THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA ~Hemingway’s Ultimate Hero In The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway creates his hero who endures the elements of nature and overcomes the more powerful forces of human nature. In what would be his last novel, Hemingway succeeds in creating his truest hero by pitting a weak old man against the strongest and most uncontrollable villain of all, nature. In his work and in his own life, …showed first 75 words of 1823 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1823 total…Hemingway made a literary comeback with The Old Man and the Sea. The book was a huge success and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. In 1954, he also won the Nobel Prize for literature for The Old man and the Sea (Contemporary Authors, 34:195). By 1955, Hemingway deteriorated physically and emotionally. He was hospitalized and treated for chronic depression and paranoia. Unlike the heroes he created, he could not find the will to live. He committed suicide in 1961.