“My Old Man”, a short story written by Ernest Hemingway describes the successes and failures of a jockey through the eyes of his son, Joseph. Joseph narrates his time with his father as he sees him develop his skills as a jockey to becoming a lazy man spending most of his days drinking at the local café and then finally his untimely death at the end of the story. Hemingway challenges the reader to stick with the duo through their hardships with the hopes of witnessing a positive outcome. He begins the short story discussing, through Joseph’s narration, the strenuous workout regimen that Joseph and his father do to help train his father. Further on in the story they move to France to try to start fresh which only leads to Joseph’s father putting his sport on the back burner while he enjoys a life of leisure. Throughout the story there is a real sense of loyalty shown by Joseph to his father. Though things may not go their way the entire story, Joseph stayed with and helped his father the entire time. Although Joseph and his father experience many struggles throughout the story, Joseph’s loyalty to his father and his father’s perseverance are key concepts to this story that Hemingway uses to connect to the reader.

In “My Old Man” the concept of loyalty is prevalent throughout the short story. The father, as described by Hemingway, was a jockey who took his time with the things in his life; never outwardly concerned with what was going on, always taking time to relax. His son, Joe, remained loyal to his father even after his drinking habits spun out of control. The feeling of true loyalty, sticking with somebody at their worst and not feeling an ounce of remorse, is not something everybody feels. Sure, as a father and son the feeling may come easier than any other relationship, but the fact that Joe saw his father at his worst and wanted to be nowhere else but sitting in a café or watching him race does show how loyal Joe was to his father. Although Joe’s father passed away at the end of the story, without Joe being there for him at his toughest moments, his demise would have surely come much sooner.

One of the articles found online described loyal dissent. The article focuses on the dilemma of balancing loyalty to superiors with ethical conduct, which simply put, means how one can stay loyal to their higher-up when faced with a decision regarding one’s ethics. The article is filled with literature from many different authors all writing about situations in which these problems are found. These pieces of literature include situations ranging from the world of business to the military. One of the pieces of literature in the article that stands out the most regarding loyalty comes from Lt. Col. Mark E. Cantrell’s “Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence”. In the analysis of his book, Cantrell talks about the importance of always questioning a superior’s decision making as a strategy to always guarantee the best decision is made, his quote that best represents this is, “it is better to be thought of as a stubborn fool than a disloyal coward. Also, stick to your chain of command. Right or wrong, you’ll make few friends by going to the press or Congress to resolve a problem that could have been corrected by Marines. If you are right, there is a Marine somewhere in the chain who will see it” (Cantrell 2000). This article regarding the military in particular helped make Joe’s loyalty in “My Old Man” quite evident. Although they are different scenarios, Joe did question what his father’s motives were during the middle of the story. He was not sure why his father was spending so much time drinking and putting on weight when he should have been exercising and preparing for races. Some may call it blind loyalty, standing beside somebody who has nothing going on in their life just because you are family, but Joe was doing more than just following his father blindly. He trusted his intentions and knew his father would end up doing the right thing. 

The second piece of literature found was Josiah Royce’s “The Philosophy of Loyalty”. In his book, Royce calls loyalty a commitment to a worthwhile cause that one becomes intensely focused on. Royce goes on to talk about the philosophy of loyalty and how there is “genuine” loyalty and destructive loyalty. To compare, a destructive loyalty would be one of a Nazi’s loyalty to Hitler and genuine loyalty could be associated with Joe’s loyalty to his father. Joe’s loyalty would be genuine in the eyes of Royce because it is for a worthwhile cause, that being the betterment of his father. Royce also discusses the ethics that come into play when regarding loyalty saying, “the moral life of an individual is understood in terms of the multiple loyalties that a person embraces. There is only one way to be an ethical individual. That is to choose your cause, and then to serve it” (Royce 47). Ethics do not come into play as a strong theme in “My Old Man”, but it is clear that Joe is following his father for the right reasons; being a good son and supporting his dad through whatever struggles he fights against.

