The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1952. Genre: Fiction
In the Old Man and the Sea, the protagonist was the old man ( thin and gaunt). The setting took place in a skiff in the Gulf Stream. The first conflict was that the old man hadn't caught a fish in 84 days. The second conflict was getting away from sharks, because the marlin was bleeding but was to big to put on the boat, so he strapped it to the side. The blood from the marlin attracted sharks.
Review from a Amazon reader "A quite wonderful example of narrative art. The writing is as taut, and at the same time as lithe and cunningly played out, as the line on which the old man plays the fish" --Guardian. I chose this quote because it really gets to the point of the story and its writing. So yes I agree with this quote.
The story was kind of boring at the beginning nut did get a little more entertaining later on, like when the shark attacked. "The shark's head was out of the water and his back was coming out and the old man could hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rammed the harpoon down onto the shark's head at a spot where the line between his eyes intersected with the line that ran straight back from his nose." pg 101-102. This quote from The Old Man and the Sea shows a lot of imagery about the shark and what is happening to it.
The Old Man and the Sea is kinda like this book I read called The Cay. They both had similar settings that dealt with water. Also the characters had a old man and a boy just like in The Old Man and the Sea. It is different however because in The Cay, the men are stuck on a island, where as then men in The Old Man and the Sea are not. Also the little boy becomes blind in The Cay, the boy in The Old Man and the Sea doesn't.
The quote "A man can be destroyed but not defeated" to me means that you can fight me and destroy me but I will never be defeated because I will get back and keep trying. I agree with this quote, for example the recent bombing that happened in Boston. Lives were lost and destroyed but everyone is saying there still going to do it the next years to come because they are not defeated.
I didn't really like this book. I like reading about more fantasy or more adventurous and I found this story was very slow and kinda sad too. It eventually got better and more exciting but I wasn't a big fan of it.
I rate The Old Man and the Sea, a 2 Paw= Find Better Prey
