The Old Man and The Sea

You know that I had finished my previous book, so it took a lot of time to choose new one. I was interested in books which were described so inviting. But I stopped with book which calls “The Old Man and The Sea” written by Ernest Hemingway. You can ask why I exactly choose this book. When I was at school, we were reading this novel, and I decided to reread it in English to get new emotions, to make another conclusion, or maybe to look at this situation from different side.

I think it is important to know that Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for this novel, but it caused different interpretations of criticism. For someone it seemed heroic in men. Others emphasized it like motives of loneliness and suffering. The reason of ambiguity is in the contradiction and allegory which perfectly suits our writer. Hemingway gave us the right to judge about what he wanted to say. It is the biggest reason why I liked this composition; I can speculate by myself and do not to pay attention to the comments which were made by experts.

The main hero of the story the old man Santiago suffers some setbacks. The symbol of bad luck becomes the sail of his boat which was all patched with burlaps. But Hemingway, emphasizing the aging of Santiago and says that the old man has eyes which may have only happy man, man who never give up. Moreover, writer told us about gentle care that boy gave to Santiago. I did not think about it before when I was reading it for first time, but now I feel it.

The fate of Santiago is closely linked to the sea, which gives a modest existence. But the sea gives nothing for nothing. To survive, he needs to work hard and a lot. But the old man always thought about the sea like about living creature which is capable to be calm or be exited.

The next test was already prepared for old man by native marine element. For a long time Santiago accounted to deal with the huge fish which was hooked by him. In my opinion, struggle of the old man and huge fish is the main idea of the novel. Exactly at this moment we saw Santiago and his simple soul. There was said that the man was not created to suffer defeat. The man can be destroyed, but not stroked. In fact, such courage did not bring happiness to man: a shark ate his fish, and a lonely old Santiago feat left only fatigue, mangled hands and a deep sleep until the next day when he needs to go back to sea on a regular fishing.

Santiago cannot be considered as a maverick, who retired to his wisdom and courage. While the old man was fishing, he remembered his little friend – Manolin, the boy, whom he taught the fishing business. He always wanted to see boy near himself. The presence of the boy brightened his loneliness.

One of the main problems to be solved by Ernest Hemingway was the problem of happiness in the context of the search for meaning in life. I think that Santiago – pessimist with no illusions. One can understand that the same view is presented by Hemingway. Only in this continuous struggle when man requires extreme stress of physical and moral strength, he feels completely man and finds happiness. Assertiveness is optimistic.

Anastasija 🙂