The Old Man and the Sea
The Old man and the sea is by Ernest Hemingway. The story is about an old man trying to catch a swordfish. His dream for all his life was to catch a swordfish. To fulfill this dream, he set out on a voyage to catch this fish. After reading the book, i was really bummed out because there was no happy ending to the story. After all the rigorous work, he finally caught the fish but it was really sad because the sharks ate the swordfish the old man caught. After reading the book, I wondered what could have been the moral of the story, then I realized that Hemingway was from the era of realism. Realists believed society was bad and there would be happy ending. Hemingway portrayed that life is not all about happy ending. He showed that there won't always be a satisfying result but he also showed that people have to be persistent and try again. I learned that being pessimistic won't solve anything and moving forward will lead to some other opportunities.
Alex Han
I too have read this novella and I believe that Hemingway was trying to show that even when you take extraordinary measures to do something, it wont always come out the way you'd like. The fisherman had not caught a fish in eighty-some odd days so he was even more motivated to go out further than the regular realm of fishermen into the deeper unknown. In doing so, he really didn't gain any extra fishing advantage because he had still failed to procure a fish out of that trip.
ReplyDelete-Debby T
This is one of my favorite novels as it is quite short, and meaningful. The ocean and the number of days the old man stays at sea I believe is symbolic of a resurrection or a ritual. As the above post reads Hemingway was trying to show that although something may start well it may not always end the way we want it to. However, what makes life life is that we must learn to move on no matter how much a certain disappointment may knock you over.
ReplyDeleteKenny J.
This is one of MY (superior to all other "me"s by virtue of being CAPITALIZED) favorite novels because it anecdotally written after Hemingway had a cocktail that inspired him. Booze clearly makes any story better. But ... I don't think that it was the old man's dream or anything to catch the merlin, it just happened to be a fish when a fisherman, the old man, caught him. And there was something that the carcass of the fish granted to the old man, or rather, to the boy, since the old man never really lacked it, faith. *Insert obligatory religious metaphor here* But seriously, the giant fish bones did inspire the boy to go against his parents' wishes and follow through with that he believes to be right.
ReplyDeleteK. Lin
Along with the religious allusions Ken mentioned above, this story heavily alludes to Moby Dick, or vise versa depending on which was written first. However i disagree that the "fish caught him". I believe that the fish was in fact symbolic of the American Dream; though nearly impossible to obtain, with hard work and dedication it is achievable. Had it not been garbage rather than the merlin the story would have less meaning, significance, and an impact.
ReplyDelete~Onyx L
I too get bummed out when stories don't have happy endings, but it's great that you were able to take that and figure out that it was the moral of the story.
ReplyDelete-Destiny O.
I read this book when I was in 7th grade. I have to say that when I read this book, I felt lonely because of it's vivid use of imagery of the sea and how the boy was lost, mentally.
ReplyDelete-Richard Won
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