Question 8: Old Man and the Sea

Okay, in my opinion, Hemingway reflects history well in this book.

Santiago is poor and a fishermen. In this time period, that seems to be true. Fishermen never really did make a lot of money. Also, fishermen were not really a respected group of people. Hemingway made a point to show that the village did not respect Santiago and that they looked down on him. The young boy's parents did not want him hanging around Santiago because he was not catching any fish. This relates to history very well.

Fishing and baseball were very two important topics in this story. All of the references to the two sports are true. This relates to history well. It makes you think that the story line may also be true. It is believable and when the history matches up with the story, it makes you wonder. Especially with the way Hemingway wrote.

The relationship between the old man and the young man seem to be the ideal relationship with younger and older generations. The elderly teach the younger generations how to do things; in this case, Santiago teaches him how to fish. The boy also helps Santiago by bringing him things. After time, they create a nice bond. This seems to be the ideal relationship between older and younger generations. Teaching and learning is key. There is love and respect for all the aspects involved.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question 7: Old Man and the Sea

Hemingway seems to use many techniques to get the reader's attention and to get them involved. Character development seems to be a good technique used by Hemingway. Suspense is another technique. At least, these are the two techniques that kept me engaged in Santiago's story.

Characters were always developing throughout this novel. The old man seemed to develop the most, in my opinion. He would always talk about his thoughts on life. Those thoughts kept me interested. At times I found the book very dull, but those times were never when Santiago was thinking and giving his opinions on life. Those parts always kept me interested. I would feel like he was speaking the truth and everything great with the way it was written, and then when he changed his mind I agreed with that as well. There was never a dull moment when Santiago shared his views on life. Hemingway made Santiago an amazing character that the reader could love. I know I did.

Along with using character development, Hemingway also seemed to use suspense. For example, the fight with the fish was very suspenseful (Hemingway 25). He talked to the fish and to himself during this struggle. It was a very long struggle, but you were not bored at all because of the way Hemingway wrote it. You can tell how much the old man feels for the fish. He tries to convince the fish and himself to win this struggle for himself. It is full of suspense. You know one of them will die, you just do not know which one it will be. It could not get more suspenseful than that!

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question 6: Old Man and the Sea

Although I do not fancy this book, I think other people choose to read it because it is inspiring. It gives people hope.

This book is very, very inspiring. The old man goes through so many struggles and yet has the courage and the determination to not give up. It is amazing how he keeps going with all the bad things that life throws in his way, such as the streak of not catching the fish, the fight with the marlin, the sharks eating the marlin, and the journey back. Going through all that, he also has to deal with being alone, not being able to take the boy with him on his journey, and all the villagers disliking him because of his bad luck. He shows pure determination. I think that all the readers grow a great deal of respect for Santiago by the time they finish the book. You learn to love him because of how he looks at life and how he does not let petty things stop him like a lot of people do/would. He refused to let his pain get in his way. In a way, I think all the readers of this book wish that they could be more like the old man. I know I do. I was truly inspired. I realized that it is incredibly hard to get through the things life throws in your way, but it is totally worth the hardship in the end.

Sometimes when I read a book, I do not connect with the characters. That even includes when the characters are sixteen year old girls. I feel like I connected with Santiago, though. That's the magic in the book and why everyone keeps reading it. That's why it's being assigned in English classes. You truly are connected to Santiago, whether you're a girl or a boy and regardless of age, more than you would connect to a character in Twilight.

By the time I finished, I realized how inspiring the book truly was.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question 5: Old Man and the Sea

Out of the topics to talk about for this question, I am going to talk about the social issues because I think it will be easy to reflect on, such as Santiago being poor. Another social issue, which in my opinion is the biggest one, is that the villagers did not like Santiago because he couldn't catch any fish.

Santaigo did not have very much money. When this book was written, fishing was not very profitable. But from my understandings, I think that the majority of the men in the village were fishermen. Santaigo never knew what his next meal would be. I could not imagine not knowing that. In this day and age, our biggest problem is not being able to decide between McDonalds and Wendy's. It really makes you think about how bad you could have it. Santiago must have had a lot of faith and determination to not give up in life.

Santiago was nice to everyone in the village. He would always wave and be friendly, but still the villagers looked down on him just because of his bad luck. This kind of thing reminds me of high school. I think it relates because people do not like other people just because of petty things. Sorry to ramble off there. Anyways, even the boy's parents did not like the old man because of his bad luck. The boy looked up to Santaigo even though his parents did not. Hemingway showed us how the world dislikes people other than themselves.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question 4: old man and the Sea

In my opinion, the hero in this book is the old man. Santiago has many heroic traits, such as determination and courage.

His main heroic trait, determination, can be easily detected when he ventures out further than ever to catch a fish. Not only does he have to be determined to even venture out that far, but he also has to be determined to not let the fish go when he is fighting it at the other end of the pole and on his long way back home. During the whole struggle, mentally and physically, Santiago stayed determined. It is also a bigger gain for him personally to catch the fish than it is to show everyone they were wrong. That is a hero.

