The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway was published in 1952 after ten bleak years of his career. He created a bigger work – The Sea Book, but when he noticed that the story about Santiago was a success he decided to publish it separately from the whole book. And indeed the novella occupied high positions in best seller list. In 1953 The Old Man and the Sea was awarded a Pulitzer Price. The book was a great success till the mid - 60’s and got most positive reviews, but later the critics were stating that some elements of it were unrealistic or not correct. One should not forget that before writing The Old Man and the Sea Hemingway has changed greatly, he had really bad years before and his talent seemed to decline and his works not that great, but this novella is considered to be one of his best masterpieces. The story is rather simple like most of his works, the idea is simple, the characters are simple, and the fight between a man and the nature is also simple.

This story tells the reader about courage and challenge about great success and great failure. The author himself was brought up to be close to nature, and his main hero is connected to the natural environment. He shows the nature to be both cruel and kind towards the human being, but Santiago finally sees himself in a unity with nature. A lot of attention the author pays to heroism, and pride in this story. What if not pride makes Santiago go to the open sea dreaming of catching not simply a fish, but the biggest fish? He feels such a deep connection to marlin, but doesn’t hesitate to kill it as he would be so much proud of himself if he did it. Some critics insist that this fisherman reflects the author himself. If to talk about facts – in 1942 Hemingway was a volunteer on a fishing boat for Navy projects near the west coast of Cuba.

“Soldier’s Home” by Hemingway is a story about a young soldier, who came back home after the World War 1. His native town stayed the same, but the guy changed greatly, the war changed him. He found out the there was little glory during the war – actually he was “badly, sickeningly frightened all the time”, (Hemingway, Ernest. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. 1998 pp.1-3) whereas others wait for stories about it from him. His whole worldview was changed and he even says to his mother that he doesn’t love her, the reader can understand him as he can not find his emotional balance within peaceful world. It is typical for Hemingway’s stories when the hero get disappointed with the existing traditions and life values, which sooner or later turn out to be really difficult, as there’s nothing for the hero to get strength for living from.