Old Man and the Sea #5

The Old Man and the Sea, takes place in the Havana, Cuba.  Cuba has a history, about as long as the United States’. It is different than the United States in many ways though, and has always been kind of isolated compared to the rest of the word. The time period also makes a difference, and I have gathered the book took place in post World War II, Cuba.  Since the book was published in 1952. (Hemingway 2). This actually did have an impact on Cuba.

Cuba was a part of the Warsaw pact during post war era of until the collapse of the Soviet Union.  They had close ties with the Soviets since they were in America’s back yard. I know what you’re thinking though right now. You think, I’m going to talk about the Cuba Missile crisis of 1960’s, no. It just interests me that how Cuba is Communist, but Santiago still lived in a shack with no food. (Hemingway 5) It does not make much since to me because that is an anti-communist life style. Hemingway might not have known exactly how the poor people of Cuba lived since he was no one of them. Also, Hemmingway maybe didn’t know that Cuba was now a part of the Warsaw pact, and the radical political changes going on in Cuba at the time, since he was living in the states after the post war era. I was then thinking that maybe Santiago was rebel, and was to proud to stay in a government run home system. Then I corrected myself though, they were forced to live in the government run homes, if you were poor. This is just one of the downsides of communism.

I know this might be a different theory or historical blog, but the Cuban relationship with Soviet Union had a huge impact during the post war era. I guess maybe the old man was too busy fishing , and the government never found him at home.

http://www2.fiu.edul/~fcf/histcuba.htm

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.