Old Man and the Sea

                    This part of the story has to do with Santiago against nature and the sea. In this part of the story, he goes out and fights
                    nature in the form of terrible forces and dangerous creatures, among them, a marlin, sharks and hunger. He starts the
                    story in a small skiff and moves out in a journey to capture a fish after a long losing streak of eighty-four days.
                    Unfortunately his friend must desert him due to this problem and a greater force, his parents. Santiago must go out into the
                    danger alone. For three harsh days and nights he fights a fish of enormous power. This is the second form of nature he
                    must conquer. Earlier in the story, the first part of nature is himself, for which he must fight off his hunger. This is a harsh
                    part of the story. He manages though to get a few bites in the form of flying fish and dolphin of which he would like to
                    have salt on. This part of the story tells of a cold and harsh sea, that is, one that has value and mystery as well as death
                    and danger. It has commercial value as well as the population of life in it. It is dark and treacherous though, and every day
                    there is a challenge. A similar story tells about a tidal pool with life called `Cannery Road'.

                    This part of the story has to deal with figures of Christ. It mainly deals with Santiago as being a figure of Christ and other
                    characters as props, that is, characters which carry out the form of biblical themes. On the day before he leaves when he
                    wakes up, Manolin, his helper, comes to his aid with food and drink. Also a point that might be good is that he has had
                    bad luck with his goal for a great period of time and is sure it will work this time. Later, though, when Santiago needs him
                    for the quest he sets out to do, Manolin deserts him, although he may not have wanted to at this time. In the novel
                    Santiago comes upon a force bigger than his skiff, the marlin which misleads him out far past his intended reach. This is
                    where he starts to lose his strength against something which seems a greater force. Santiago has a struggle of three days,
                    which is significent because of the three days in Easter, and continues to fight on though his goal may not aquire anything.
                    This is another idea through which Christ did, a struggle to get a goal done even though it may mean certain destruction to
                    himself. This might accomplish nothing but the satisfaction of doing this and also has great risks. Finally he comes upon a
                    painful experience with his hand which is in great pain and won't move. This is useful in the place where Christ loses his
                    physical self and has less to deal with. On the third day, he recovers himself and returns to his home even though his only
                    remaining treasure was a broken skiff, experience, and a torn up marlin. And in the final conclusion, you can see him
                    dragging the mast of his skiff, a cross-like object, in his hand. This story has a certain sequence of events, first it has a
                    hunter vs. his prey. This hunter does respect th e prey. Throughout the book it has this series of events: encounter, battle,
                    defeat, and respect for the prey. This is Hemmingway's `Code of Honor'.

                    This part of the novel has to do with relationships between two characters. The first to discuss are Santiago and Manolin,
                    Manolin being the small follower of the old man named Santiago. Manolin is a small person that follows Santiago and
                    listens to his wisdom. They treat each other unfriendly though for Manolin calls the Santiago 'old man' and he calls
                    Manolin `boy' which seems to be absurd. In that situation I would consider both of them to go see a doctor. The next
                    relationship to talk about would be that between Santiago and the village, which seems to be much better. He is given
                    credit for food and he also is waiting to show his greatness to the villageby catching a great fish as soon as he can. His
                    thought on that, though, is that any fisherman can ctach it during the easy season but only a few can go out and catch one
                    during the hard season. He has no consideration for the luck, and would rather try to fish through being exact rather than
                    being lucky. The other relationship in this story has to do with Manolin and his parents. Manolin seems to be very
                    rebellious against his parents, although he does submit to their demands. Santiago's greatest link to the village is the boy.
                    Santiago may be poor in the story, yet is proud.

                    This story when compared to being imaginative is good, but in real life is somewhat of a `Fish Story'. The part where an
                    old man being able to load in a ton of fish is very unimaginable. The scenario, though, is very interesting for the part of the
                    old man. He goes out all alone into the depths of the ocean without an idea for what is in store. This story has good
                    points, for when it comes to the better parts of the story, it emphasizes by placing in mind step by step of the way he does
                    certain actions. The part of the story which, to the best of my belief, had no part or reference in the story was the dream
                    of lions on a beach of Africa, which this fisherman probably had never even visited much less seeing lions on a beach.
                    This was like most stories in the main plot. First characters are introduced, then a threat reveals itself, showing true
                    natures of all the characters, and finally the threat is fought off or it remains, leaving the reader in suspense. This had a
                    good plot but needed more to go on in my opinion.

                    Hemingway's strong parts of this story are emphasized on vocabulary. He probably learned these fisherman terms for he
                    once was a fisherman in Cuba. There is one problem to this, though. Throughout the story he uses these terms over and
                    over although the ordinary person, like me, would forget them after the first use of them and unfortunately he doesn't ever
                    re-coin the terms again throughout the book. Some vocabulary he uses stands for sharks or the sea itself. Others he uses
                    for bait. The main idea though in this part is to let the reader get the feel for the life, setting and character of the fisherman
                    himself. This is a great move to place yet is also very hard to co-exist with the average reader. This has some good
                    points, though, and among them is review. The reader must review the story and skim it in order to rethink the concept of
                    the word. Then he or she must return to the current position in the book and place it into the text. The concept of
                    vocabulary is a standard not to live by, and should not be placed into most books unless the terms are to be used many
                    times throughout the book.

                    Hemingway has merged three themes already mentioned above successfully unto this book. Among them are figures of
                    Christ, Nature (the sea), and a code of honor. This was challenging. The obvious ones were nature, it's cruelty and
                    compassion. Nature caused his hand pain yet healed it, caused hunger yet satisfied it, and gave the fish yet reclaimed it.
                    This is the way nature works. Nature is actually more luck than a set of rules, for it can shift back and forth with the
                    greatest of ease. The second theme, religion, could not be easily pulled from the text. The best clue to where it happens is
                    the falls of Santiago as well as his carrying the mast. This symbolizes the end of Christ, although Santiago on the other
                    hand is just retiring for the night. But it could be interpreted as the end of the book for which it is. The code of honor is
                    not actually probably the hardest to interpret. It can only be pulled from context, which is the hardest to do. It has mainly
                    to do with the rise, battle and fall of the prey and respect following. The problem in this is that Santiago was at fault for
                    expanding out so far, and it was dangerous. This is similiar to the book A Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I
                    recently read.


                                                                                                