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.