Before I started reading The Old Man and the Sea, I sort of leafed through it to figure out how I was going to blog about it. Then, I realized that there was no chapters, just a super long run-on paragraph type of book. This kind of worried me, but I decided I would just split it up into four different sections, the beginning, middle, and probably two different ones for the end. I am considering the beginning of the novel to last from the start of the novel and to go until around page forty-five, when Santiago goes out onto the sea and first sees a fish that he starts trying to catch.
I started reading this book when I was on my break from work, and an old lady came up to me and asked what I thought of Hemingway. I told her I had just started it, and she said it was not one of her favorites. After this conversation I was thinking, "Great. This is going to be awful." But after I had started reading, I was pleasantly surprised. Just after reading a few pages of dialogue between the old man and the young boy, I can already tell the closeness of their relationship. You can tell how much the boy cares for the old man, Santiago but the way he asks about his meals and his other necessities, "'Keep warm old man,' the boy said. 'Remember we are in September.'" (Hemingway 18). The old man's unwavering hope about catching fish, even after an eighty-four day streak is inspiring. He will keep going out onto the water every day until he dies it seems, even if he never catches another fish again. The old man seems to be almost withering away. The boy comments on his eating habits, and other fisherman make fun of his old appearance. This does not seem to effect the old man, he just takes it in stride.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.
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