Understanding The Old Man and the Sea

Winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and specifically cited by the Swedish Academy when Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, The Old Man and the Sea remains one of the author's most beloved works. This casebook helps readers interpret and appreciate the thematic concerns of the novel, as well as the contextual issues it explores.

Topic chapters provide information on Cuba, including its natural geography, sociopolitical history, and the ethnic background of its people. A wide variety of primary documents such as interviews and articles, along with charts and illustrations, establish a framework for interdisciplinary study.

One chapter with particular appeal to students deals with Hemingway's treatment of the ethos and issues of baseball and sports. Included are documents pertaining to the Cuban league, the legendary Joe DiMaggio, and a historical perspective of baseball offered by the Director of Research at the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame in an original interview conducted for this book. The casebook is completed with contemporary issues, suggestions for oral and written exploration of the novel, and suggested further readings.

PATRICIA DUNLAVY VALENTI is Professor in the Department of English, Theater, and Languages at the University of North Carolina, Pembroke. She is also coordinator of the Graduate Program in English Education there. Her primary area of scholarship is American Literature. Among her publications is To Myself a Stranger, A Biography of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1991).