86 Fun Facts About The Old Man and the Sea

Who wrote The Old Man and the Sea?

Ernest Hemingway: when the book was filmed, he went out off Peru himself to hunt giant marlin for the cameras.

The Old Man and the Sea is set off the coast of which country?

Cuba: on the long sail home in the dark, Santiago steers for the glow of Havana's lights.

In The Old Man and the Sea, how many days has Santiago gone without a fish when the story opens?

84: Santiago tells the boy that eighty-five is a lucky number and suggests they buy a lottery ticket bearing it.

Which baseball star do Santiago and Manolin talk about?

Joe DiMaggio: exhausted at sea, Santiago spurs himself on by thinking of 'the great DiMaggio', who played on despite a painful bone spur.

What small fish does Santiago catch on the morning before the great fish takes his bait?

An albacore: he calls it a beautiful bait, then eats it raw strip by strip the next day to keep up his strength.

Into which current does Santiago row far out to fish?

The Gulf Stream: he rows out far beyond the other boats, and later tells the ruined marlin he is sorry he went out so far.

Santiago's marlin is two feet longer than his skiff; what does he come to call the fish?

His brother: he loves and respects the fish, yet he must stay strong enough to kill it.

On the third morning, what does Santiago's marlin begin to do?

Circle the skiff: each turn lets Santiago gain line until, almost delirious, he draws the fish alongside and harpoons it.

In The Old Man and the Sea, what kind of shark is the first to attack Santiago's marlin?

A mako: Santiago kills it, but the dying shark sinks with his harpoon still in it, leaving him without his best weapon.

What does Santiago make into a spear after losing his harpoon?

A knife lashed to an oar: he kills more sharks with it until the blade snaps, leaving him a short club to beat them off.

What is left of the marlin when Santiago reaches shore?

Only the skeleton: on the last night a pack of sharks strips it, and Santiago fights them off until his tiller breaks.

What does Santiago dream about at the very end of The Old Man and the Sea?

Lions on an African beach: he first saw them from a ship bound for Africa when he was a young sailor.

What Spanish word describes Santiago's extreme bad luck?

Salao: calling him the worst form of unlucky, the boy's parents ordered their son onto another boat.

In his youth, what contest did Santiago win in a Casablanca tavern after a full day and a night?

Arm wrestling: he beat the strongest man on the docks and was known afterward as El Campeón, the Champion.

Staggering home at night, what does Santiago carry up the hill on his shoulder, falling under its weight?

The mast: he had to sit down five times before he reached his shack, then slept face down with his palms up.

Every day Santiago and Manolin pretend the old man still owns what, though they sold it long ago?

A cast net: the pot of yellow rice and fish that Santiago offers the boy is make-believe too.

When Santiago once hooked a female marlin, what did her mate do?

Kept close to her: at the end he leapt high beside the boat to see where she was, the saddest sight Santiago recalls.

Which young muse of Hemingway's drew sketches for the first-edition cover of The Old Man and the Sea?

Adriana Ivancich: Hemingway modelled the young countess in Across the River and Into the Trees on her, and she designed that book's jacket too.

To whom did Hemingway dedicate The Old Man and the Sea?

Scribner and Max Perkins: Perkins, his editor, had died in 1947, so the book was dedicated to his memory.

Which magazine published the whole of The Old Man and the Sea in a single issue?

Life: printing the whole story in one issue paid off, as sales of that issue exceeded all expectations.

Why has Santiago taken his wife's tinted photograph down from the wall of his shack?

It made him too lonely: yet her religious pictures still hang there, though he says he is not religious.

Which old adversary of Hemingway wrote a highly positive review of the novella?

Word of mouth then reached such proportions that both editions were bootlegged.

Which prize did The Old Man and the Sea win in 1953?

Pulitzer for Fiction: it was his first, after the prize had passed over his earlier novel For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Once he is home, what does Santiago let Pedrico do with the marlin's head?

Use it in fish traps: and when the boy asks about the marlin's spear, Santiago tells him to keep it.

