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It is probably unwise to generalise as I have, June, as there are a myriad different forms of hunting, and every hunter is an individual. The hunting and fishing that I've done is pretty small stuff compared to what we've been reading about.
But I do see it as, at least partly, a "great hunter" type story. It is almost an ode to a hunter. I see in Hemingway's writing a great admiration for this struggle of man versus beast. (issybird noted some symmetry between this book and The Sun Also Rises, and that symmetry includes this struggle.) To some extent I share that admiration: the strength and determination required by such fishermen is something admirable - I think.
But that is not the same as admiring the waste that comes from poor decisions; given the situation the poor decisions were understandable, they did not seem unrealistic, but that doesn't make them good decisions. And because I don't see this in the same way that Hemingway did, the entire short story ends up feeling wrong to me. (And the fact that I don't like his writing style, his voice, doesn't help.)
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