The Old Man and the Sea

I read this book for the first time

in high school and I remembered it just as well as if I had

read it yesterday. As I read it again I remembered some of

the same language, especially the old man talking to his

hands. Cursing his left hand when it cramped up on him like

it was a separate part of himself and had a mind of its own

was particularly interesting. We can see immediately in the

beginning of the book that this old man is in a struggle to

catch fish and hasn't done so for eighty four days. He leaves

early on the eighty fifth day and by himself which is important

because it defines the journey. He seems to be the pinnacle

of the Hemingway hero, a culmination of a life time of writing

that comes together in the portrait of Santiago. He is old,

unlucky, humble despite is glorious past of fishing and el

champion, trying to do the most he can from his weathered

body. He has lived so much that he does not need to dwell

on the past events or people he shared it with and is

perfectly happy reading about baseball and dreaming about

lions on the beach in Africa. The struggle between the marlin

is a beautiful depiction of courage and resilience, but I begin

to wonder who is hooked into who. The old man and the

fish are one and their lives become connected through that

line as they live each moment according to the other's

actions. Even the old man is not sure who is better, him or

the marlin, and he mentions several times they are not that

different. And whether or not the sharks ate his fish, it only