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.