The third article comes from “The Journal of Philosophy”. The article, titled “Loyalties”, debates the difference between whether or not loyalty is the basis for egoism, the ethical theory that claims self-interest is the foundation for morality, and ideals of morality. The unnamed author puts together a well-established argument for the difference between an ideal of morality and genuine loyalty, “If I say that I ought to defend my country, I have a putative loyalty. But if I  am willing to replace 'my country' with, e.g., 'a democratic country' or 'a Christian country', I have not a loyalty but an ideal; in this case what I am committed to is a kind of thing, not some particular thing. If I am unwilling to replace 'my country' with a characterizing expression, I have a genuine loyalty and not an ideal; my normative judgment is self-dependent.” (Journal of Philosophy 175). What the author is trying to get readers to understand is that loyalty is personal. It is not personal in the sense that selfishness comes into play, rather it is actually the opposite. Genuine loyalty can only come from one willing to give up everything including their happiness to make someone or something else better off. This idea of genuine loyalty becomes apparent throughout the text as Joseph narrates through his father’s troubles. Joseph knew how much riding meant to his father. He saw him go through good times and saw him go through many difficult times but never showed an ounce of disappointment or frustration towards his father. Instead what was shown was exactly what the article in “The Journal of Philosophy” was discussing. Although having to deal with moving to a different country, learning a new language, and witnessing his father get into fights, losing money on horse racing bets, and struggling with a drinking problem, Joseph remained by his father’s side not in a sense of blind, dumb loyalty, but rather a true genuine loyalty. He was willing to give up his childhood to make sure his father had the best chances possible to become great at what he did.

After reading the three articles, the theme of loyalty in “My Old Man” has become much more evident. It is shown in the small things like Joe questioning his father’s true motives while they were sitting in cafes wasting time, or betting a lot of money on horse races. Joe understood that although his father may not be making wise choices, he had the best interests for both of them at heart.

Perseverance is a characteristic that is seldom found in most of the population. It takes mental strength, toughness, grit, and most importantly a goal that is desired to be achieved. In “My Old Man” by Ernest Hemingway, Joe’s father has that mental toughness. Hemingway’s short story follows many highs and lows in the father’s life as told by Joe, the narrator. A struggling jockey with a chip on his shoulder, it seems like the father always has something to prove. Like any father, they want to provide for their children and grant them a life of ease. Joe’s life as he describes it has been filled with long journeys revolving around his father’s career. Although Joe’s father ultimately died in the end of the short story, the perseverance that he had to give his son a good life was quite apparent during the entirety of the story.

The first article researched was “The State of Black America” by John E. Jacob. Jacob was, at the time that this was written, the president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League which is a nonpartisan civil rights group that advocates on behalf of African Americans and against racial discrimination in the United States. His essay, “The State of Black America” goes into great detail on the current (1992) state of the treatment of African Americans and the extensive disparities between whites and blacks in the United States. Jacob points out the obvious differences between whites and blacks in terms of income, employment, and education. All three of these areas, Jacob says, are areas in which African Americans have struggled with for as long as this has been a civilized country. However, beyond all the negative aspects that Jacob goes into, he begins to describe the breakthroughs in how African Americans have become much more respected in society. He talks about Congressman Mike Espy, a native of Mississippi, which was once an extremely racist state, General Colin Powell, and Clarence Thomas, a member of the Supreme Court. He attributes these great achievements for African Americans to their strong perseverance and will power. Jacob’s description of African Americans in today’s society, although different situations, relates to Joe’s father in that he experienced difficult times during his career as a jockey. From losing races to dealing with his heavy drinking it seemed like all hope was lost. As it turns out, the father pushed through and fought to get back on the track to become the best jockey he could be so he could give his son a comfortable life.

