Marine Ecology and Human Ethics: An Eco critical Reading of Seascapes in The Old Man and the Sea

Abstract

Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea (1952) portrays the Gulf Stream not merely as a backdrop for Santiago’s heroic struggle but as an ecological matrix. It depicts the human action, marine life, and ethical responsibility. This novel is the most noble work of classic literature. It is considered a milestone in the history of literature, and it successfully describes the relationship between man and nature. After the 1990s, ecocriticism aimed to discuss the relationship between literature and the natural environment. This paper examines Hemingway’s seascapes through the dual lenses of blue humanities, deep ecology and environmental ethics in the portrayal of the sea and its creatures. Beyond the narratives of struggle, the novel presents the ocean as an ecological system. Santiago, the protagonist, becomes a representative of eco-ethical consciousness. His engagement with the marlin, sharks, and the broader marine environment embodies respect, restraint, and emotional kinship with non-human life. Through the lens of eco-criticism and ecological imagery, ethics, and interspecies relationships, this novel situates Hemingway’s seascapes as an early form of marine ethics that echoes with contemporary environmental concerns.