Old Man and the Sea Old Man and the Sea Essays

Old Man and the Sea

This part of the story has to do with Santiago against nature and the sea. In this part of the story, he goes out and fights nature in the form of terrible forces and dangerous creatures, among them, a marlin, sharks and hunger. He starts the story in a small skiff and moves out in a journey to capture a fish after a long losing streak of eighty-four days. Unfortunately his friend must desert him due to this problem and a greater force, his parents. Santiago must go out into the danger alone. For three harsh days and nights he fights a fish of enormous power. This is the second form of nature he must conquer. Earlier in the story, the first part of nature is himself, for which he must fight off his hunger. This is a harsh part of the story. He manages though to get a few bites in the form of flying fish and dolphin of which he would like to have salt on. This part of the story tells of a cold and harsh sea, that is, one that has value and mystery as well as death and danger. It has commercial value as well as the population of life in it. It is dark and treacherous though, and every day there is a challenge. A similar story tells about a tidal pool with life called `Cannery Road'.

This part of the story has to deal with figures of Christ. It mainly deals with Santiago as being a figure of Christ and other characters as props, that is, characters which carry out the form of biblical themes. On the day before he leaves when he wakes up, Manolin, his helper, comes to his aid with food and drink. Also a point that might be good is that he has had bad luck with his goal for a great period of time and is sure it will work this time. Later, though, when Santiago needs him for the quest he sets out to do, Manolin deserts him, although he may not have wanted to at this time. In the novel Santiago comes upon a force bigger than his skiff, the marlin which misleads him out far past his intended reach. This is where he starts to lose his strength against something which seems a greater force. Santiago has a struggle of three days, which is significent because of the three days in Easter, and continues to fight on though his goal may not aquire anything. This is another idea through which Christ did, a struggle to get a goal done even though it may mean certain destruction to himself. This might accomplish nothing but the satisfaction of doing this and also has great risks. Finally he comes upon a painful experience with his hand which is in great pain and won't move. This is useful in the place where Christ loses his physical self and has less to deal with. On the third day, he recovers himself and returns to his home even though his only remaining treasure was a broken skiff, experience, and a torn up marlin. And in the final conclusion, you can see him dragging the mast of his skiff, a cross-like object, in his hand. This story has a certain sequence of events, first it has a hunter vs. his prey. This hunter does respect th e prey. Throughout the book it has this series of events: encounter, battle, defeat, and respect for the prey. This is Hemmingway's `Code of Honor'.

This part of the novel has to do with relationships between two characters. The first to discuss are Santiago and Manolin, Manolin being the small follower of the old man named Santiago. Manolin is a small person that follows Santiago and listens to his wisdom. They treat each other unfriendly though for Manolin calls the Santiago 'old man' and he calls Manolin `boy' which seems to be absurd. In that situation I would consider both of them to go see a doctor. The next relationship to talk about would be that between Santiago and the village, which seems to be much better. He is given credit for food and he also is waiting to show his greatness to the villageby catching a great fish as soon as he can. His thought on that, though, is that any fisherman can ctach it during the easy season but only a few can go out and catch one during the hard season. He has no consideration for the luck, and would rather try to fish through being exact rather than being lucky. The other relationship in this story has to do with Manolin and his parents. Manolin seems to be very rebellious against his parents, although he does submit to their demands. Santiago's greatest link to the village is the boy. Santiago may be poor in the story, yet is proud.

This story when compared to being imaginative is good, but in real life is somewhat of a `Fish Story'. The part where an old man being able to load in a ton of fish is very unimaginable. The scenario, though, is very interesting for the part of the old man. He goes out all alone into the depths of the ocean without an idea for what is in store. This story has good points, for when it comes to the better parts of the story, it emphasizes by placing in mind step by step of the way he does certain actions. The part of the story which, to the best of my belief, had no part or reference in the story was the dream of lions on a beach of Africa, which this fisherman probably had never even visited much less seeing lions on a beach. This was like most stories in the main plot. First characters are introduced, then a threat reveals itself, showing true natures of all the characters, and finally the threat is fought off or it remains, leaving the reader in suspense. This had a good plot but needed more to go on in my opinion.

Hemingway's strong parts of this story are emphasized on vocabulary. He probably learned these fisherman terms for he once was a fisherman in Cuba. There is one problem to this, though. Throughout the story he uses these terms over and over although the ordinary person, like me, would forget them after the first use of them and unfortunately he doesn't ever re-coin the terms again throughout the book. Some vocabulary he uses stands for sharks or the sea itself. Others he uses for bait. The main idea though in this part is to let the reader get the feel for the life, setting and character of the fisherman himself. This is a great move to place yet is also very hard to co-exist with the average reader. This has some good points, though, and among them is review. The reader must review the story and skim it in order to rethink the concept of the word. Then he or she must return to the current position in the book and place it into the text. The concept of vocabulary is a standard not to live by, and should not be placed into most books unless the terms are to be used many times throughout the book.

Hemingway has merged three themes already mentioned above successfully unto this book. Among them are figures of Christ, Nature (the sea), and a code of honor. This was challenging. The obvious ones were nature, it's cruelty and compassion. Nature caused his hand pain yet healed it, caused hunger yet satisfied it, and gave the fish yet reclaimed it. This is the way nature works. Nature is actually more luck than a set of rules, for it can shift back and forth with the greatest of ease. The second theme, religion, could not be easily pulled from the text. The best clue to where it happens is the falls of Santiago as well as his carrying the mast. This symbolizes the end of Christ, although Santiago on the other hand is just retiring for the night. But it could be interpreted as the end of the book for which it is. The code of honor is not actually probably the hardest to interpret. It can only be pulled from context, which is the hardest to do. It has mainly to do with the rise, battle and fall of the prey and respect following. The problem in this is that Santiago was at fault for expanding out so far, and it was dangerous. This is similiar to the book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I recently read.