The Old Man and the Sea
Ratings996
Average rating3.7
This book touches on an immense amount of themes in a short book.
Aging, misplaced desire, unfulfilled dreams and purpose
A legendary but aging fisherman has been unable to make a catch for the past 84 days. This led the other fishermen to believe that this particular fisherman is cursed and soon to be a goner. He wants to prove them wrong. So off he goes to the sea, trying to catch the biggest fish he could get. But this journey was not at all what he expected.
That's the synopsis. At first, I wasn't really intrigued by the premise. Even immediately after finishing this novella, I still couldn't figure out why it's so significant for many people. But after thinking more about what I just read (actually, I listened to it through audiobook) and reading about its background and response on Wikipedia, I began to realize that this story can elicit a lot of implied meanings and metaphors, and that is why this story brought Hemingway to his Nobel prize.
The writing was good, the book was ok. I can appreciate Santiago's persistence and the stoic attitude he took towards his plight and persistence to make it back home with his prized catch. Still, the book was a bit hard to get motivated to read- not much happens the whole time. Not a page turner but not a bad book.
This was so good. I can't believe I've never read it. 105th book on Mustich's list for me.
Nu mai stiu in ce clasa am primit cadou o carte de zicatori, stiti voi, cu animale si toate cele, iar cartea asta fix asa s-a simtit... doar ca are 100 de pg. nu 5-10. Poate ca nu a fost momentul potrivit sa o citesc si undeva in viitor o sa imi dau seama cat de genial a fost Hemingway, dar momentan, nu am fost impresionat.
This is my second approach to the work of Ernest Hemingway and I thoroughly hated the experience. I dimly remember my first attempt when I had just seen “Hemingway”, 1988's mini series about the author. I think at the time I read “A Farewell to Arms” and put it aside about half way through.Now, more than 30 years later, I thought it was time to revisit Hemingway and maybe I would like his work better this time. Cautiously, though, I opted for “The Old Man and the Sea”, fearing I might still be bored. Which I was. Thoroughly. The old fisherman going out to fish, ill-prepared, being pulled out onto the deep sea in a small boat, a skiff, by a fish that's about as large as said skiff, battling it out, may be impressive to an author who loved bull-fighting, women and drinking hard but it's nothing I care about anymore.For me, this is it: A Farewell to... Hemingway Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram
This is not a poorly written book, but one that is just simply “not for me”. It is just written so plainly, without divulging into the depth of the character that it makes for a dry reading. Everything is so surface level that it saps away from any emotional investment from the character aside from his relentlessness in catching a fish.
This is my second and probably last attempt at reading Hemingway; his style does not fit my personal taste. I understand that this is all a part of the ice berg theory, where so much content is left vague and left for the reader to figure out, but it does not make for an enjoyable read.
Rating this classic feels odd.
Listened to the audiobook. The imagery in this is gorgeous. As the author describes the sea, you truly feel like you are at sea.
Would love to read this book someday to truly appreciate it.
What I imagined the whole time I listened to this one :
This is my first read of “The Old Man and the Sea.” I completely missed this book in my high school years, and I picked it up shortly after my 50th birthday after years of being told that I should read it.
A reader's age often determines what the reader gets out of Hemingway. I read “Farewell to Arms” in my forties and didn't think much of it. In that book, the main character's interaction with his girlfriend was off-putting to me as I could never imagine treating my own wife in the infantilizing way the character had treated his girlfriend.
On the other hand, at my age, I approached “The Old Man and The Sea” from the sympathetic perspective of Santiago, the Old Man. As everyone must know, this is a “fish story.” Santiago has been unlucky; he has not caught a fish for over 89 days. If it was not for the charity of the boy he befriended, he would have starved. Other fishermen are mocking or pitying him.
But the Old Man has skills sharpened by decades on the sea. He decided to go far out and he hooks a huge marlin. He fights the fish for day, constantly improvising solutions to his problems, and he wins and can almost taste the sweet life, until the sharks take everything from him. But he doesn't whine, he doesn't grumble; after recovering, he goes out the next day to do his job.
If you are late middle-aged, you can see your life in this story. You do your job. You don't complain. You get some experience. People are waiting for you to pack it in. But you keep doing your job.
And maybe you pass along your hard-won knowledge to a protege, like the Boy.
