Motifs-Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea has a lot of motifs in it. One motif is the lions that are on the beach. Santiago dreams about the lions on the beach while he was on his trip trying to catch his big fish. I think that the lions symbolize the peace between Santiago and the earth. Normally you would think that lions are harmful creatures considering what they do to animals. I think that he dreamed about the lions because it brought him in peace with nature. If you see lions on a peaceful beach I think it brings you into the liking of opposing forces. Just like the marlin that he is trying to catch. He really wants to capture it but it will not come up. Also that is where he gets his patience from. If I was out there with nobody to talk to for three whole days, I would not have any patience at all. The dreaming about the lions symbolize the peace between Santiago and the opposing forces. When Hemingway says, "After that he began to dream of the long yellow beach and he saw the first of the lions come down onto it in the early dark and then the other lions came and he rested his chin on the wood of the bows where the ship lay anchored with the evening off-shore breeze and he waited to see if there would be more lions and he was happy. The moon had been up for a long time but he slept on and the fish pulled steadily and the boat moved into the tunnel of the clouds" (Hemingway 81 and 82). These dreams about the lions really made Santiago peaceful with the wildlife that was around him. Just like Hemingway said the lions made Santiago happy even though he was the unluckiest man in the world with not catching any fish. As you can see the dreaming of lions in this book made Santiago very happy and very patient with the marlin.

Bibliography

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

Irony-Old Man and the Sea

In the book The Old Man and the Sea Santiago has not caught a fish in eighty four days. He is looking forward to catching the biggest fish of his life. Everyday he compares himself to the great DiMaggio saying would the great DiMaggio do this or that? Yet everyday he goes out on that sea to see if he would be able to catch one fish. On the eighty fifth day he set out to sea, he had his hopes high and ready to catch a big one. Santiago caught the huge fish and stayed out at sea for three days, each day waiting to reel it in. Finally he reels it in and it is too big to haul onto his little boat. The sharks come and eat his great big fish all the way to the carcass. He finally gets home and people mistake it for a shark. The irony of all this is that Santiago set out to sea to see if he could get this big fish. After finding this huge fish, he only comes home with the carcass and nothing to show. The irony is that Santiago had not caught a fish in eighty four days and he finally caught one and it got eaten. Now Santiago has nothing to show anybody, which it was probably the biggest fish he had ever seen or got. When Hemingway says, "What a fish it was, the proprietor said. There has never been such a fish. Those were two fine fish you took yesterday too. Damn my fish, the boy said and he started to cry again. Do you want a drink of any kind? the proprietor asked. No, the boy said. Tell them not to bother Santiago. I'll be back. Tell him how sorry I am. Thanks, the boy said" (Hemingway123). This shows how people feeled sorry for the old man because they new that he had not caught a fish in a long time and it was unlucky that he was unable to bring the big fish home safely.

Bibliography

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

Imagery-Old Man and the Sea

The author uses a lot of imagery throughout the story The Old Man and the Sea. Hemingway uses imagery a lot when Santiago and the fish are together. He really brings the reader into detail of when the old man saw the fish. This is what he wrote, "The line rose slowly and steadily and then the surface of the ocean bulged ahead of the boat and the fish came out. He came out unending and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple and in the sun the stripes on his sides showed wide and a light lavender. His sword was as long as a baseball bat and tapered like a rapier and he rose his full length from the water and then re-entered it, smoothly, like a diver and the old man saw the great scythe-blade of his tail go under and the line commenced to race out" (Hemingway 62 and 63). In this part of the story, Hemingway adds so much detail to the fish that makes the story so much more interesting. He says of how long the fish is and how big, also what color and he goes into so much detail in his writing. I think books that have a lot of imagery like this one really bring readers "into" the book. It makes them feel like they are actually seeing the fish jump up in the air and seeing the fish's purple head and back and its lavender stripes on its sides. Hemingway does a really good job with the imagery in this book which makes it a lot more interesting than it is set out to be. Overall, in this book imagery is used all over the place. When the old man was in his shack Hemingway showed us of what it looked like. Just like the fish, he showed us all of what it looked like. Imagery, I think, makes a story a whole lot better.

Bibliography

Ernest, Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.

Tone-Old Man and the Sea

The tone in The Old Man and the Sea is serious and suspenseful. Throughout the story Santiago is very serious about what he does no matter what. When he is out on the sea, he is all business. He does not bring any food to eat because he never gets hungry and he thinks it will be to distracting. When he is out at sea with the fish, the marlin is the only friend that he has got out there. Over time he starts to talk to his hands about how they should not cramp as much and how much stronger they should be. In this instance, the old man shows a great deal of loneliness because while your out on a boat for so long it can get boring so he has to talk to somebody. Another tone in this story is suspensful, you just do not know what will happen next. The book has a bunch of suspense considering Santiago is out at sea with this fish and you do not know whats going to happen next. Will the fish decide to give up and just die or will it get away from Santiago while he was sleeping? Santiago and the marlin are both key parts to the suspense that was happening in this book. While out at sea there was nobody in sight, they were so far out that it seemed like they were in the middle of the ocean so it was very quiet. Like Hemingway says, "Then he looked behind him and saw that no land was visible. That makes no difference, he thought. I can always come in on the glow from Havana" (Hemingway 46). He is showing us that he has no fear even if they are out in the ocean and he has no idea how to get home. Now it is just him and the fish with nobody to talk to and you know that it will become very quiet with just the fish and Santiago. That is what makes this book so suspensful is it is just them two out in the ocean with nobody to talk to and that is what makes up the tone of this story.

Bibliography

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.