by Samual Seward

Created on: February 11, 2009

WWI will eventually lead to the creation of one of Americas famous literary figures, Ernest Hemingway. Driving an ambulance, Ernest Hemingway witnessed first hand the devastation that these death machines created upon the battlefield. After experiencing WWI, Hemingway would become disenfranchised with America as a whole, moving to Cuba, Hemingway witnessed the globalization of American culture upon countries outside of the United States. Attempting to cope with what he witnessed, Hemingway sought a simpler form of writing, where unnecessary descriptions would be lost in favor of a journalistic approach to literature. The Old Man and the Sea, contains a simple dialect and a concrete order of events in order to separate the reader from the atrocities of the globalist world.

The Old Man and the Sea, brings the reader to a simpler age, where technology is non-existent, describing a small fishing village, outside the United States, that is seemingly separated from the tribulations of the changing times. This little fishing village, located outside the United States, seems far away from the world around it, but with further examination we are able to see that Hemingway's novella contains distinct American references directly related to history of the time.

The most clear references of American culture lies in Santiago's obsession over baseball. Santiago obsesses over baseball but how could a small fishing village separated from America receive such information from the United States? The answer lies within the history of Cuba and American Globalism. Although separated from American culture, Santiago worships Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees.

"Santiago's fixation with Joe DiMaggio is not a casual one. Carefully nurtured, it is a creation of the movies, radio programs, news reels, and mass media circulation newsprint which, during the post-war period, became an integral feature of the new diplomatic landscape of the United States." , describes the importation of American culture upon Latin American and more specifically Cuba (Smelling 7).

Smelling argues, that Santiago's obsession over Joe DiMaggio, is a product of American culture being forced upon Cuba during the Cold War. That simple Cubans like Santiago, were forced from traditional values and towards an imported belief in American mass media. Shown, by Santiago's belief in baseball and worshipping of Joe DiMaggio.

The forced American culture upon the Cubans, due to the Cold War, is evident in the worshipping

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>