Hemingway's writing style is simple but hypnotizing as he describes the ocean and the intricacies of fishing. Hemingway's narrative approach often remains at the surface as he describes what the character say or does, but does not provide much of the interior life, much less the hopes or dreams, of the character. For example, we are told that the Old Man loves green turtles, but this is something we are told rather than something we see. Yet, I liked Hemingway's prose style for all that. This passage was nice, notwithstanding its stream of consciousness style, because it felt like the kind of associations that the Old Man would make:
“The old man knew he was going far out and he left the smell of the land behind and rowed out into the clean ealy morning smell of the ocean. He saw the phosphorescence of the Gulf weed in the water as he rowed over the part of ocean that the fishermen called the freat well because there was a sudden deep of seven hundred fathoms where all sorts of fish congregated because of the swirl the current made against the steep walls of the floor of the ocean. Here there were concentrations of shrimp and bait fish and sometimes schools of squid in the deepest holes and these rose close to the surface at night where all the wandering fish fed on them.”
There is a lot of information in that passage, and it isn't clear that it is the Old Man who knows this information, but it certainly sets the scene of the world that the Old Man lives in.
Hemingway's approach to setting and detail is probably the strength of the story. One reads along and thinks about using a man-of-war bird to find schools of fish, or the lights of Havana to navigate by, or splashing saltwater on the forward plank to get salt to make the dolphin sushi tastier. The details give the book a similitude of authenticity, which probably makes this book one of the great fishing stories.
5 stars
Absolutely incredible, start to finish. About man???s indomitable will to persevere and succeed, beautifully captured by the quote “a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” The prose is poetic and enrapturing throughout, made me put the book down several times, just to admire some passages and go back and reread many others.
I recommend it to you if you do not really know where to begin with Hemingway and would like to start strong. It???s very short, an evening???s reading too.
Can't say I enjoyed it as much as the hype of “classic” would suggest. The story and themes interesting however the writing wasn't. Maybe that's just my problem to deal with.
No, it's not about him just wanted to catch that giant fish and torture the poor creature. It's about a man, losing all his skill and strength, facing an eventual death, being alone with his thoughts and fear all by himself in middle of a sea facing perhaps his greatest achievement clocked as an adversary. Just read it for his stream of consciousness in middle of the ocean.
This is another book read during 2018 that I read originally almost 30 years ago. The first time I read “The Old Man and the Sea,” I remember loving the book and finding I could imagine everything the book described. Yet, Hemingway's spare, sparse language leaves much for the reader to fill in with imagination. The kernel for the novel marinated in Hemingway's head for years after reading a short article about a similar story.
In some ways this story is about the loneliness of old age and the need to rely on others when you can no longer perform as you did when young. In other ways it is about perseverance, self-reliance, and survival in the face of adversity. And, in other ways, the old man's voyage and attempt to bring home a massive marlin was an act of hubris, likely speeding his death.
Some book club members hated the book because they hate the author (“Hemingway had a personality few people liked” and “I've never read one his books because I hated his personality”). Yet, there is an argument to be made to separate the man from his artistic work. Similarly, while Ernest Hemingway was well-known for sport fishing, there is a big difference between his hunting and Santiago's fishing as a profession. Much like the author, Santiago focuses much on his craft no matter the output. That, I think, can also be said of the novel. Perhaps, it wouldn't win the same prizes today, but it was revolutionary in its day.
Here are the discussion questions another member pulled together for our 11/17/18 discussion:
1. “The Old Man and The Sea” seems like a deceptively simple story of a man's struggle with the creatures of the sea, but there are some symbols and messages that we can gather from the story. Hemingway claimed that there was no symbolism in the story, just “what happens,” but we, as readers, don't believe that and see underlying messages. What is your initial response to reading the book? Did you like it or dislike it, and why? How would you describe the book to others?
2. How would describe Santiago's relationship to the sea and his love for deep sea fishing? Does he seem fearless in his desire to fish big fish in his little boat on the dangerous sea? What are the symbols of manhood and human endurance that you gather from the story? How would you explain Santiago's idea of bravery, strength, endurance, self-control, masculinity, heroism, and courage? Is there any sexism implied by this story?
