In Earnest Hemingway’s, The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago goes on a five-day fishing trip trying to catch a big fish. On his journey, he is challenged by the elements, hunger, and injuries. Was he defeated or destroyed by these things? I will explain the difference between destroyed and defeated, while also telling which one applied to his situations. First, I will explain the difference between destroyed and defeated. According to Google, the definition of the word “destroyed” means, “to put an end to the existence of (something) by damaging or attacking it.” Basically, destroyed means to “kill” something by fighting and hurting it. The definition of the word “defeated” is “having been beaten in a battle or other contest.” Defeated means …show more content…
After he kills the fish, he ties it to the side of the boat. Because he stabbed it earlier, it is bleeding into the water. A Make shark comes up and takes a bite of the fish. It takes about a quarter of the fish before the old man kills it. “The shark closed fast astern and when he hit the fish the old man saw his mouth open and his strange eyes and the clicking chop of the teeth as he drove forward in the meat just above the tail. The shark’s head was out of water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark’s head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose.” (Hemingway, 38) After winning the battle with the shark, he says this, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (Hemingway, 38) Sometime later, two more sharks come to feast on his prize fish. This time, they are shovel-nosed sharks. Together, they also take another quarter of the fish before he kills them. Even after losing some of the fish, he still keeps fighting for his fish, which shows that he is destroyed, not
The marlin’s blood has reached two ravenous shovel-nosed sharks who are more than insistent on getting a taste of the marlin. Santiago manages to kill these two as well, but in doing so loses his knife, which had been his only weapon. Once the shovel-nosed shark are gone, Santiago has a brief window of time during which he goes back to mourning the fish. Due to these attacks, Santiago now further laments the marlin’s death, for he believes, had the marlin been alive, he would of been able to easily defend himself against the savage sharks. The old man goes on to say that he no longer likes to “look at the fish” for he has been “mutilated” (Hemingway 103). He also mentions that, “When the fish had been hit it was as though he himself [Santiago] were hit.” (Hemingway 103). This tells us that Santiago deeply valued the fish, not only as a source of pride but as a companion as well.
A fisherman sits in his boat on the open sea, alone save for the fish below the water’s surface. The calmness of the ocean is disrupted by something underneath, something big. Fear seeps through the fisherman’s heart as he sees the shiny gray dorsal fin pierce the sun-glinted surface of the ocean. The creature stops its ritual and pulls its head out of the water, revealing the face of a great white: scars from countless battles in the ocean’s depths, a mouth full of lethal daggers, and dark, savage eyes.
you think there is no chance for the men, one of them kill the shark
The Old Man and the Sea tells the story of Santiago, a very old fisherman, and his quest to catch a fish after eighty four days of failing to catch any fish at all. When his young apprentice, Manolin, is forced to abandon him by his parents, Santiago sets out farther than he has ever traveled at sea in hopes that larger fish will be available for catching. Not only does he spend several days fighting with a great marlin that he manages to hook before finally killing him, he also battles with hungry sharks, as well as his own body, which, at times, seems to be failing him.
That fish is Edward Bloom. A compulsive storyteller, who enjoyed living life to it’s fullest. This extraordinary film is based on a collection of cleverly crafted stories from the novel, by Daniel Wallace. William Bloom (Billy Crudup) is a journalist who wants to find the truth behind his fathers’ mythical stories, to find out the truth about Edward, who is dying of cancer. For too long has Will heard the unending series of tales his father claims is his life.
The Old Man and the Sea is novella written by Ernest Hemingway in 1952. It tells the epic journey and struggles of the old fisherman, Santiago, and his younger fishing partner, Manolin. The story goes into detail the day to day life struggles that a fisherman off the coast of Africa endures. The majority of the story focuses on one particular trip out sea. In life, one will go through a number of stages in life. Infancy, Youth , Adulthood, and Old Age are all key stages. As one grows, they mature through these various stages. When one reaches old age, there is often a lot of doubt surrounding their lives. Serenity, and independence are often the two most questioned. These are some questions that Santiago has to ask himself as well.
