The Old Man and the Sea in The Dusty Bookshelf

Jul 03, 2010 Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, great-literary-fiction, classics, permanent-library, spring-2012

10 Stars to my All-time Favorite Book and Author

After winning the Pulitzer in 1953, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA received special recognition in the citation that accompanied Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. And the Panel recognized “[Hemingway’s] powerful, style-forming mastery art of narration” that has captured men and women’s imaginations for several generations.

"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eight-four days now without taki 10 Stars to my All-time Favorite Book and Author

After winning the Pulitzer in 1953, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA received special recognition in the citation that accompanied Ernest Hemingway’s 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature. And the Panel recognized “[Hemingway’s] powerful, style-forming mastery art of narration” that has captured men and women’s imaginations for several generations.

"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eight-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky…It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like a flag of permanent defeat.

The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color of the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.”

Santiago was born a fisherman and simply loved to fish. He happily awakens from his dreams of lions on a beautiful African beach each day with the hope that on this eight-fifth day he will get a fish. He rows out before the sun starts to rise above his beloved sea. As the sun breaks over the horizon he decides to go far out, farther than he should without the boy. He sees the bird circling and knows where to get his elusive fish. And his sticks slightly quiver. A fish at last! Now the battle between the old man and the fish begins. ”Then, with his right hand he felt the difference in the pull of the line before he saw the slant change in the water. Then, as he leaned against the line and slapped his left hand hard and fast against his thigh he saw the line slanting slowly upward.

“He’s coming up,” he said. “Come on hand. Please come on.

The line rose slowly and steadily and then the surface of the ocean bulged ahead of the boat and the fish came out. He came out unendingly and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple and in the sun the stripes on his sides showed wide and a light lavender. His sword was as long as a baseball bat and tapered like a rapier and he rose his full length from the water and then re-entered it, smoothly, like a diver and the old man saw the great scythe-blade of his tail go under and the line commenced to race out…

He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength not what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything and go until something broke. But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able.

The old man had seen many great fish. He had seen many that weighed more than a thousand pounds and he had caught two of that size in his life, but never alone. Now alone, and out of sight of land, he was fast to the biggest fish he had ever seen and bigger than he ever heard of, and his left hand was still as tight as the gripped claws of an eagle.”

On the third day Santiago finally wins the battle, but not before he has suffered. His hands are torn, his back and legs roil in pain, and he is suffering sun sickness. But he has endured to achieve his personal best. But the sharks finally defeat him. He rows into his home harbour with a gigantic skeleton. Only the great Marlin’s tail is intact. The boy weeps for the old man. But Santiago never complains that he is now 87 days without a fish. He did his job but his personal best was not good enough. He goes home and sleeps dreaming of lions. He will get up the next morning and he and the boy will go out together and fish. He knows life’s bitterness and sweetness: strength of character, endurance, and the importance in defeat. He did his best to bring the Marlin to Market, though his best wasn’t enough on the 87th day. Perhaps the 88th day his best will be enough. And tonight, I too will sleep dreaming of lions frolicking in the sand on an African beach.
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Nov 04, 2008 Renna Mira (AKA Enna Isilee) rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2008

What is the point of this book? Wait! Don't tell me, I like believing it doesn't have a point. ...more

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Jan 27, 2012 Mellen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: readingmyunreadbooks

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 12, 2009 Rebekah rated it it was ok

Shelves: childhood-reads-incomplete-list, classics, 2010, around-the-world-in-80-books, reread-revisit-relove

I first read this book in high school and I hated it. Now at 26 I thought I just might like it more. Maybe a little. I Can't say that I will ever truly enjoy this book. ...more

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