On his first morning at sea, what does Santiago follow in the hope of finding fish?

A man-of-war bird: he trails it as it dives after flying fish, but the school of dolphin moves too fast for either of them.

Santiago says his heart is like which creature's, which beats on for hours after it is butchered?

A turtle's: he spent years on turtle boats, and he pities turtles because most people are heartless about them.

Which dictator counted The Old Man and the Sea among his favourite books, a CIA report found?

Saddam Hussein: CIA analysts wrote that he saw his own life as a struggle against overwhelming odds, carried out with courage and dignity.

The name Santiago is Spanish for which fisherman-apostle?

St James: once a fisherman himself, the apostle is said to lie at Santiago de Compostela, which grew into a great pilgrimage centre.

Which word completes Santiago's credo 'A man can be destroyed but not ___'?

Defeated: he says it just after killing the first shark, knowing more will follow the marlin's blood trail.

Back ashore, what does Manolin insist on, whatever his family says?

Going out with him again: 'I'll bring the luck with me,' the boy says, and they plan a new killing lance for the boat.

Who played Santiago in the 1958 film of The Old Man and the Sea?

Spencer Tracy: the long struggle to film usable marlin footage pushed the budget from about $2 million to $5 million.

Which Academy Award did the 1958 film win?

Dimitri Tiomkin composed it; James Wong Howe and Tracy were nominated but lost.

Besides food, what does Santiago tell himself he killed the marlin for?

Pride: 'and because you are a fisherman,' he tells himself, though he still wonders if killing it was a sin.

In The Old Man and the Sea, what is Santiago's furled sail patched with?

Flour sacks: it made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty.

What technique did Aleksandr Petrov use for his 1999 animated short of The Old Man and the Sea?

Paint on glass: made for giant IMAX screens, it had to be painted on glass four times the size of his usual canvas.

'It is better to be lucky,' Santiago thinks, 'but I would rather be' what?

Exact: he keeps his lines straight and at the right depths, so that when luck comes he is ready.

What do the fishermen call the sudden 700-fathom deep that Santiago rows over before dawn?

The great well: the current swirling against its steep walls gathers shrimp, bait fish and squid, and the fish that feed on them.

In which fishing village east of Havana did Hemingway keep the Pilar?

Its La Terraza restaurant became a famous haunt of the writer.

What was the name of Hemingway's home outside Havana, now a museum?

Finca Vigía: he moved away for good in 1960, and the house later passed to Castro's government with his books still on the shelves.

What name did Hemingway give his writing technique of omission, which he applied to The Old Man and the Sea?

The iceberg theory: his story 'Big Two-Hearted River' is about a young man coming home from the war, yet it never mentions the war.

What does Santiago question about the people who will buy the marlin's meat?

Whether they are worthy: from the fish's behaviour and dignity, he decides no one is worthy of eating him.

During the long fight with the marlin, which part of Santiago's body betrays him with a cramp?

His left hand: 'Cramp then if you want. Make yourself into a claw,' he scolds it, a hand he has never trusted.

In which magazine did Hemingway first retell the old-man-and-marlin tale in the 1930s?

The essay was called 'On the Blue Water: A Gulf Stream Letter'; the tale itself may date back to the Cuban author Ramón Meza in 1891.

Before dawn, with the marlin still hooked, what does Santiago do when something takes another of his baits?

Cuts it loose: with no one to mind his other lines, he cuts those too, saying aloud, 'I wish I had the boy.'

When Santiago sees two sharks coming, Hemingway likens his cry 'Ay' to the noise of a man doing what?

Being crucified: he writes of a man feeling the nail go into the wood, and critics read it as one of the book's clearest Christ images.

Unlike some of the younger fishermen, how does Santiago always think of the sea?

As feminine: he calls her la mar, as those who love her do, and forgives her wild moods because she cannot help them.

Who looks at Santiago's great catch from the Terrace and wrongly takes it for a shark?

A party of tourists is at the Terrace that afternoon; a woman asks a waiter what it is, and his attempt to explain leaves her and her companion admiring what they take for a shark's tail.

