Moral values in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and The Sea".

A novel is created to express the author’s idea or feelings. In some novels there are moral values. The author makes the moral values to teach and delight the readers. Moral values are important in people’s life because they teach people how to live in the society. Moral values can create people to be better in surviving their life. This study is to find out the moral values of “The Old Man and The Sea” novel by Ernest Hemingway and to find out how the author reveals those moral values throughout his novel. The writer formulates the following questions as follow: which moral values does Ernest Hemingway want to show through Santiago’s character in “The Old Man and The Sea” novel? And how does Ernest Hemingway communicate those moral values? To answer those questions, the writer relies on moral values theory which is also supported by characterization theory. The theory of moral values is used to find out the moral values, while the theory of characterization to find out how the author communicates those moral values. This study is qualitative research. The analysis is using pragmatic approach proposed by M.H. Abrams. The purpose of pragmatic approach is to teach and delight the readers. In analyzing this study, the first step of data collecting procedures was one straight through reading. To get the detailed understanding on moral values, then, the writer reread the novel for several times. At last, the writer quoted a dialogue and narration which reveal moral values. The moral values found in the novel are courage, care, honesty, respect, and perseverance. Hemingway reveals the moral values through five characters’ attributes. They are character’s appearance, character’s words, character’s thoughts, character’s actions, and how other characters treat him. At last, there are eleven values revealed through the character’s actions, seven values revealed through his words, eight values revealed through his thoughts, four values revealed through his appearance, and two values revealed through how other characters treat him. Hopefully, the study can be useful for both lecturers and students in understanding moral values in literature. i