3. Out of the many religious messages/religious symbols that you have read in the book, which stand out the most to you: Santiago's mercy, faith, pride, brotherhood, or sin? Santiago seems conflicted about the fish feeling both mercy and the desire to kill the creature. How would you explain his compassion and his desire to use the fish to feed a flock of people? Do you believe that such creatures should be killed for food or conserved, and protected from endangerment? Is Santiago really a “Christ like” figure?
4. The dreams of the lions playing on the coast of Africa that Santiago has when he remembers his turtling days seem important to him. One hundred years ago, there used to be 200,000 lions in Africa, and now there are only 20 to 40 thousand left in the wild. The Hemingway family has worked in Wildlife Conservation to prevent these animals from being hunted into extinction. The marlin is nearing the endangered list of animals that should be conserved. After reading “The Old Man and The Sea” would agree that these animals should be conserved? Marlin is still eaten in Japan and Cuba. Should it be taken off the menu? Do you think that Hemingway might have suggested that the endangered creatures of the world would one day have to be conserved?
5. The boy, or Manolin, seems to have a saintly devotion to the Old Man, Santiago, because Santiago taught him how to fish. The poor senior citizen doesn't have much in the world, but he seems to be portrayed as a “working class Saint” in this book. Do you see Santiago as a mythic character or saint? Can you find any other story of myth to compare to this story (perhaps the impossible river voyage of “Huckleberry Finn,” the bloodlust of “Moby Dick,” or the trials on the sea of “Odysseus?” How would explain the symbolism behind the marlins, the shark, and the other creatures of the sea? Is there heroic myth behind it, or brutal realism of man against the cruelty of the food chain, if you consider the food chain cruel?
6. Joe DiMaggio, who has won 9 World Series Championships in baseball by the year he retired in 1951, is a strong symbol for Santiago. How does Santiago use DiMaggio's
success as a baseball player as a message for deep sea fishing? Is Santiago idolizing and mythologizing DiMaggio? How does he compare DiMaggio's “bone spur” to his own hand cramping? Is this a human flaw of a great hero?
7. Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize of Literature for “The Old Man and the Sea,” and it has sold millions of copies since then. One critic online says the book is not seen as one of Hemingway's greatest books today, because of “embarrassing narcissism, psychologically over simplification, and excessive sentimentality” (gradesaver.com). Would you agree or disagree and describe the novel this way? Explain the main responses that the book left you with.
8. Is there any symbolism in the sharks that take the fish away from the old man? Do you believe in the superstition that Santiago is “unlucky?” Should we as a society intervene and care of senior citizens, and help them through their private struggles?
Donno, it would've made a good fable but this is too long and too detailed for that purpose. I found his style overly didactic, i never read a fictional book so lacking in poetry, and the insertion of Spanish terms were just awkward.
When i don't like classics, i wonder if there's some kind of aspect i didn't get. I know i did like how it shows the fisherman's appreciation for the fish and the sea even though he's there to hunt, which is very different from today's industrialisation and alienation of fishing (or any quest for food). Nature with all its hardships is not the enemy, and the respect shows. But it's mainly too on the nose for my taste.
Let's face it, if you think you've read a story about a fish you're very much mistaken. Loved every word.
This novel is absolutely beautiful! Hemingway is like Pink Floyd. Starts off gradually and then blows off your mind with sheer elegance! A masterpiece indeed! Now I understand why Ernest is considered one of the greatest authors of all time.
Wow, that was a succinct one sitting read... more a novella than a novel.
I thought the descriptive writing, the way that Santiago's thoughts were described and the persistence he showed were excellent. His relationship with the boy, although only fairly brief in the book was brilliantly expressed. It says so much, but is so simple - no complex elaboration, no twisting prose, nothing unnecessary - and so easily read.
No point outlining the plot, as it seems everyone except me has already read this.
I haven't read much Hemingway, and now I am concerned I may have read his best work too early...
Five stars for the pace of the story, the excellent descriptive writing and the depth of character in such a short read.
Да-да, великая книга, всякие призы, но я очень устал от ловли этого марлина. И это комплимент, потому что Хэмингуэй именно что хотел передать этот опыт читателю. Он постарался на славу: всю рыбалку я умолял старика вытащить эту проклятую рыбу из моря и грести уже обратно. Сражение с рыбой-меч было очень утомительным и я рад, что все позади.