Essay/Term paper: Olman

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Term Papers

English
Old Man and the Sea

This part of the story has to do with Santiago against nature and
the sea. In this part of the story, he goes out and fights nature in
the form of terrible forces and dangerous creatures, among them, a
marlin, sharks and hunger. He starts the story in a small skiff and
moves out in a journey to capture a fish after a long losing streak of
eighty-four days. Unfortunately his friend must desert him due to this
problem and a greater force, his parents. Santiago must go out into the
danger alone. For three harsh days and nights he fights a fish of
enormous power. This is the second form of nature he must conquer.
Earlier in the story, the first part of nature is himself, for which he
must fight off his hunger. This is a harsh part of the story. He
manages though to get a few bites in the form of flying fish and
dolphin of which he would like to have salt on. This part of the
story tells of a cold and harsh sea, that is, one that has value and
mystery as well as death and danger. It has commercial value as well as
the population of life in it. It is dark and treacherous though, and
every day there is a challenge. A similar story tells about a tidal
pool with life called `Cannery Road'.
This part of the story has to deal with figures of Christ. It
mainly deals with Santiago as being a figure of Christ and other
characters as props, that is, characters which carry out the form of
biblical themes. On the day before he leaves when he wakes up, Manolin,
his helper, comes to his aid with food and drink. Also a point that
might be good is that he has had bad luck with his goal for a great
period of time and is sure it will work this time. Later, though, when
Santiago needs him for the quest he sets out to do, Manolin deserts
him, although he may not have wanted to at this time. In the novel
Santiago comes upon a force bigger than his skiff, the marlin which
misleads him out far past his intended reach. This is where he starts
to lose his strength against something which seems a greater force.
Santiago has a struggle of three days, which is significent because
of the three days in Easter, and continues to fight on though his goal
may not aquire anything. This is another idea through which Christ did,
a struggle to get a goal done even though it may mean certain
destruction to himself. This might accomplish nothing but the
satisfaction of doing this and also has great risks. Finally he comes
upon a painful experience with his hand which is in great pain and
won't move. This is useful in the place where Christ loses his physical
self and has less to deal with. On the third day, he recovers himself
and returns to his home even though his only remaining treasure was a
broken skiff, experience, and a torn up marlin. And in the final
conclusion, you can see him dragging the mast of his skiff, a
cross-like object, in his hand. This story has a certain sequence of
events, first it has a hunter vs. his prey. This hunter does respect th
e prey. Throughout the book it has this series of events: encounter,
battle, defeat, and respect for the prey. This is Hemmingway's `Code of
Honor'.
This part of the novel has to do with relationships between two
characters. The first to discuss are Santiago and Manolin, Manolin
being the small follower of the old man named Santiago. Manolin is a
small person that follows Santiago and listens to his wisdom. They
treat each other unfriendly though for Manolin calls the Santiago 'old
man' and he calls Manolin `boy' which seems to be absurd. In that
situation I would consider both of them to go see a doctor. The next
relationship to talk about would be that between Santiago and the
village, which seems to be much better. He is given credit for food and
he also is waiting to show his greatness to the villageby catching a
great fish as soon as he can. His thought on that, though, is that any
fisherman can ctach it during the easy season but only a few can go out
and catch one during the hard season. He has no consideration for the
luck, and would rather try to fish through being exact rather than
being lucky. The other relationship in this story has to do with
Manolin and his parents. Manolin seems to be very rebellious against
his parents, although he does submit to their demands. Santiago's
greatest link to the village is the boy. Santiago may be poor in the
story, yet is proud.
This story when compared to being imaginative is good, but in
real life is somewhat of a `Fish Story'. The part where an old man
being able to load in a ton of fish is very unimaginable. The scenario,
though, is very interesting for the part of the old man. He goes out
all alone into the depths of the ocean without an idea for what is in
store. This story has good points, for when it comes to the better
parts of the story, it emphasizes by placing in mind step by step of
the way he does certain actions. The part of the story which, to the
best of my belief, had no part or reference in the story was the dream
of lions on a beach of Africa, which this fisherman probably had never
even visited much less seeing lions on a beach. This was like most
stories in the main plot. First characters are introduced, then a
threat reveals itself, showing true natures of all the characters, and
finally the threat is fought off or it remains, leaving the reader
in suspense. This had a good plot but needed more to go on in my
opinion.
Hemingway's strong parts of this story are emphasized on
vocabulary. He probably learned these fisherman terms for he once was a
fisherman in Cuba. There is one problem to this, though. Throughout the
story he uses these terms over and over although the ordinary person,
like me, would forget them after the first use of them and
unfortunately he doesn't ever re-coin the terms again throughout the
book. Some vocabulary he uses stands for sharks or the sea itself.
Others he uses for bait. The main idea though in this part is to let
the reader get the feel for the life, setting and character of the
fisherman himself. This is a great move to place yet is also very hard
to co-exist with the average reader. This has some good points, though,
and among them is review. The reader must review the story and skim it
in order to rethink the concept of the word. Then he or she must return
to the current position in the book and place it into the text. The
concept of vocabulary is a standard not to live by, and should not be
placed into most books unless the terms are to be used many times
throughout the book.
Hemingway has merged three themes already mentioned above
successfully unto this book. Among them are figures of Christ, Nature
(the sea), and a code of honor. This was challenging. The obvious ones
were nature, it's cruelty and compassion. Nature caused his hand pain
yet healed it, caused hunger yet satisfied it, and gave the fish yet
reclaimed it. This is the way nature works. Nature is actually more
luck than a set of rules, for it can shift back and forth with the
greatest of ease. The second theme, religion, could not be easily
pulled from the text. The best clue to where it happens is the falls of
Santiago as well as his carrying the mast. This symbolizes the end of
Christ, although Santiago on the other hand is just retiring for the
night. But it could be interpreted as the end of the book for which it
is. The code of honor is not actually probably the hardest to
interpret. It can only be pulled from context, which is the hardest to
do. It has mainly to do with the rise, battle and fall of the prey and
respect following. The problem in this is that Santiago was at fault
for expanding out so far, and it was dangerous. This is similiar to the
book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I recently read.