Teach This Response 1: The Hemmingway

Which Text:

            Ernest Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is a powerful, introspective novella. Hemmingway’s Pulitzer winning piece is not a traditional adventure work. Yet it has one of the most memorable, epic battles in all literature. A large part of the novel is buildup, but in this lays a major piece of the brilliance in Hemmingway’s novella. The first half of the novella baits the reader into apprehensiveness. After an anxiety-ridden preface, Hemmingway reels the reader into a tremendous, legendary battle. The moving aspect of the closing battle is its division of conflict. Part of the struggle is just below the surface: an old man against a fish. The deeper, cascading struggle takes place within the old man as he struggles with his mortality.

Why this text:

            The Old Man and the Sea contains literary lessons written with teachable, concise sentences. Both of these characteristics make the novella a valuable tool for young students. The Old Man and the Sea embodies how a complex young adult novel should read. Shanahan, Fisher, and Frey argue “gone are the days when text was judged as difficult solely on the basis of sentence length and syllable count. We now know that many factors affect text complexity” (62). Hemmingway’s prose is the pinnacle of readability while remaining sophisticated. His style conflicts with the depth and complexity associated with writers like James Joyce. Despite stark differences, both writers are in the literary canon. Yet between the two Hemmingway would be accessible to a wider range of readers. Marci Glaus argues “many other qualitative measures of text complexity focus on sentence length and word frequency, which can underestimate the difficulty of narrative fiction that might use common language… measurements of text complexity cannot consider varied levels of meaning, text structures, and sophisticated themes” (409). The Old Man and the Sea reads with smooth sentences while retaining profound ideas. Hemmingway’s work is inviting to read and exceptional for young writers to emulate. Students who study Hemmingway’s style will become more effective, powerful writers. If curriculums focus on Hemmingway-esque works students will experience ample improvements in their writing.  

Even though it is not conventional, Hemmingway’s The Old Man and the Sea is a near perfect adventure book According to Bucher and Hinton, “adventure stories focus on themes of "adventure stories have a basic theme of exile, physical challenge, and survival/return of the hero or the group” (7). While contemporary action has moved away from this format, it remains an effective format. Bucher and Hinton argue that adventure novels are “characterized by exciting, fast-moving plots” (162). While The Old Man and the Sea focuses on an “exciting” plot, it does so at a more precise, calculated pace. The novella casts tension in the water to draw readers in. The reader learns the old man’s background and begins to feel compassion and pity for him. All these emotions accumulate until the old man begins his toughest fishing excursion. The ensuing skirmish between man and beast will grip any reader. As with any adventure novel, the reader feels the protagonist’s highs and lows. When the old man gets the marlin close to the bought, you feel his triumph. When he begins to consider the fish his brother, you feel his indecision. When sharks attack his trophy, you feel his defeat. Hemmingway writes, “You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or calmer or more noble thing than you, brother. Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills you” (102). The range of emotions the old man and reader feel during his time at sea is why this is one of the greatest adventures.  

The Old Man and the Sea boasts a wide range of important literary themes despite simple sentences. Memory and youth plays a prominent role in the novella. Hemmingway writes how the old man dreams about “when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar” (27). The old man often dreams about his faded youth, gone forever. Yet that doesn’t stop him from always wanting to return to the “white beaches” and “great brown mountains.” The reader can feel the old man’s determination and perseverance as he battles the marlin for days.  Hemmingway writes, “He felt faint again now but he held on the great fish all the strain that he could. I moved him, he thought. Maybe this time I can get him over. Pull, hands, he thought. Hold up, legs. Last for me, head. Last for me. You never went" (101). The battle has left the old man ill, and the reader suffers with him as he pushes to the brink of exhaustion.  It is all this excitement, pain, and, simply, adventure that makes this novel stick in the minds of readers. Hemmingway’s subtle, readable prose and the mastery behind those words will keep readers invested.

How to teach this text:

            While researching I found a program called HemmingwayApp. HemmingwayApp is a tool that helps make your prose bold and clear. It highlights difficult sentences, suggests alternative phrases, and helps drop adverbs and passive voice. The app takes cues from Papa Hemmingway’s writing by helping create simpler sentences. Students try to overinflate their prose with superfluous, unnecessary words. This makes their work read like a hollow dictionary. To combat excessive, nonessential sentences, I will have students write an essay using HemmingwayApp. The essays must relate to a theme in the novella. Students will explore their writing potential by emulating Hemmingway. Reading The Old Man and the Sea will help cement the application of Hemmingway’s writing in theirs. Not only is this a fun way to analyze your writing, it makes the student metacognative while working. I want my students to think about how they are reading and writing. HemmingwayApp will give them an opportunity to think about their education.

            Students will prepare for a debate. One side will argue that an old person is best for the protagonist in The Old Man and the Sea. The opposing side will argue that a young person would fit best in this role. This debate will help assess how well the students understood the underlying themes about youth and mortality. Students will brainstorm in groups of three before gathering in their respected categories. Each group will need at least two sources from The Old Man and the Sea to support their argument. Discussion is the purest form of learning and discovery. Letting students debate their opinions ensure that they can backup claims orally and in writing. Bucher and Hinton suggest that students need a protagonist they can relate to (163). This will also let me assess whether they feel connected to the old man and his struggles.

            Students will write a short story with the old man as an old woman. Students will explore gender roles in occupations and positions that are associated with male figures. Students will share their stories with partners. The partners will edit each other’s work and suggest modifications to the text. Students must provide feedback beyond “this is good.” Students will explore how genders influence the way we see characters. Students will investigate why writers choose certain genders for certain roles. After finishing their short story each student will write a one paragraph reflection on what it felt like to write a female character for a role that was created for a male character.

Note: This assignment was completed using HemmingwayApp to experiment with using it as a teaching tool. Please let me know if the writing is better, worse, or the same.   

 HemmingwayApp  

Works Cited

Bucher, Katherine, and KaaVonia Hinton. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Fisher et al. “The Challenge of Challenging Text.” Educational Leadership. 69.6 (2012): 58-62. Web. 4 June. 2016

Glaus, Marci. Text Complexity and Young Adult Literature. Journal of Adolescent & Adult  Literacy            Adolescent Adult Liter 57.5 (2013): 407-16. Print.

Hemmingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribners, 1952. Print