The Old Man and the Sea: Question 5

So when this book comes to the subject of history and references to historic events, there is not much, mostly because the main plot and the entire book is really about is the old man trying to catch this monstrosity of a fish without dying. Sure, Hemingway peppers in some stories from the old man’s past, but that does not help in most cases.

Despite what I said in the previous paragraph, there is at least some things in the book that reflect history and feelings of the time period. The only real point that the old man makes about social issues of the time would be when the old man takes a lot of time to complain about how the new fisherman describe the sea as being a male, as only a means of profit. The old man makes the point that “He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her Spanish when they love her” and “The younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as el mar which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favors, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them.” (Hemingway 26,27) I guess it could be said that maybe Hemingway was hinting at how the newer generation does not respect nature as the older generation does. Maybe he is trying to make the point that younger, inexperienced people do not respect things, like the ocean, until they have worked on it for many years and learned to see what a wonderful place it really is. If so, Hemingway would have been one of the first authors I heard of to bring up the issue that we may need to start to respect and care for our earth a little better.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

Old Man and the Sea: Question 4

There are not very many characters in this book, which is a good thing when it comes to the question of who the hero of the book is. Since the boy was basically left behind and the fish is, well, only a fish after all, by process of elimination, the “hero” title pretty much has to go to the old man, but that also doesn’t mean that the title is unwarranted. The acts clearly embody the characteristics of the typical hero.

The traditional values that make up typical heroes are the characteristics that were displayed in the heroes of ancient Greek mythology. Like Heracles, Ajax, Achilles, and Jason, the old man displayed feats of strength and skill that almost seem supernatural. The hero that I most connect the traits of the old man with, would be Odysseus, not only because both The Odyssey and The Old Man and the Sea took place for the most part on the sea, but Odysseus was an older man too, but he was still very smart and skilled, which helped him get out of situations like when they were captured by the Cyclops. Another parallel that could be drawn is that they both defeated enemies much larger than themselves: Odysseus tricked the Cyclops, and the old man stayed with the fish and used all his skill and strength to kill the giant fish.

Another great example of why the old man is considered a hero is because to the young boy, he is one of the greatest fishermen of all time. The boy remembers when he was fishing with the old man and the old man caught a big fish and the old man kept the boy safe and then he clubbed the fish to death (Hemingway 15). No doubt the boy also heard all of the stories of the old man, like when he arm wrestled that guy for a day and a night, and he won. To the boy, the old man was still El Campeón.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

The Old Man and the Sea: Question 3: Part 3: Friendship

One of the most noticeable themes in Old Man and the Sea was friendship. The old man would constantly say that he wish the boy was with him and it was obvious that the boy and the old man had a very close relationship.

Thanks to the simplistic writing style that Hemingway uses, it is made clear early on why the old man and the boy have such a close relationship. On page 14, Hemingway says, “The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him.” The friendship blossoms out of the old man teaching the boy to become a good fisherman, and it has grown ever since.

Another seemingly unimportant line is “’Santiago’ the boy said to him as they climbed the bank from where the skiff was hauled up. ‘I could go with you again. We’ve made some money.’” (Hemingway 14) The reason why it is an important line is because it is one of the few times that the old man’s actual name comes up. The boy says it later that page, and the narrator says it in passing when the old man was remembering the time he arm wrestled someone for over 24 hours (Hemingway 55). I think that it is significant that the boy was the only one to call the old man by his real name besides the old man himself was that it showed how close their relationship is and that the boy knows the old man in a way that most people do not.

Another thing that the boy says, “I remember everything from when we first went together” shows how much of an impact that the old man has had on the boys life. Following that, it says “The old man looked at him with his sun-burned, confident loving eyes” which shows that not only does the boy love the old man, the old man loves the boy in return (Hemingway 15) And of course, there is the fact that the old man wishes the boy was with him (Hemingway 37,41,43,44,46)

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

The Old man and the Sea: Question 3: Part 2- Strength and Skill

Another important theme that surfaces throughout the novella would be how in the absence of strength, skill and experience will get the same results. Not saying that the old man isn’t strong, but he is equally, if not more, skilled and experienced because he has spent his entire life fishing.

The old man and the boy frequently talk of how the old man is “strange” which I thought at first meant strange as in weird because he talked to himself, but by the end of the book, I understood that it meant that he was different than “normal” old men. He could still see well even after he went “turtle-ing for years off the Mosquito Coast”, which is supposedly very hard on the eyes, while other men younger than him, like the fisherman the boy fishes with, were starting to get bad eyesight, and they never even went turtling (Hemingway 15-16). Even the old man admits that he is not like most old men when he is talking to the boy. “’I am a strange old man.’ ‘But are you strong enough now for a truly big fish?’ ‘I think so. And there are many tricks.’” (Hemingway 16) The previous quote also shows that he knows he may not be strong enough to bring in a large fish, but he knows that he is skilled enough to. Later, the old man also says “I may not be as strong as I think, but I know many tricks and I have resolution.” (Hemingway 23)

When he starts to catch the fish, he “held the line delicately, and softly, with his left hand, unleashed it from the stick. Now he could let it run through his fingers without the fish feeling any tension.” I think that this shows how skillful the old man is and that he knows no matter how strong he is, pulling on the line now will not do him any good (Hemingway 36). Later though, when the fish has taken the hook, he shows his strength, “’Now!’ he said aloud and struck hard with both hands, gained a yard of line and then struck again and again, swinging with each arm alternately on the cord with all the strength of his arms and the pivoted weight of his body.” (Hemingway 37)

It is hard to definitively say whether the old man’s strength or skill is the reason that he ended up catching the fish, but I think that he needed to have both to even get close to accomplishing what he did.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

The Old Man and the Sea: Question 3: Part 1- Perseverance

Old Man and the Sea is full of themes, mostly because there has to be something else to talk about other than the old man catching a fish. Since there are so many, I think that I am going to try and get as many blogs out of each of them that I can.