The second article found was one found from “The New York Times” called “What if the Secret to Success is Failure?” The news article describes the headmaster of one New York City’s most prestigious preparatory schools, Riverdale Country School. How the journalist describes it however, is not what you would expect a prestigious school to be like. The headmaster, Dominic Randolph runs his school much differently than any other prep school. He has done away completely with Advanced Placement courses, encouraged teachers to give less homework, and complains that the standardized tests that Riverdale and other prep schools make perspective students take to be allowed entry into the school are an unfair system because the tests are based solely on a person’s IQ. Randolph points out that the critical piece that is missing is character. He says that the educational system does not look to encourage a person to be who they truly are, but rather to learn, memorize, and be able to spit out random facts. He also does not think the SATs do any good either. Getting a perfect score on an SAT can be detrimental to a person in some cases, Randolph says. Those students go through their whole life without being criticized, but when they are finally put in a tough situation that book smarts cannot get them out of they are “screwed.” Randolph has shaped his school into this new form because it actually tests the students’ perseverance and passion rather than just their ability to memorize dates and names. 

This article helped make it clear that Joe’s father did in fact have that grit and toughness. Although he may not have been the best jockey in Europe, that did not stop him from working at it every day to become the best he possibly could be. Even after moving to a new place to hopefully find success, he did not let his previous races affect his psyche; he kept training and working hard.

The third article was found from “Teaching Children Mathematics”, a panel of teachers that research ways to encourage and help students become stronger academically. The idea focused on in this article was to foster perseverance in students by inspiring them to work hard and show the benefits of working hard. The article gives a great definition of what perseverance really is, “Academic perseverance involves initiating and sustaining a high level of focus and effort in the pursuit of academic goals, despite obstacles, setbacks, and distractions” (TCM 5). Although the perseverance found in “My Old Man” is quite different than academic perseverance, the basis of both concepts are the same. Another point made in this article was one that made the training regimen of Joseph’s father much more understandable, “students are much more likely to persevere with challenging academic tasks when they believe that their abilities and competence will grow with effort. As teachers, we have the power to encourage students to adopt this growth mindset by focusing our praise and attributions of success on students’ effort. Consider the difference between a teacher saying, ‘You figured out the right answer; you are really smart’ and “I can tell that you worked hard to figure out that problem; your effort is really paying off.” With the first statement, the teacher attributes the student’s success to his “smarts” or (fixed) ability. In contrast, the second statement encourages the student to attribute his success to hard work, and it communicates that effort is the key to success” (TCM 6). In the introduction of “My Old Man”, Hemingway sets the scene where Joseph and his father are going for their daily exercise, “I remember the way he’d pull on a rubber shirt over a couple of jerseys and a big sweat shirt over that, and get me to run with him in the forenoon in the hot sun” (Hemingway 1). Joseph says that his father should have been cut out for a very fat man, but he made sure his weight was never a problem because of the constant work he would put in every day so he could remain in shape for his jockey position. Joseph looked up to his father’s work ethic. He admired how hard he worked at what he did. And the fact that Joseph stuck by his father and joined him on his hard workouts encouraged his father to work even harder to become great. Throughout the story it was clear that Joe’s father had a big chip on his shoulder. He was never the best jockey on the track, he rarely won any races, and never got the recognition he wanted. These factors did not stop him from working at his profession every day. Even when his situation with alcohol became a negative factor in his life, he was able to break through that and continue training his skills. 

The concepts of perseverance and loyalty are prevalent throughout the entire story. Loyalty is shown through Joseph remaining with his father through the difficult times in his life. Of course Joseph did not want to move to an entirely new country and learn a new language, but he knew it was best for his father and willingly joined him on his venture. Joseph’s father demonstrated a strong sense of perseverance in his position as a jockey. He worked hard to remain in shape despite his weight being a tough challenge to keep down. While he was going through his struggle with alcohol, he realized he was better off without it and dropped it completely so he could create a better life for him and his son.
