Analysis Essay, Research Paper
The Old Man and The Sea: An Analysis
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 matters that the
old man brought him to the boat and defeated him.