Old man and the sea

Three days at sea.

Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1952.Genre: Fiction

The old man and the sea book is about, a man named Santiago is a fisherman that goes out on the sea for multiple days at a time. In this book he goes out to sea for three days and his goal is to catch a marlin. The old  man had one person who really believed in him to still go out to sea and he brought the old man food when he ran out and did not go fishing. On the first day Santiago gets a bite on the line of his fishing pole, fish that he caught on the fishing line takes two days to get close enough to the boat. On the third day he gets the fish close enough to the boat to realize that the fish he caught was a marlin that weighed at least 1,000 pounds. He harpoons the marlin and ties it to the side of the boat, but with all the blood from the marlin sharks start to crowd the boat and fight over the marlins dead body. The old man Santiago fights off most of the sharks and by the time he gets back to land he has nothing to show for his hard work over three days.

“This book is a triumph of the bare necessities.” says Garry L. Morey (Verona, IL United States). I chose this quote because i felt that it was also inspiring and triumphant. I thought that the old man had to do so much and when he got back to show everyone that he is strong and not a waste he has nothing to show. He had to endure the hardships of sharks and being at a hard fight with the thousand pound marlin.

The writing style of Hemingway is easy to follow and easy to read. He was very specific about what he wanted to tell us and he did a very good job of writing this book. “It was a great temptation to rest in the bow and let the fish make one circle by himself without recovering any line. But when the strain showed the fish had turned to come toward the boat, the old man rose to his feet and started the pivoting and the weaving pulling that brought in all the line he gained.” I chose this line from the book because it shows the intensity of reeling in the fish and how stressful it is to catch it in the first.

The book that I think that the old man and the sea is most like is the hunger games first book. I think this because katniss has to prove herself t the entire world and he to try to stay alive and has to fight off the other contestants in the hunger games. Kind of like when the old man has to fight off the sharks in the book to keep his catch for him self. The two books had completely different endings because katniss wins the hunger games and Santiago, his catch was destroyed when he was fighting off the sharks.

On page thirty eight the quote "A man can be destroyed but no defeated" is important because it is saying that when you are destroyed you are not defeated as long as you know what you did and you stay strong and know that you can always try again and know that you are never defeated unless you give up on your self.

The book has affected me because I used to think that fishing was easy and it didn't take much effort. Now I know that it takes a lot of effort  and I have gained a lot of respect from this book and I think that it was good that the old man went out to try to prove to everyone that he was not old and that he could still do something. And that he is not worthless, he wants to show everyone that he can still do something and that he should be looked up to and not forgotten.

I relate the book the old man and the sea 3 paws- pursue it.