Which honour's 1954 citation singled out The Old Man and the Sea by name when it went to Hemingway?

The Nobel Prize citation praised his mastery of the art of narrative and named the novella as its latest proof. Still recovering from two plane crashes, Hemingway did not travel to Stockholm to collect it.

Which one feature of the weathered Santiago does Hemingway say has not grown old?

His eyes are the colour of the sea and still cheerful, while the rest of him is thin, deeply wrinkled, blotched by the sun and marked with old scars.

What does Santiago blame for losing his marlin to the sharks on the long sail home?

Going out too far is his own verdict: he says it aloud to the ruined fish and apologises to it for the harm done to them both.

Which American League team does Santiago tell the doubting Manolin to have faith in?

The New York Yankees are his team, and when the boy frets that the Indians of Cleveland will beat them, the old man tells him to trust his side and stop being afraid.

Which veteran film star played Santiago in the 1990 television film of The Old Man and the Sea?

Anthony Quinn took the role for NBC in a version filmed on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, and it earned three Emmy nominations.

Which habit did Santiago fall into at sea once Manolin stopped fishing with him?

Talking aloud to himself breaks the fishermen's custom of speaking only when necessary at sea, but with nobody left to bother he decides it does no harm.

About how many copies did the magazine issue carrying The Old Man and the Sea sell in two days?

5.3 million copies went in 48 hours, a record for the magazine, and the book edition that followed a week later sold tens of thousands more.

What does Manolin buy Santiago at the Terrace as the two walk home on the opening evening?

A beer on the Terrace is the boy's treat, now that he is earning money on a luckier boat, and Santiago accepts it as an equal.

How do some of the fishermen drinking at the Terrace treat the luckless Santiago when he comes in?

They make fun of him, though he takes no offence, while others only look at him sadly and talk politely of currents and depths.

Since the dead marlin is far too big to haul aboard, how does Santiago carry it home?

Lashed alongside the boat, the fish sails home beside him, and in his dazed state he wonders for a moment which of them is bringing the other in.

Who narrates The Old Man and the Sea?

An unnamed outside voice reports events like an observer yet keeps slipping into the old man's thoughts and dreams, a third-person narrator who rarely leaves his side.

Which bait fish does Manolin offer at the Terrace to fetch for Santiago, then deliver before dawn?

Sardines are a gift Santiago at first refuses, telling the boy to go and play baseball instead; they end up scenting the hooks he sets that morning.

Which small, tired bird lands on Santiago's skiff far from shore and perches there to rest?

A warbler on what looks like its first sea crossing rests there until the marlin lurches; Santiago keeps quiet about the hawks waiting for it nearer land.

Besides Manolin's help, what does Santiago keep wishing he had brought as he forces down raw tuna?

Salt would make the fish easier to stomach, and he later regrets not splashing sea water on the bow to dry in the sun and leave some behind.

When the marlin first leaps clear, Santiago judges its sword to be as long as what?

A baseball bat is his measure for the bill, which tapers like a rapier, while the tail that follows it out of the water looks to him like a scythe blade.

Whose newly installed dictatorship gave Hemingway a Medal of Honor after The Old Man and the Sea triumphed?

Fulgencio Batista had only just taken power, and Hemingway accepted the medal even though he privately disapproved of the new regime.

Which café owner sends Santiago a free dinner, carried to the shack by Manolin?

Martin, who owns the Terrace, has done this more than once, the boy thinks, and the grateful Santiago promises him the belly meat of a big fish.

From what do Santiago and Manolin drink their coffee before the old man sets out to sea?

Condensed milk cans serve as cups at the early-morning place that caters to fishermen, and that coffee is all Santiago will take in for the whole day.

Which supper does Santiago claim each evening to have waiting, though his shack holds no food?

Rice with fish is the meal he offers to share, and Manolin plays along with the fiction every night before going out to find him something real to eat.

Which unpleasant tonic does Santiago take from the fishermen's gear shack to keep up his strength?

