The Old Man and the Sea: A Tale of Hard Work and a Tragic Ending
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway, Simon & Schuster Inc.,1950.
Genre: Fiction
The story The Old Man and the Sea is about a very old fisherman who has not caught a fish in eighty four days. The fisherman is named Santiago and he is very poor and lives in Cuba. One day he decided to try his luck and go fishing hoping to catch a good size fish. Later on that day he has his line in the water and gets a big bite,the fish is a Marlin. For the next three days the old man and the marlin battle. The old man almost kills himself because he is trying so hard to catch the marlin. Finally on day three he catches the fish and he is very proud and he attaches the fish to the side of the boat. Tragically the blood from the fish attracts many sharks who the old man is able to fight off at first , but eventually he runs out of things to fight them with and his marlin is now devoured and worth nothing. The old man is very upset and returns home at night and sleeps. The boy who he is quite close to during the story checks on him and tells Santiago that he will go fishing with him once again. At the end of the story the man is very ill and dreams about when he was younger and lions on a beach.
“The great marlin that he struggles with is like a true fish, lacking personality or anthropomorphism, but just a powerful beast that does not want to die. There is no Moby Dick animosity, and the fish is under the water for the majority of the struggle. All of it, the sharks, the flying fish, the small boat and the ocean, each is what it is, lacking metaphor and saying that life itself is enough. No need to wax poetic” said Zack Davisson.
I agree with this quote because I believe that what Zack Davisson says about the Marlin is true. The marlin is just a fish who doesn’t want to die, nothing more, nothing less. For example on page 45 on the book, the quote says: “ This will kill him, the old man thought. He can’t do this forever. But four hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea, towing the skiff, and the old man was still braced solidly with the line across his back.” I think that this line shows what Zack Davisson was saying about the Marlin not wanting to die. Even though the marlin has a skiff in it’s back it still keeps going because it wants to survive.
“ It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers” (page 75). This quote made me think that the the old man felt bad about killing the fish since he considers them to be “our true brothers” which I don’t think Ernest Hemingway would have used that to describe the fish unless he wanted to tell the reader the old man cares about the fish in the sea. The metaphor made me feel surprised since the old man is a fisherman and he kills fish for a living, but even though he does that he feels bad about killing the fish since they are like brothers to us. This quote stood out to me because it made me understand that the old man felt bad about having to kill the fish in the sea instead of thinking that the old man kills fish and doesn’t really feel anything for the fish.
A book that is similar to the The Old Man and the Sea is The Hunger Games. I think that they are similar based on the main characters. In The Old Man and the Sea Santiago is poor and is having bad luck with catching fish. In The Hunger Games the main character, Katniss lives in the poorest district and has to go out and hunt and sell what she hunts to support her family. The main characters are both very poor and have to catch their food to make money and to eat. The difference between these two books is that The Old Man and the Sea takes place in the 1940s and is about a man fighting a marlin so hopefully he can catch it to make money. In The Hunger Games Katniss lives in the future and enters the hunger games in place of her sister since she is so young. The main characters from both books are both struggling to survive with what they have.
I think that the quote “ A man can be destroyed but not defeated”. I think that this quote means that someone might not be able to accomplish something but they will never be defeated because they can always choose to try again. I do not agree with this quote, I believe that is should be the opposite way around because I think that if you are destroyed then you are defeated. If you are defeated, it does not necessarily mean that you are destroyed.
I didn’t love the book The Old Man and the Sea but I also did not hate it. I thought that the ending of the book where the old man finally catches the marlin and is battling the sharks was interesting and exciting. I thought that the middle of the book was kind of boring where he is waiting out the fish. I think that Ernest Hemingway could have added a little bit more action to it. I can relate to the book by knowing what it feels like to really want something and then to lose it. I remember when I was little I really wanted to get a balloon( I had a balloon obsession when I was little) and my dad got it for me. I was really excited especially because I could have it in the car when we made the long drive to drop me off at my mom’s house. I remember getting out of the car and I was really excited to show my mom the balloon and then I accidently let it slip out of my hand and the balloon went flying up into the sky and I was really upset about it.
I give The Old Man and the Sea 3 paws- pursue it!
