The Old Man and the Sea
The Novella is based on a real story of an aging Cuban fisherman, it writes down the whole course of three days and nights’ fishing of the old man, Santiago. The way of writing is more like filming, which makes the novella vivid and realistic. One of Hemingway’s most famous works, it created a surprising and
unprecedented record on the regular American edition running: more than 5,300,000 copies sold out within forty-eight hours. The novella won the 1953Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The next year, it took the Novel Prize for Hemingway, as it was cited for particular recognition by the Novel Academy, reaffirming Hemingway’s worldwide literary prominence and significance. It is the last major work of fiction to be produced by him and published in his lifetime.
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of an epic struggle between a seasoned fisherman and the greatest catch of his life. Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman, was very strong and capable in his prime. However, he is not as strong and smart as before as he grow older. After his wife died, he lives in a shack near the sea with sadness and loneliness. He has set out to sea and returned without taking a single fish for eighty-four days. Though in bad luck, Santiago’s hope and confidence has never gone, and he believes that his misfortune will soon come to an end. So he resolves to sail out farther than any fishermen had before to where the big fish promises to be the next day. After three-day struggling, he finally gets back exhaustedly with his counterworker, a big marlin. Once he reaches his shack, he collapses on his bed and sleeps very deeply.
“He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty four days now without taking a fish.” Just as its beautiful and elegant beginning, this wonderful, fascinating short story is told in the language of great simplicity and power. Hemingway fails to put a foot wrong. Although it is very short and is barely a few days or hours worth of reading, this delightful tale will remain in your memory for years to come. Here Hemingway presents classic as well as his usual theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph loss.
The way I see it, endurance is a key to Santiago’s triumph. The old man repeatedly reminds himself that physical pain does not matter to a man and he urges himself to keep his head clear and to know how to suffer and endure like a man. Meanwhile, hope is shown to be a necessary component of his endurance. It seems that endurance can be found wherever pain and hope meet. As Santiago sails on, while the sharks continues to attack his catch, he still goes to great lengths to fight off the sharks, for realizing that it is silly to lose hope. He overcomes the coming sharks’ attack by bearing it. In all likelihood, he returns home with his mind full of hope. As a quality that the old man knows and values, endurance deserves us to respect and value it. Here, I want to show you a short story.
Long ago, there was a clam raiser who wanted to make the biggest pearl in the world. He went to the seaside to select sand grains, and he asked the sand grains whether they wanted to turn into pearl, but in vain. Clam raiser despaired. Finally one agreed.
Other sand grains all laughed at him. Because he would live in the clam, stay away from relatives and friends, could not see sunshine, rain and dew, bright moon, pleasant breeze, and could only associated with the dark, damp, cold and lonely. It would not be worthwhile.
Several years passed, and that sand grain had grown into a priceless pearl. The sand grains that laughed at him were still a pile of sand while some had become soil.
If we say there is something can touch a stone and turn it into gold, and that is hardship and pain. Endure patiently and insist, and when you walk through the long runnel full of misery, you may find that the ordinary you, just as the sand grain, have already grown into a pearl.
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The Old Man and the Sea
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