He also shows great courage. He doesn't just go home and pout when he can't catch a fish and when all the other fishermen are making fun of him. He goes out and does something about it. That takes a lot of courage! A lot of people would just pout and wait for someone to help them with their problems. It's the easy way out. But Santiago, being the courageous man he is, does something about it all by himself.

He definitely represents goodness. Everything he does is something out of his heart. I really felt how courageous this man was from the words Hemingway wrote.

Although he is sometimes portrayed to be a little grumpy, I think he is definitely the hero in this novel. With all of his accomplishments and failures, and courage showed completing them, I could not think of a better hero.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question 3: the old man and the sea

This book addresses many themes. One universal theme that really stuck out to me was pride. This theme was very interesting to me. His views on it were very interesting and the determination made it easy to follow.

Santiago's weakness might be pride. He seems to not have any pride. For example, when went on his fishing adventure and caught the marlin, he apologized to his worthy opponent. He also said he went out too far. He had no pride.

In other aspects of the book, he seems to have pride. Although the author doesn't make it seem like he's full of himself, he still seems to show that he has a little pride. For example, on his long streak without catching anything, he still kept trying and did everything he could for the streak to end (Hemingway 35). I think the streak may have hurt his pride. When he caught the fish, his pride probably increased.

In my opinion, I think the author understands human nature. I think he understood that people need someone to look up to. That caught my interest the most. Just like in the movies, everyone needs a hero. And Hemingway understood this. Even the old man had a hero (Hemingway45)! He talked about "The great Dimaggio" during his adventure (Hemingway 45). The old man was a hero for the younger fisherman in my opinion. The younger fisherman always wanted to go fishing with him and help him out. I think he also wanted to learn his ways.

He also understands human nature by understanding that people don't like to be alone. He was alone on his journey without the younger fisherman. I really felt how lonely he was through Hemingway's words. He tried to talk to things, though. When you're lonely, you'll settle for anything. It really made me realize how being totally alone feels. He even talked to his hands to keep him company.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question Two: The Old Man and the Sea

A lot of the struggles in this book are minor. One event that is definitely bigger than the rest would be the old man's fight with the fish. He fought many fights during his way to get the fish, such as loosing his friend and other fishermen's comments, and on the way back after he caught the fish. So the actual struggle to get the fish wasn't even over until he reached land. This was because of the sharks and the old man's weakness from the fight with the fish. Santiago's journey had a lot of gains. For me, I would think that proving all the other fisherman wrong would be a huge gain. He caught a huge fish and showed all the other men that he wasn't who they thought he was. If I was in his position, that might be the biggest achievement. But Santiago had a very different personality than I do. He was happy to end the 84 day streak of not catching anything. The marlin's fight also helped Santiago in a way. He learned things about himself! He realized how strong he was. With the constant battle of the boat swaying and the fish never letting down his guard, he finally won. He finally killed the fish and then started on his way back home (Hemingway 75). He learned about strength that he didn't even know he had.

He also had some losses. The big loss was loosing his fish to the long journey home with sharks (Hemingway 101). The sharks could tell of the weakness from the man in the boat and decided to use it to their gain. One by one, they all got a piece of the marlin. The old man killed one of them, but he couldn't get all of them.

The conflict involved Santiago's 84 day streak of not catching a fish. To change this, he decided to travel out further. This had many more struggles, he knew. But in order to catch something, he decided it was the only way (Hemingway 32). None of the gains or losses would have occurred if he did not take that extra step. The conflict brought out good and bad things.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.

Question One: The Old Man and the Sea

I recently finished The Old Man and the Sea. I came up with a couple different values that I believed the author had. You can tell a lot about Ernest Hemingway's values just from this book.

First, I thought about how he seemed to value the art of fishing. Fishing seemed to be in every aspect of the book. Going 84 days without catching a fish, the young man could no longer accompany the old man on fishing journeys. The old man had a fish on his line for three days and fought him until he captured him. For this struggle to happen, Hemingway must like fishing.

Second, Hemingway seems to value baseball. Baseball is always a topic to talk about with the old man. For example, he talks about baseball to keep him awake during his battle with the fish. It must really interest him if that's what gave him the strength to continue fighting with the fish.

Possibly the biggest value of all was his value of hard workers. The old fisherman went through some very hard struggles in his life. A reader might not even realize how hard fishing is until he reads this. It makes you respect fishermen a little more. Hemingway may value hard workers more than anything else.

Ernest Hemingway must have really valued workers, friends, and nature to write this passionately about it. The readers of this book learned a lot about the old man's dreams. Hemingway seems to write from the old man's perspective in the book. He also writes how things would look to an outside observer. But at the same time, he writes about the inner feelings and emotions of the old man. It is kind of mixed. You learned more through this perspective than you would from only a first person narrator. The way he wrote, you knew about his thoughts and the physical things around him. It was very easy to know more details this way, too. I actually prefer his way of writing.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.