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"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." – Jacques Cousteau

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Exploring Humanity's Relationship with the Sea

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Exploring Humanity's Relationship with the Sea

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In the field of world literature, the sea has served as a powerful means for expressing humanity's manifestations. Writers and poets have long used the sea to soar in their realm of imagination, reflecting their conditions, and their states of soul sublimely. Diverse genres in world literature encapsulate humanity's diverse interactions with nature. It connects the universal human experience with different cultural and historical contexts of different literary traditions.

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Oman has a rich maritime heritage, which is documented in the literature, highlighting its deep and longstanding relationship with the sea.

The National Museum of Oman celebrates  Oman’s 5000-year-long relationship with the sea. The story of Oman’s past in many senses is a maritime history. A long time ago, fishermen relied mostly on their living from the waters along the country’s coast. Goods across the seas were carried by the Omani traders as early as the third millennium BCE. During the Islamic Period, Omani traders formed a vast trading network that extended from China to East Africa and it was the single longest trading route at the time. Omani people have established two maritime empires that connected Oman with the Arabian Gulf, the Makran Coast, and East Africa during the last four centuries.

Omanis braved the seas, producing a rich navigational literature, and developed an extraordinary tradition of boatbuilding, using the materials and tools available to them to build a wide variety of vessels, many of which

Today, Oman’s relationship with the sea is still continuioning; it has a modern fleet, and prosperous seaports, reflecting Oman’s interaction with the rest of the world.

Spanning over millennia, Oman shows its deep and enduring relationship between Omani inhabitants and the sea. Many travelers and geographers attest to Oman's maritime prominence. The 1st-century CE text Periplus of the Erythraean Sea refers to Omani ports, reflecting Oman’s active participation in ancient trade (Staples, 2020).

Historical accounts by travelers and geographers further attest to Oman's maritime prominence. For instance, the 1st-century CE text Periplus of the Erythraean Sea references Omani ports, indicating their active participation in ancient trade. Moreover, the Omani coastal cities were described as bustling centers of commerce and shipbuilding by 10th-century geographer Al-Muqaddasi (2020). All in all, historical narratives underscore Oman's intrinsic connection to the sea, thus, marine and humanity’s relationship to the sea will be appealing to the Omani audience. The sea is used in various ways in different cultures and regions depending on different motives and circumstances of writers and poets.

The project targets Omani University students to inform and engage them about the diverse ways writers around the world have explored and represented the sea in world literature.

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"The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

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"The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

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The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a novella that tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Santiago, despite his bad luck, remains resilient and sets out alone on the 85th day to break his streak.

Far out in the Gulf Stream, he hooks a giant marlin, enduring all the obstacles. Over three days and nights, Santiago wrestles with the marlin. He admires its beauty and dignity, but at the same time struggles with his own physical limitations. He struggles to kill the fish; however, the struggle leaves him exhausted.

When he returns back to shore, sharks attack the marlin, eating its flesh despite Santiago’s attempts to fight them. Unfortunately, by the time he returns to the village, what remains of the marlin is its massive skeleton. The villagers wonder about its size, but Santiago is left with nothing tangible as evidence of his efforts. Ultimately, Santiago collapses in his small shack, dreaming of the lions he once saw on the beaches of Africa.

Ernest Hemingway uses the sea not only as a mere setting but also as a powerful means to reflect the relationship of humanity with the sea to deliver themes of struggle, resilience, and isolation.

According to Zain (2021), the ocean, which is the central setting for Santiago’s journey, symbolizes life’s beauty and its challenges. Hemingway portrays Santiago as  “cheerful and undefeated,” despite enduring 84 days without catching a fish, underscores his resilience and refusal to succumb to despair (Hemingway, cited in Zain, 2021, p. 4).“Far out to come in when the wind shifts,” the theme of isolation is tied to Santiago’s solitary venture symbolizing his detachment from his society (Hemingway, cited in Zain, 2021, p. 7). The struggle is vividly described in Santiago’s battle with the marlin. The sea acts as both an enemy and a source of inspiration. As Zain (2021) concludes, the ocean in the novel serves as a profound symbol of the human condition, providing a microcosm of the resilience required to face tribulations, and isolation to find meaning amidst challenges. Humanity's relationship with the sea in The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway reflects resistance, detachment, and perseverance.

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DALL·E 2024-12-19 06.48.54 - An aged fisherman sitting alone in a small wooden boat on a vast, calm ocean at sunrise. His weathered face shows determination as he struggles with a

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Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach poem expresses the sadness about the loss of faith in England during the 1800s since science began to take over people's beliefs. The speaker, who is Arnold, stands on the coast of Dover, staring at the calm sea. The poet uses the sea as mean to deliver fading of faith and how it slips away through his dramatic monologue. The scene of a small light across the Channel that briefly appears and then fades, symbolizes the fading of faith in the world. The sea's movement, which recedes not returns mirrors how faith is slipping away. The poem proposes that faith is used to unite the world, but now it is being replaced by science, and people are less aware of their true need for help and guidance. The speaker ends the poem with a pessimism, declaring that despite appearances, the world is not peaceful or bright, and people are under distraction to see the real need for change (Arnold & Creeley, 1970).

