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.