Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
The magnificent fish being caught only to be destroyed in the process of getting it home reminded me of something but I couldn't put my finger on it until today--it's the unicorn hunting scene in The Once and Future King. Morgause's sons catch and kill the gentle unicorn and try to drag it home to her, but ruin its beauty and finally only the head is left; instead of being pleased with their gift, Morgause whips them.
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There is a similar idea in “Elidor” by Alan Garner. A unicorn is killed through an act of trust. A friend of mine told me that she would never forgive the author for that ending.
I suppose that Hemingway’s novel will always divide opinion and I can certainly understand why that is so. I felt very uneasy about the relationship between the Great Fish and the Old Man. I finally decided that his awareness of the dignity and beauty of the Fish was real—as was his love for it. He states that God had made him a Fisherman and The Fish was—in the end—a fish.
He felt the same way about that first terrible shark. Its terrifing deadly nature was part of its nobility. He still killed it though it could have killed him. It was—in his mind—the nature of their elemental relationship.