One of the most obvious themes in this book would be perseverance. The main reasons I say this is because there’s many examples throughout the book. The most obvious one would be the old man not giving up on catching the fish, even after he knows he should let it go for his own safety. He knows he could easily starve or get too far out to sea if the fish went on for too long, but the old man really wanted the fish, so there was no way he was going to let it go.

Another example of perseverance would be the little boy not wanting to give up on the old man, no matter how unlucky he seemed to be. The only reason that the boy didn’t go with the old man was because the old man told him to stay with the “lucky” boat he was working on (Hemingway 15). Even after the old man tells him this, he still wants to help in some way so that he feels like he is repaying the old man for teaching him how to fish (Hemingway 14).

One example of perseverance in the book was more subtle than the other examples, but since it was repeated several times throughout the book, it made it a little bit easier to spot. This would be the perseverance of the lions in the old man’s dreams. The quotes “He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach,” and “He never dreamed about the boy,” both show that the lions are the main thing that still perseveres (Hemingway 23). The old man realizes that it is strange that he only dreams about the lions when he says “I wish he’d sleep and I could sleep and dream about the lions, he thought. Why are the lions the main thing that is left?” (Hemingway 52). I think that the lions are the only thing that is left is because they remind him of himself because they are both hunters and they both take down prey that is much bigger and stronger than them, mostly because of their skill (and I guess the sharp claws and fangs would help too)

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

The Old Man and the Sea: Question 2

The main story of the book was an old fisherman basically battling a giant fish that was bigger than his boat, all by himself. Just knowing that, it would not be much of a leap to assume that there are going to be many external and internal conflicts throughout the book. The reader will definitely not be disappointed in the area of conflict.

First of all, as with most books, between external and internal conflicts, external conflict is the easiest one to spot mostly because when I (and I assume other people do to, but you just never know) read, I try to picture what the author is trying to describe, which makes it easier to visualize two separate things in conflict rather than having to imagine a person arguing with themselves (Inception?). Anyway, the obvious external conflict was the several day battle between the marlin and the old man. Later on, as the story draws to a close, Hemingway adds in one last conflict, one last slap to the face of the old man: he already was drug out to sea by a giant fish, cut his hands, almost drove him to death by exhaustion, then sharks eat the old man’s beloved fish that he fought so hard for. The old man really got the short end of the stick on this one.

Luckily the internal conflicts in this novella were not at all hard to pick up on, thanks to the frank writing style Hemingway uses. Another way that the author made it even easier for the reader, is that he made it so that the old man spoke to himself, so it was more like there was only external, no internal, conflicts. One of the main internal conflicts the old man has is that he wishes he had the boy with him to help him with the fish (Hemingway 37). Frankly, it gets kind of old the longer you read, because he says it over and over again, but I guess repetition gets the point across quickly. Another internal conflict is that the old man still knows how to fish and he is skilled enough to catch almost any size fish, but his old body is making it hard to put to use what his mind is telling him to do. The easiest way to realize this is when his hand cramps up and he verbally chastises it (Hemingway 48). He realizes that he’s “getting to old for this kind of thing”, and maybe that is why he will not quit until he catches this fish, it may be his last big catch.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June 2011.

The Old Man and the Sea: Question 1

First off, on the subject of Hemingway's writing style, I found it very refreshing to be able to read a book and not have to over-analyze just to understand the a simple point the author was trying to get across. His sentences were often short, simple, and to the point. It made it a whole lot easier to get what he was trying to say.

Throughout the novella, Hemingway reveals, through his writing, that he values relationships and nature. After reading even a couple dozen pages into the book, it is obvious that the old man and the boy have, and have had, a very close relationship for a long time. The old man taught the boy how to fish when he was young, and took him on his boat for help. They have had many big catches, but since the old man has been on an 84 day streak of not catching a single fish, the old man, and even the boy’s parents, does not want him to fish with the old man, because they believe he is salao, which means very, very unlucky (Hemingway 13). Even though the old man is “bad luck”, the boy still wants to fish with the old man, but he (the old man) will not let him. Another very easy way to tell that the two had a strong bond is when you read about 6 or 7 pages into the fight with the marlin, and the old man keeps wishing he had the boy with him. I think that this shows the strong sense of relationship that Hemingway himself values.

I also think that Hemingway values nature because for one, the whole book takes place on the ocean and one of the three main characters is a fish, which is not normal for a book that does not have very much personification in it, save for the few times the old man refers to the fish as his brother and his friend. He talks extensively how graceful the birds and the turtles are, and how he hates the Portuguese Man-o-War jellyfish because they sometimes sting him. Whenever he kills the marlin, and when he described the times that he went turtling, he would say how bad he felt for killing them (Hemingway 33) . It even seems that throughout the book, that the old man prefers and trusts in nature, more than he does in religion because the only time he talks about it is when he wonders if killing the fish is a sin, and when he prays to just get home safe. The funny thing was though, was that he added “Blessed Virgin, pray for the death of this fish. Wonderful though he is,” which shows that even when he is praying for his very safety, he can not forget about the fish (Hemingway 52)

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1980. Kindle. Web. 21 June2011.