excludes women and deals with only male characters. It goes beyond binomial modes of thinking and does wholly without women in determining life's values.
This paper investigates Hemingway's masculine perspective in The Old Man and the Sea The old man Santiago serves as a medium for expressing the firm will and the male-centered views. As the voice of women became more pronounced in the text, he feared that he lost his masculinity. This may lead him to express male-centrism throughout his works, however, ironically enough, he portrays the limits of masculinity.
Such limits are found in the character Santiago. Although he is described as a figure of undaunted will, the reality is that he is a weak old man who has lost what he has from the sea to sharks. No hopeful mention is given to the possibility that he may go to the sea again; the story ends with the dream of a lion. The old man at home,deprived of his previous strength,only lays out his stories of despair to a boy. These scenes reveal the limits of Hemingway's masculine perspective.
Hemingway lived a rather macho life but ended his life tragically--a real-life evidence that points to the limits of his views. The compulsion to overcome everything and not knowing to succumb to any situation became a burden,causing the limits. Such an "illness" of masculinity wrought a tragic consequence: the conclusion of his life with, a suicide.