The most useful approach to use in critically analyzing The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway is "The Fisherman as Artist".
An artist is the person who acts in accordance with his or her belief and keeps groping for something that satisfies his or her feeling. According to The Old Man and the Sea (p.105 l.10 - l.20), his belief is living as a fisherman because he said he was born to be a fisherman and he had pride of being fisherman. So he killed the fish not to eat nor to sell the fish but to being a fisherman. He loved the great fish, but he killed the fish in order to keep being a fisherman. If not, he is not a fisherman because the duty that a fisherman must do is to fight fish, to catch fish, and finally to kill fish. When he finished his duty as a fisherman, he would be satisfy.
