Forgive the poor grammar.

The Old Man and the Sea

The bibliographic information is found on the title page. The title of the book is The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. The book was published in New York by Charles Scribner’s sons. It’s copyright date is 1952. It contains 140 pages. Santiago is an old fisherman who has had little luck catching fish lately. He has not caught a fist in eighty-four days. When he does catch a fish, it is eaten by sharks. Santiago spends many days trying to catch this fish. Catching the fish and defending it from sharks takes a great deal of strength and stamina and causes a wide variety of pain and suffering for him. When he arrives home, he does not feel defeated. He says that , "Nothing beat me," he said aloud. "I went out too far." (Page 133). The bibliographic information made the plot develop more clearly.

The plot of the story is both suspenseful and easy to follow. Santiago has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish that he needs to survive. Santiago’s job is being a fisherman so he needs to catch a fist to eat and sell for money. If Santiago does not catch a fish soon, he may die of starvation. Santiago has a plan that calls for going far out to sea which hew believes will give him an advantage in fishing. He believes that the current and conditions farther out form shore allow for better fishing. He catches a large marlin, but it brings him farther out from shore before he finally lands it. The marlin possesses great strength and stamina which allows it to drag Santiago’s boat for a long distance for a long time. Santiago lands the marlin and then begins to bring it home. It is heavy and produces a noticeable drag on his ship. The marlin is larger than Santiago’s boat. It is fleshy and has much meat on it. On his way home, an armada of sharks tries to eat the marlin. Santiago is able to fend a few off, but in doing so, he breaks all of his available weapons. A final swarm of sharks eats all of the marlin’s meat, leaving only bones and the tail. Catching the marlin and fighting the sharks requires Santiago to use all of his physical and mental resources to remain in control of the situation. He must use all of his muscles to maintain a tight hold on the line and he must also use his mental abilities to stay awake for many days at sea with little or no rest and meager food supplies. When Santiago arrives home without the marlin, he does not feel defeated; he thinks that the reason he did no catch the marlin is because he went out too far from shore. The plot of the story gave a good description of the characters’ thoughts and emotions.

Only one major character and three minor characters are in the story. Santiago is a main character. He is an old man who has been a fisherman all of his life. Brown blotches of skin cancer cover his cheeks. His skin is wrinkled. He is strong despite his age. He is an intelligent and tactful fisherman who does not rely solely on his strength but his resourcefulness as well. Santiago’s eyes are the color of the sea. He is unlucky and poor. He lives in a shack, his bed consists of newspapers and a blanket, and he hardly ever has enough food to eat. His only friend is a boy named Manolin. He idolizes Joe Dimaggio and constantly compares himself to him. Manolin is a minor character. His is a young fisherman. He learned how to fish from Santiago, but his father made him move to another boat because Santiago is unlucky. Manolin tries to look out for Santiago. He sometimes brings him food and helps him take care of his boat. The marlin is a minor character. It has light blue stripes on its sides. It is strong and possesses much stamina. The sharks are minor characters. The sharks, attracted by the scent of the marlin, attacked its carcass in groups. Some were killed by Santiago, but overall they succeeded in eating the fish. The author seemed to like the characters. He made Santiago not feel defeated in the end, and he made the sharks successful in eating the marlin. the characters’ actions were influenced by the setting.

Two settings were described in the story. Santiago lives on the coast of Cuba, near Havana. He also fishes in the Gulf of Mexico. The story takes place during the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The atmosphere of the story is the end of summer. This makes the current of the Gulf change so the big fish come near the coast. The waters are calm on the surface. The narrator describes the setting well.

The point of view of the story allowed for a maximum awareness of the characters and their surroundings. The narrator is outside of the story and uses third person pronouns. The narrator knows what Santiago and Manolin say and do. The narrator describes the story’s mood well.

The mood of the story is sympathy. The marlin proves itself to be a worthy advesary of Santiago’s skills by dragging his boat unrelentlessly out to sea, and not giving up. Santiago is sympathetic to the marlin because he has to kill such a noble and worthy opponent. The readers, along with Manolin, feel sympathetic toward Santiago because of his bad luck. Another mood discussed in the story is respect. Santiago respects the marlin for its strength and endurance. Rebellion is another mood discussed in the story. The marlin revels against getting caught by dragging Santiago’s boat out to sea and swimming in circles around the boat. Santiago also revels against his natural desire to give up the fight with the fist. the author used the moods in the story to convey his message.

The author’s message is that a person who never gives up hope and always tries can never truly be defeated. The author’s message can be true in both the real world and in Santiago’s case. Catching the marlin and bringing it home symbolizes a goal that is to be achieved. By catching the marlin, Santiago has almost achieved his goal. Santiago has made mistakes, such as going too far out to sea, and the sharks represent situations that result because of these mistakes. These mistakes eventually cost Santiago his hard earned goal, the marlin. Santiago then feels that he has not been defeated, his mistakes just cost him his goal. The main theme of the book is that someone who tries their hardest, and fails, but revises the way they went about achieving their goal, is never truly defeated. Santiago is down on his luck in fishing. Santiago catches a marlin and uses much effort and his skills to catch it. Sharks eat the marlin, but Santiago decides that he was not defeated because he made the mistake of going too far from shore. The message of was carefully brought into view during the climax.

The climax of the book is a frenzied battle between Santiago and a group of sharks. The marlin that Santiago has caught is tied up the side of his boat. A few solitary sharks have attacked it, and Santiago has used his harpoon to kill them. However, the harpoon stuck inside on shark and floated to the bottom of the sea. Santiago tied a knife to an oar and used it as a weapon against more sharks. This weapon was eventually broken, While Santiago has fended the solitary sharks off, they have made the marlin’ s scent spill into the sea by breaking it’s skin with their teeth. During the very beginning of Th. battle between Santiago and the group of sharks, all of his weapons have been used. Santiago is sad over the loss of his fish as he respects it as a worthy advesary. The action of the climax and the message it conveyed was a deciding factor in the evaluation and recommendation.

The evaluation and recommendation of the story is based on its suspensefulness and the resolute of the characters. The book is worth reading because it provides the reader with a story that both entertains and educates. The book is entertaining because of the suspense of Santiago catching the marlin. It provides the lesson of determination by Santiago’s trials and tribulations with catching the marlin, fighting the sharks, and then his deciding that he was not defeated because he made a mistake in going too far out to sea to catch the marlin. The book would be recommended to someone age ten on up. The story was very easy to read, and the vocabulary was not difficult to understand. Many people enjoy suspenseful stories. The story is suspenseful because the reader does not know whether or not Santiago will catch the marlin and defend it from the sharks. Many people enjoy hearing about hunts and adventures.

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