The old man and the sea was written by Ernest Hemingway and was published in 1982, though the original American print had been published in 1952. The title is exactly what the book is about. It is a short story. The story is written in one continuous whole and is written from the view of the writer, it is very realistic. The description of the settings is the dominating factor in this book. The author spends a lot of time, for describing the sea, and what takes place. There are a lot of dialogues in the book. Example: Who gave this to you Martin. The owner I must thank him I thanked him already, the boy said. You don’t need to thank him.
I’ll give him the belly meat of a big fish, the old man said. Has he done this for us more than once? I think so I must give him something more than the belly meat then. He is very thoughtful for us. The next fragment I find really representative for the whole book, because it is a fragment in which the old man is talking to himself, like he does all the time, and he is saying how great the fish is, which he does quite a few times too. He is a great fish and I must convince him, he thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until omething broke.
But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as who kill them; although they are more noble and more able. The book is about an old man, who goes out fishing (his profession, not as a sport) one day. He decides to go really far out, before the sun comes up. Then one of his lines goes under, and he hooks the fish. But the fish is so strong, that he can’t pull him up. The old man thinks that if he lets the fish pull his boat, a sailing-boat the size of a rowing-boat, the fish will go out of strength and die soon. But it’s a very very strong fish and he keeps pulling for a day and a half.
Then the fish runs out of strength and starts circling around the boat, a sign of tiredness. But when the fish is close to the boat the old man sees how big he really is, he thinks he is about 1500 pounds. But the old man stays cool and kills the fish with his harpoon. He ties the fish to his boat and puts out his sail, for his journey back home. As he travells back, many sharks eat from the dead fish, but the old man kills them as soon as possible. The old man kills the first sharks with his harpoon, but after he killed three sharks, the fourth shark takes his harpoon. Then he attaches his knife to an oar.
He kills a couple of sharks with that construction, but after that, it doesn’t last. The knife disappears in the sea. Then he only has one single oar to defend the big dead fish against the sharks. He managed to scare a few off by hitting them with the oar. But then it is too much for the old man. The sharks eat the whole fish, and when the old man came back in the harbor after two days at sea, he only has a carcas at his side. Almost the whole story takes place at the sea near Cuba. Just the beginning and the end the story takes place in a small poor fishermentown at the cost of Cuba.
The people are very simple, there is a small caf near the harbor, but that’s about it. The main character in the book is the old man. His name is really Santiago, but he is called The old man. He spends his days with fishing and daydreaming about what he did in his life. He fished for all his life, and has seen many things. When he dreams, he always dreams about the lions he has seen on the African beaches. He is still strong for his age, and is very resistend. He has respect for the sea and the fish which live in it. Though he is simple, he is a wise man. He is a nice man, and I like him, because he respects the sea and the fish in it.