In his poem, Arnold uses his relationship with sea sea as a metaphor to explore the theme of the loss of faith and the resulting despair in the modern world. Initially, the speaker describes the sea to be calm and peaceful, but the tide's repetitive movements symbolize the eternal suffering and sorrow of humanity. The sound of the sea was connected to the ancient philosopher Sophocles, emphasizing that human misery has always existed (Arnold & Creeley, 1970). The "Sea of Faith" was uniting people, but now it is withdrawing, leaving the world spiritually barren. In the last stanza, the speaker urges his companion to remain true to each othe in a world that pretends to beautiful but is, in reality, freed from love, peace, and certainty.The poem significantly reflects the erosion of faith and the confusion that remain in its absence (1970).

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DALL·E 2024-12-19 06.50.48 - A tranquil night scene depicting Dover Beach on the English coast. The calm sea reflects the pale moonlight, with waves gently lapping at a pebble-str

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Explore the origins of our project's literary works. Please click the picture. 

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The Fisherman's Daughter story is one of the inherited fairy tales from our ancestors. The story highlights different manifestations and values of the Omani Civilization through the presence of marine life, especially the mention of “Piahat”, which is a unique kind of fish that appears in Oman. The story highlights two basic concepts of the Omani character which are resilience and kindness. The tale is culturally adapted from the story of Cinderella, where the core elements remain, but the setting and symbolism are affected by Omani culture. This aligns with David Damrosch’s concept of world literature, where literature transcends artificial boundaries and is adapted locally.  In this tale, a fisherman who has daughters marries a seemingly kind widow, but this new wife reveals the mask she is hidden behind and mistreats his youngest daughter, falsely accusing her of misdeeds. One day, the stepmother gives the youngest daughter seven fish (piahat) to wash in the sea, and one of the fish talks and asks her to return to the sea, promising her to provide food whenever the girl feels hungry by just calling the fish. The daughter follows the fish's advice and she calls upon the sea for food when mistreated. Then, the piahah advises the youngest to put her slipper in the tub of Sultan’s son since she told the piahat that the Sultan’s son wanted to marry . Later, the Sultan's son finds the slipper and vows that he won’t marry anyone else expect the woman whose slipper is that. Despite the stepmother’s tries to hide the fisherman’s daughter, the girl is discovere. The slipper fits her, and she marries the Sultan's son, living happily ever after.

The humanity relationship with the sea is the place in which the youngest fisherman’s daughter finds solace and support, which provides her with nourishment and guidance due to the fact that the sea has been historically a vital source of livelihood and sustenanc. It is the natural force which intervens in the protagonist's fate, reinforces the idea that kindness and resilience lead to eventual reward.

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"Sinbad the Sailor" from One Thousand and One Nights

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"Sinbad the Sailor" from One Thousand and One Nights

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Sinbad the Sailor is a tale from One Thousand and One Nights. It is set in the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809) where the Arab were sailing and exploring the world (Britannica, n.d.). The adventures of Sinbad reflect the heritage of the Arab and their adventures in the sea when they were trading, and the sea routes were flourishing.

The story is about a man named Sinbad who has interesting adventures around the seas. It's seven voyages where he explores the wonders and mystery of the sea. Each voyage reflects the hardship of life where skill, talent and faith are needed for survival. He faces a lot of risks and challenges, but with his determination he manages to overcome them as he always cleverly finds his  way out of them and becomes richer than before every time.

The tale revolves around several themes as adventure and exploration. Sinbad explores seas and lands, facing strange creatures and hard situations. Sinbad's relationship with the sea is like something that brings wealth and at the same time can threaten his life. It's full of opportunities and wealth, it is also unexpected and dangerous.

The sea shapes Sinbad’s character through what he goes from fantastic adventures, exposing to monsters, storms and shipwreck, all these develop his identity and give him courage and wisdom. Also these adventures deepened his relationship with the sea. His cyclical adventures, which repeated seven times with the pattern of loss and recovery, emphasizes more the profound impact of the sea on his life (Qadiri, 2016, p.5). Sinbad 's relationship with the sea reflects the spirit of adventure and resistance.

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The sea is a universal symbol of challenge, chance and resilience. Also, all works discuss the dual nature of the sea such as the challenges and rewards, death and life and  faith and desperation. The works differ in the cultural context and tone, reflecting the unique experiences of the characters with the sea.

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The sea is not just a massive body of water but a mirror of human emotions and experiences. We explore several literary works from different cultures, discovering how the sea binds us together collectively. The sea is used as a means to reflect different contexts and cultural manifestations. In this profound relationship with the sea, it appears to be a shared and common bond around different regions around the world. The sea unites our experience with its eternal tides.

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Whispers to the sea: Exploring our relationship

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Whispers to the sea: Exploring our relationship

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We asked female university students two questions to explore their relationship with the sea and their answers are in the attached video.

Please click the video.