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In the book, The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway tells a story of an old fisherman. The old man, named Santiago, had gone for eighty-four days without catching a fish. Santiago feels that the following day would be a good day because eighty-five is his lucky number. The following day he gets up before dawn and sets out for a day of fishing.
He had set one bait at forty fathoms, the second at seventy-five fathoms, and the third and forth were at one hundred and one hundred and twenty-five fathoms. While Santiago is fishing he sees a bird trying to get a flying fish that was being chased by tuna. The old man tries to put his boat over the school of tuna in hope of getting a catch. Suddenly something hooked itself on the bait that was set at one hundred and twenty-five fathoms. The old man had caught a huge marlin that was now pulling him out to sea. The fish continued to pull the old man out to sea for about 3 days.
The old man survived by putting one of his other lines out so that he could catch fish and eat them in order to keep his strength. On the third day he finally caught the fish. He had pulled the fish in slowly and then threw his harpoon at the fish's heart killing it instantly. The old man tied the fish to the side of his skiff and began to sail home. As he was sailing a shark took a large bite out of the fish he had caught. The old man harpooned the shark in his brain, and as the shark rolled off of the fish it took the old mans harpoon with it.
The old man knew that there would be other sharks that would follow the scent of the fish's blood. He tied his knife to the butt of one of his oars. Two more sharks came and the old man killed them both. The second shark broke the blade as it rolled off the fish. Desperate, the old man waited for the other sharks. All he had left was a club, and he was going to use it.
More sharks came, but this time in a pack. The old man desperately fought off the shark with his club, but the club was grabbed from his hands. He then ripped part of his boat off and attempted to fend off the sharks. In the end the sharks had eaten the fish down to the bone leaving the old man nothing. The old man noticed that his skiff sailed faster without the huge fish tied on to the side of his boat.
When the old man got home he took all his belongings up to his shack where he rested. The old man dreamed about lions, and he was happy. The first, and main character in the book The Old Man and the Sea is in fact the old man, Santiago. The old man, Santiago, is a tough, persevering man with fishing in his blood. Santiago just wants to fish because that is what he lives to do. The old man constantly asks himself, What would the great DiMaggio do in a situation like this?
This leads us to say that Santiago looks up to this base ball player whom he addresses as The Great DiMaggio constantly. I like the old man because he was a strong old man, and he was confident too. Even through the toughest tasks Santiago perseveres. The old man improvises and never gives up, just like when his fish was attacked by sharks.
But there was nothing to be done now. Yes there is, he said aloud. I can lash my knife to the butt of one of the oars. Even in his darkest hours he kept on striving to protect his fish.
He killed many sharks and when he ran out of weapons he continued to fight. But the shark jerked backwards as he rolled and the knife blade snapped. reached under the stern for the club. The old man refused to give up. Santiago would fight the sharks until he died. Fight them, he said.
Ill fight them until I die' The other main character featured in this story was the boy, whose name is Manolin. There is not much background on Manolin, for he is not in most of the book. Manolin is a young boy who looks out for the old man bringing him food and clothing. I disliked the boy. He left the poor old man for a luckier boat. Had the boy stayed with the old man, there may have been a chance of getting the fish back to the harbor intact.
The boy also had a foul mouth that I did not like at all. Though the boy did feed and cloth the old man, he could have also fished with him. Santiago lived in a shack by the water of Havana. The old man had to have lived near a large city because when he was out at sea he looked for the bright lights of Havana. There was a restaurant within walking distance of his shack.
The boy often got food, coffee and beer from the restaurant for the old man. I think there was a point that Ernest Hemingway was trying to get across in his book. I think it was a self reflection of his life. He was a depressed person, having committed suicide. The Old Man and The Sea is a depressing book. I think the author was trying to illustrate how he was feeling so the book reflected the author.
I think a key point in this book was that life is hopeless. The old man really had nothing to live for. The old man caught the biggest fish he had ever seen, but in the end nothing remained. After he had caught the fish and lost it he must have been worked. The boy was crying because the old man was in such a bad condition. He went out quietly to go to bring some coffee and all the way down the road he was crying.
Sleeping, he called. He did not care that they saw him crying. Let no one disturb him. D my fish, he said and he started to cry again.
The boy cried a lot, it was either that he was very emotional, or that the old man was doing poorly. The whole illustration of the book leads to say that life is pointless. I think life is pointless without God. My personal opinion of the book was that it was a sad story; a story of the highlight of a mans life. There was one time in this guys life when it counted and he was let down. I did enjoy the fact presented in the book that the old man was not discouraged in the end to the point of quitting.
I disagreed with the fact that there was really no resolution to the problem of the story. That is what made the book so sad, that there really wasnt an ending, and the problem was never solved. If I had written the story I would have changed a few aspects of the story. First, I would have taken care of the boys foul mouth problem. I would have probably made the boy a Christian so that he would be talking to the old man throughout the book about the truth.
Doing this would have also been a witness to the people reading the book. Second, I would have had the old man give his life to God in the end. He would have realized that there is something more to life. The fact that he had lost the fish would have had been no matter to him after he had given his life to God.
The story, after having these changes, would now be a happy story with resolution to the problem. The Old Man and the Sea
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Research essay sample on Man And The Sea Ernest Hemingway
