The Old Man and the Sea LB

So I finished The Old Man and the Sea thanks to the two-hour delay. I woke up a bit early so I was like, I won’t waste my time doing something else so I’m going to read. Although when I finished reading the third quarter of the book the old man is on top of the world because he catches the big marlin, his success soon fades when a bunch of sharks ravage the meat of the fish. When he makes landfall there is no marlin left. That’s a basic summary of what happened in this section of the book. This week, I want to focus more on determining whether or not this book is an AP worthy one. First of all, I’d say this: I didn’t find this book very boring, but I think some people might. An old man goes fishing for a few days. That sounds terrible. Hemingway’s style kept me turning the pages because he doesn’t do a lot of deep analysis. That in itself may turn a lot of AP teachers away from the work. However, I think there is some value in reading a style of text that contrasts from the clas...

The second quarter of The Old Man and the Sea consisted of a lot of rising action and development of Santiago's character. The most recent quarter of the book that I have read, diverts from that structure and there begins to be a lot more action. I enjoyed reading this part of the book, it kept me turning the pages to find out if the old man catches the fish. However, I am a bit disappointed because my prediction that he would not catch the fish was wrong. I thought that this book would be a more tragic story, but it turns out that is not the case. This week, I’m going to focus on Hemingway's style in The Old Man and the Sea because there is quite a lot to dig into. The book is considered a novella -- it is only 127 pages and there are no chapters. This makes it difficult to find pausing places. I have been reading a quarter of the book every week but often that has left me in the middle of intense action. How might some old man catching a fish be so intense, you might ask...

I label the title of this post, Part II because that is what this section of the book feels like to me. I found it considerably more boring than the first section of the book but there are still a few significant parts I'll talk about. The old man changes in this section of the book, especially in context with the boy. The boy is mentioned less and less as Santiago has now been at sea for two days. He is apart from any other humans, apart from society and daily life, but he does not seem to not be completely alone. He greets a bird with "how are you?" and later tells it that it to stay at his house. Additionally, he says "Fish, I love and respect you very much." Santiago's self-immersion into the oceanic community speaks volumes to his character. There is no human there to keep him company yet he finds a way to keep himself socially occupied. Santiago perseveres physically as well as socially. Although his hands are cut up from holding the lines for such...

Ernest Hemingway makes his point quickly. From the first page, the old man becomes the focal point of the story and is depicted as, well, very old and worn out,  viejo. Yet, he is still tough and enthusiastic. He is also very unlucky or salao  and hasn't caught a fish in eighty-four days .  Hemingway contrasts the old man on the first page with a boy as well. The boy "had gone in another boat which caught three good fish," while still seeing "the old man come in each day with his skiff empty." It already seems like the old man's fishing days are coming to a close. Although the sail of the old man's skiff is "patched with flour sacks and looked like the flag of permanent defeat," he still states he has faith that he will soon catch a big fish. When he, who we find out is named Santiago, goes to the Terrace with the boy, "other fisherman looked at him and were sad." Santiago does not care at all though. He says to the boy, ...