TOMATS - Irony

If one tried to flip through Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea  and tried to point out a few examples of irony, I could tell you that it would be an extremely difficult task to try and accomplish.  The Old Man and the Sea would not be a book that one would pick out and say "OH! Just read the dramatic irony!"  No.  This story is not quite ironic.  The ironies are little and hidden to where you could not find them.  What is the one place you do not look when you are searching for something?  It is right in front of your face! BINGO.  Due to the very serious tone to this novella, it has no humor or obvious ironies.  But the irony most know, to the straight forward eye would be the fact that this old man is on this great journey, this dramatic mission to catch this giant marlin that has so much beauty within it.  He spends so much time and takes so much effort into lining the fish and takes addition time to let the fish come to the surface to him.  He takes the effort of killing it and making himself slightly guilty for he had become friends with the fish in a way, and when he finally batters sharks, it is ironic that after all of the time and effort, that the old man does not come back to Havana with this great fish but with a skeleton.  They had both been worked to their very bones.  To him there was no pride in this catch.  And he just moved on.  It seems kind of silly to me that he would not be more upset than he was for losing his pride and glory with the fish.  I would think that would be a painstakingly awful experience to ever have to go through.  I would be interested to see past the ending of this story and see more ironies in the man's life.  Those struck with irony tend to be struck more than once.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.