Shark liver oil is free to any fisherman who wants it, though most cannot stand the taste; Santiago takes it for strength and to ward off colds and grippe.

What have the younger fishermen in The Old Man and the Sea bought with their earnings, while Santiago still rows?

Motorboats belong to the same younger men who use buoys as floats for their lines, while Santiago rows out and sets each bait at a measured depth.

To the Virgin of which shrine does Santiago promise a pilgrimage if he lands the great marlin?

The Virgin of Cobre is the island's patroness, and her picture hangs in his shack; he adds ten Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys although he calls himself not religious.

What does Santiago find, fresh and whole, inside the catch he guts for a night-time meal?

Two flying fish, which he rates excellent eating when raw, turn up inside it; he eats one that night and the other before the next sunrise.

With his other weapons gone, which part of the skiff does Santiago swing at the sharks until it smashes?

The tiller breaks in the dark against the last pack, yet the damaged stump still fits the rudder well enough for him to steer home.

According to Manolin, who had been out searching for Santiago during his days at sea?

Coast guard and planes had both looked for him without success, a measure of how far beyond the usual grounds the marlin had towed him.

By which Spanish title was the young Santiago once known, as he recalls during the long fight?

El Campeón, the Champion, was his name after a day-long contest in a Casablanca tavern, a memory he calls up at dusk on the second day to give himself confidence.

Which handicap, as Manolin tells Santiago, affects the fisherman whose luckier boat he now works on?

Near blindness troubles the boy's new master, and Manolin plans to exploit it by coaxing him to fish close to Santiago the next day.

What do Santiago and Manolin talk of borrowing money to buy, trusting in a lucky number?

A lottery ticket ending in the number of the day ahead is Santiago's idea, and the boy says he can easily borrow the two dollars and a half it costs.

From which island group, critics note, did Santiago come to the fishing village where he grew old?

The Canary Islands make Santiago a Spaniard and an immigrant, a background one scholar calls a major yet invisible part of the story.

Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea as an addendum to which novel, published only in 1970?

Islands in the Stream was the one finished book of a planned sea trilogy, and for over a year he held the marlin tale back as its coda before deciding it could stand alone.

Which fish does Santiago hook on his small line just before dark, lift aboard and club?

A dolphinfish takes the second bait just before nightfall; he hauls it in one-handed, and later judges its raw meat miserable beside tuna.

Which first mate of Hemingway's fishing boat, often called the model for Santiago, lived to be 104?

Gregorio Fuentes grew into the part for visitors in his long old age, though Hemingway insisted the fisherman was based on no one in particular.

Which of Hemingway's wives read each day's pages of The Old Man and the Sea as he wrote it?

Mary Welsh, his fourth wife, read the new pages every evening and said they made her ready to forgive him all the disagreeable things he had done.

Which director took over the 1958 film of The Old Man and the Sea after Fred Zinnemann withdrew?

John Sturges, later the director of The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape, called it technically the sloppiest picture he had ever made.

What place does The Old Man and the Sea hold among the fiction Hemingway published in his lifetime?

His last major work of fiction to appear before his death in 1961, it was drafted in a rush of about a thousand words a day, twice his usual pace.

Footage of a world-record marlin catch off which country was used in the 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea?

Peru's Cabo Blanco Fishing Club was where the angler Alfred Glassell landed the fish, and the film credits him as special adviser on its marlin scenes.

Aleksandr Petrov's 1999 film of The Old Man and the Sea was made for which cinema format?

IMAX equipment sat on a purpose-built motion-control stand to shoot each frame, and the twenty-minute film played those theatres alongside a short portrait of Hemingway.

What does Santiago call the shovel-nosed scavenger sharks that arrive as a pair after the first attack?

Galanos means roughly the mottled ones, and he despises them as scavengers, where the lone shark that struck first had impressed him as a fearless hunter.

To which city is the airplane flying that Santiago watches pass over his skiff?

Miami is where the plane is bound, and it sets him wondering what the sea would look like to someone flying low over it.