The Old Man and The Sea | Ernest Hemingway | Nothing old about this story

The Old Man and The Sea | Ernest Hemingway | Life as it is

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The Old Man and Th...

	The Old Man and The Sea Ernest Hemingway Scribner, 1995 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 687 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Nothing old about this story

The most fascinating aspect of Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea" is that it is timeless. Yes, it can be read on the story level, but if you do only that you're missing the point. I truly believe that Hemingway meant this to be a sort of fable.

The plot is nothing much: Santiago is an old fisherman who has had no luck recently. He is shunned by his village and even the small boy who is supposed to accompany him is taken away. He's completely alone when he decides to go out into the Gulf.

When he does land a fish, it is the struggle of his life. While he has the fish online we're privy to his inner thoughts, and most of all, his conflicts. He wants to catch the fish and puts up the fight of his life, but the fish is also fighting and part of Santiago respects this, and part of him wants the fish to win.

The story on a much deeper level is about two things in my mind: Man's struggle with his environment, and man's struggle with himself. The conflict of emotions within Santiago are in a way even more heartbreaking than those between himself and the village that has so shunned him, for the conflict within a person is all his--all that one person's problems.

Some have seen Santiago as a Christ-like figure, and I suppose this is possible, but if you want to take it to that level you're probably carrying it further than Hemingway meant, though we can't know that for sure.

I like Hemingway's books, but some of them seem colorless at times. This one, "The Old Man and the Sea" seems timeless and is the best thing he ever produced. It IS a classic in so many senses. I don't think anyone realized that this book would stand the test of time when it first appeared. Now it is everywhere and has been read by almost everyone.

A short easy read, there's more packed into this novel than most bestsellers today. I would suggest that anyone who hasn't read any Hemingway start with this book. His greatest work.

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Life as it is

I am amazed at the simplicity of this book, sometimes Hemingway speaks in parable and sometimes he expresses the inner thought of the characters.
I specially liked the struggle to catch the fish, because of what it meant to the old man. The fight to catch this fish lasted 3 days, not giving up!
It is a journey filled with hope and fear, struggle and defeat, death and life.
It is a must read! But mainly a "Must have book", because I believe it should be read more than once and every once in a while.

There's Still Some Life Left in the Old Guy

The title of my review could apply equally to Santiago, the hero of THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, and to Hemingway himself when he wrote it. After giving the world such brilliant works as THE SUN ALSO RISES in 1926, A FAREWELL TO ARMS in 1929 and FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS in 1940, Hemingway seemed to run out of intellectual steam but, alas, not out of a desire to write, producing mediocre works that really were below him.

Yet what a comeback. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, which came out in 1952, is Hemingway's best work and led directly to his receiving the Nobel Prize. The strength of the story, as is true for many great works, is its simplicity.

Santiago may be past his prime, but a man, as Hemingway states in the book, can only be destroyed, not defeated. And Santiago has no intention of being defeated by the swordfish on the other end of his fishing pole, no matter how far away from his native Cuba the fight may take him.

The fish, however, is not Santiago's biggest fight. That fight is with himself. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is the story of a man's fight against his own old age and the fear he might have of not having the grit still in him. He is still young enough in spirit to lock horns in the toughest battle of his fishing career, even though the eventual prize, the swordfish, is minimal, indeed skeletal by the time things are done. Of course, this makes the book open for interpretation. Despite Santiago's victory over the fish, man's prize, his life and what he stands for, is only temporary. Any victory is pyrrhic against the tides of time.

Hemingway's works after THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA may have been of the same lackluster quality as those in the middle stages of his career. Few are the authors in which one must separate such good wheat from chaff. Fortunately, the test of time has made the separating easier for the rest of us and this book withstands that test.

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The Old Man and the Sea sail into victory!

How many times have you just laid on the grass and stared at the sky? How many times have you been able to escape? Well, in this hectic world The Old Man and the Sea is the perfect book just for that. It's a very slow paced book that's an easy read if you just want to relax. It gives a deeper look on life...inquisitive, open minded. This is great if you don't want just any ole' slow book, if you want one with new looks and meaning.
Sometimes it's hard to get away. This book makes it easy with its reality and the sense of sympathy it creates. The main character (the old man) is a man that you can really connect with. Although there's pity you can't help but to admire him. He is also a very curious man who feels like he's on top of the world. The sad truth is the world as ripped, such an honorable man, off.
The story is of a simple fisherman in the nation of Cuba. His whole life is fishing although he doesn't make much money because of his supposed bad luck. He once apprenticed a boy but the parents had him practice with fisherman of good luck. He has always had a deep relationship with the man and has never given up on him. He considers fishing more than commerce or as a sport, as do the other fisherman. He has a deeper love and understanding of the sea and its wildlife.
Well, day the fisherman goes out fishing like any other day. At first there is no success but...later he hooks the biggest fish in is life, probably ever. But he only hooks not catches it, the fish pulls the boat out farther to sea and begins an interesting journey for the old man. He lets it pull him hoping to tire it out. After the fish jumps once he realizes the full size of this fish. He uses much strength and nobility for a courageous battle between the god of fish. The question is...is that enough? Can the old man take on one of the biggest monsters of the sea? Find out by reading it!
All in all it's a great book. It has more layers than can be counted. It seems deeper than the sea itself. I think that if you don't just read books to read books, you read them for life and meaning, well, this is your book. I recommend to most everybody. Be aware some people could be to shallow to understand it

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The perfect book for high school reading

This is my first Hemingway story, and was pretty pleased with it. I have always been told that his writing gets right to the point and that he's not a "flowery" writer, so I wasn't surprised to see how long this story was. On the surface, the story was very exciting, even more so at the end when he battles the sharks. As I was reading it, I would get so excited whenever he ran across another shark I didn't even want to read those parts. I was really rooting for Santiago, and felt totally gypped at the end! In terms of reading the story for just "more" than the story, I found that the themes are very easy to identify and talk about so that would make this a great "discussion" novella, and it's no surprise that this is a frequently read book in school. This is an excellent starter book for those who are interested in reading a story for more than face value. It's not too long and it's themes and symbolism aren't too vague to understand.

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