Old Man

Old Man and The Sea - Rough Draft

Human beings need to live in a group where everyone respects them and treats them equally. No human being can live alone isolated from other people because one hand can not clap by itself. In The Old Man and The Sea, the author uses setting, character and symbolism to show that people who society perceives as different are usually isolated. Once one is able to discover the reason of their existence, they are able to accept themselves in order to fulfill their goals.

Through settings the reader understands that society isolates people who are considered to be different. The first thing that shows us the isolation of the old man is the picture that Hemingway has drawn of the old man's shack. He describes it as: "went through its open door…and in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal." (p. 15) Also Hemingway shows that Santiago, the old man, feels his isolation through "Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall, but he had taken it down because it made him to lonely to see it." (p. 16) Everything in the old man's shack gave a feeling of his loneliness and isolation, such as his one bed, one table, one chair, and his wife's picture that he did not stand to look at so he took it down. The open door symbolizes Santiago's mind showing his hope that someone will stop by his cottage the same day and come in without knocking.

Another incident that shows the isolation of the old man is the Terrance. The Terrance is a place that shows how other fisherman threat the old man and make him feel as a stranger among them. The narrator of the novel supports this idea when he says: "They always sat on the Terrance and many of the fisherman made fun of the old man and he was not angry." (p. 11) The younger fishermen do not want Santiago around them because he is different from all of them. They always try to make fun of him and make him feel out of place. This didn't harm Santiago because it didn't break his spirits, but it motivated him to work harder to prove himself to them.

The setting that Hemingway uses gives the reader a feeling of the pain and alienation of the old man. At the same time it shows us that if Santiago had never been through this pain and isolation he would have never decided to go on the journey through the sea ...

... middle of paper ...

...d man. Preventing the boy from fishing with him. Being alone in his boat, and talking with himself and the fish are incidents that create a mood of isolation and alienation. These events pushed him to go through this journey in the sea to discover his ability on one hand, and to let other people believe in his abilities on the other hand. Without this journey he would have never accepted himself and reached his goal.

Hemingway uses symbols to show that people who are different are usually isolated. Fist, he uses the old man's boat as a symbol of his home and a bird as a symbol of his visitor to show how does the old man feel about his isolation. Santiago talks with the bird as a human: "Take a good rest small bird. Stay at my house if you like, bird, he said." (p. 55) Since Santiago is a human being and human beings cannot survive alone, he found a way to fill his emptiness. So when the bird stopped by his boat which is like his home now he considered this bird as a guest. The feeling of loneliness grew inside the old man until he cannot take it anymore. He wants to convince himself that someone is still thinking of him. Back in his first home the cottage no one used t