The survival of the fish is thus seen as the endurance of nature and its ability to persevere despite the adverse challenges that may occur. It is also a statement demonstrating that despite humans’ various harmful activities, nature will always emerge victorious and continue thriving. Out of either bravery or wisdom, the fish did not put up a fight when caught by the narrator (Bishop 464). This may have been as a result of its various encounters with fishermen. In its old beaten up state, the narrator would have felt sympathetic and simply let the fish go. Its body was also in a bad condition, filled with strings and wires. The narrator was able to grasp the concept that, no matter how badly human beings abused nature, it would still continue to thrive like the fish had
...nizes the fish because, just like the fish, people fight daily battles to survive in life. This humanization of the fish enables the speaker to relate and respect him, and therefore, ultimately leads to his release.
The fish withholds a great part in this book. The Old Man and the Sea is a book that’s about a small town where the residents revolve their lives around fishing. The fish is a symbol of beauty and it is a greatly admired creature to these people. An example from the book is on page 49. Santiago has been fishing for 84 days and decides not to return home without a fish on the 85th day. On the 85th day, alone in the boat, he manages to hook an enormous marlin, the biggest fish he's ever seen in all his life. The fish is larger and stronger than Santiago. Santiago's experienced fishing skills and his will to catch and survive push him to pursue the fish for many days and many miles out to sea.
Poignant circumstances surrounded the composition of this novel, which bring out many of the above points. It is widely recognized that Hemingway was possessed of a turbulent personality and suffered from emotional depression. This was despite the fact that he enjoyed much critical acclaim. The Old Man and the Sea was written after a ten-year hiatus of public and critical approval. This period saw much of his work receive negative criticism in literary and journalistic circles. This affected Hemingway adversely and very deeply (Carey 9). Therefore, Hemingway's personal battle with seeming failure in his life's work and society's attendant criticism parallel Santiago's stoic resolve in the face of his neighbors' disdain. The author's struggles symbolically match those of Santiago and set the stage for the writing of this novel.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, pits his strength against forces he cannot control. We learn from Santiago's struggles how to face insurmountable odds with bravery and courage. Though we find an indifferent and hostile universe as Santiago's stage, his unwillingness to give in to these forces demonstrate a reverence for life's struggles. Santiago's struggle is for dignity and meaning in the face of insurmountable odds. His warrior-like spirit fights off the sharks full-well knowing the fate of his marlin. Santiago loses his marlin in the end, but his struggle to keep it represent a victory because of the dignity and heroism with which he carries out his mission. However, as Santiago acknowledges, he is almost sorry he caught the marlin because he knows the animal and he have a great deal in common as fellow beings in nature. However, he only caught the marlin "through trickery" (Hemingway 99). Santi...
Although Doty gives multiple seemingly disconnected depictions of the fish, a single story comes to form towards the end of his essay. Doty says that although dead, the fish are not really dead because they live on through one another by being part of a larger group making their legacy carried out through that community. This was a realization he had later on when he thought about the death of his partner. “What did it mean to be a self, when that self would be lost?” asks Doty. “The one of a kind, the singular, like my dear lover, cannot last.
It took him three days and so much pain to catch the fish and he had even planned out how he's going to sell it, then it just gets eaten by sharks within a day and night.
Defeat, according to the Larousse Chambers English Dictionary, is when you are overthrown in a battle, you lose a game and therefore you don’t win: you don’t gain or reach your goal. As we can see Santiago, in spite of the fact that he persevered and struggled, starving, for three days lost the battle. He couldn’t get to his main goal. But , exactly what was his goal, one may ask? He wanted the fish, he was not fishing as a hobby or sport; he planned to sell the fish and get some money to eat, it was his way of surviving. Santiago’s only way of income was fishing and he knew that. He mentions: “ He was a fish to keep a man all winter.”(page 111). Santiago had plans for him already but failed to accomplish them. Some will argue that he won because he gained spiritual victory. This , in a way, is true; but fishing is his job and only way of living. If the case had been different and Santiago was only fishing for his personal entertainment, which wasn’t, it could be seen as a new experience or story to tell. But it wasn’t. Santiago needed the fish and lost it. He wasn’t happy or joyful about it, as we will later on discuss.
When it comes down to the final struggle, Santiago pits all of the pain, strength, and pride he has left against the fish in order to bring it down. Despair begins to creep in when Santiago finds it hard to pull in the marlin, but he overcomes it with every ounce of will he has. He knows that it is up to him to create this important moment in his life, filled with passion and purpose .... ... middle of paper ...