I feel like I can tie together a few aspects of Hemingway's life/job to the story (this is a long post and I hope it does not come off as rambling)

With the questions about the fish today in class made me think that little fish and big fish were more than just maybe an idea for a book or actually creating a good book. I feel like the little fish are comparable to a general moral of a story that a writer creates while big fish is that deeper meaning that you will have to really think about to find. Which I think is a reason Hemingway is still clinging on to his life and being a writer because multiple times in the story he mentions that he knows other fishermen are better than him, but since they "stay in shallower water" they can not make that deeper iceberg theory meaning in their books. They only convey the more general morals that any half-brained person can see. Maybe Hemingway/the old man wants to set an example for the much less experienced or he wants to show them up by staying in the deep water and going for the big fish, but it makes me think that he maybe created this book in hopes that other writers will piece it all together, helping all other writers that have the potential to take the extra step as far as making their books into masterpieces. So wrapping up this whole elaborate idea I think the book up until now is basically an introduction to a suicide note covering one aspect of his life that he does not want to see diminish after he, in fact, kills himself.