The+Old+Man+and+the+Sea

= = =The Old Man and the Sea = = = =Kenny Hr. 02 =  

Plot Synopsis:  //The Old Man and the Sea// is about an old man who, after 84 days without a fish, is taken out to sea by a gigantic fish. The fish pulls him for two days and nights. After two days and nights, the old man slowly begins gaining line on the giant fish. After two days of fighting the fish, hunger, and fatigue, he brings the fish along the side of the boat. With hands held high, he plunges a harpoon into the fishes heart. He looks at the fish and feels as if he has killed a "brother." "I am a tired old man. I have killed this fish which is my brother. Now I must do the slave work" (Hemingway 95). As he starts his journey home, he thinks of the young boy that used to sail with him. While doing this, he sees a shark, and the shark attacks the giant fish along side his boat. After harpooning the shark in the head, the sharks swims away. The Old Man thinks that he is lucky, and that the worst is yet to come......

Don't Hate! Appreciate! (Criticism Section):  //The Old Man and the Sea// is a very well written book. It is short, but is a very good novel. Hemingway does an excellent job of description. While the old man was fighting the fish, I thought of all of the times that I had been in situations where I needed to press onward, keep moving, and I was able to connect to the main character on a personal level, which allowed for a better reading experience. Another thing that worked, was that Hemingway made the book descriptive. The book was descriptive, but it didn't have a ton of useless information. It made me want to keep reading and knowing that I wouldn't run into a boring description of some unimportant thing, allowed me to do that. Also, the fact that the book was 127 pages also worked well for Hemingway. It was a quick and interesting read,

The only thing that didn't work for Hemingway was the part where the old man is being dragged out to sea. I felt that this was the only part in the book that was drawn out to long.

Rating: 9/10

[|About the Author]: Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21st, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. He was a writer and journalist and he wrote many novels. He wrote seven novels and had them all published. He graduated high school, and joined the Italian Military as an ambulance driver. After he was discharged, he began writing. In 1924 he wrote //The Sun Also Rises// which was his first novel. It was published in 1926. He also write and had published //Men Without Women// in 1927. He traveled to many places such as France and Spain. He even settled in the United States for awhile. Many of his novels talked about his life experiences. //A Farewell to Arms// which was published in 1929, was about his experiences in the Italian military and about the war. In his novels //Death in the Afternoon,// and //Green Hills of Africa// he wrote about his experiences around the globe in places such as Spain and Africa. He wrote a novel about the Spanish Civil War called //For Whom the Bell Tolls//. It was published in 1939. //The Old Man and the Sea// was published in 1952 and, soon after in 1953, won Hemingway the Pulitzer prize. The //Old Man and the Sea// also won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954. Hemingway committed suicide in 1961 at his home in Ketchum, Idaho (Hemingway About the Author).

Literary Information:  Genre: Novel Writing Style: In this novel, the writing style is very descriptive. POV: 3rd person

 Why did this book make the "[|Outstanding Books for the College Bound]" list? The reason that this book made the list is simple. In this 127 page novel, the main character is very important, and very relateable. "He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish" (Hemingway 1). In the first page, an old man, who is on an unlucky streak, is introduced as the main character. His name is Santiago. This is relateable because everyone has bad streak, and this book is about keeping up the fight, and continuing to believe. The main character is dragged out to sea by a monstrous fish. "I'm being towed by a fish and I am the towing bitt" (Hemingway 45). The fish is large because it is pulling the boat. Most people would just cut the line, and get on with the other fish. This shows the old man's determination, which is something that all people can learn from. This book teaches many life lessons, and was put on the list because of that. Also, this book won the Pulitzer prize, which adds to its credibility as an Outstanding Book.  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #808000; display: block; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace; text-align: center;">Why would you recommend the book to someone else? I would recommend this book to someone else for a few reasons. First of all, it is a quick read. Most people are discouraged by a book that is over 200 pages. The Old Man and the Sea is not. It is just a mere 127 pages. The book is also very suspenseful. It makes you want to keep reading, and to find out how it ends. You are rooting for the old man the whole time. At times you were happy to see the old man succeed, and all the while you get this dark feeling about what will happen to him. It is a very well written novel that makes you want to keep reading. That is why I would recommend it.

Works Cited: Photos Courtesy of: auxarcspublications.files.wordpress.com Hemingway, Ernest. //The Old Man and the Sea.// New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. "Ernest Hemingway - Biography." Nobel Prize Org. 21 Jan, 2010. <[]>

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">