Blog 1

In the novel Old Man and the Sea a large portion of it is you get what you put in. The old man puts so much effort into fishing and even though he is not catching anything he goes way out past other fisherman thinking he will be rewarded for going above and beyond the other fisherman. By doing so he catches something greater than the other fisherman, the Marlin(Hemingway 4). The author is showing a value through the character which is if you perservere and go beyond others you will get a reward beyond what others are recieving.

The Old Man and the Sea is a book about how Santiago has faced defeat. From the very beginning of the book he has faced defeat. He has gone 84 days without catching a fish (Hemingway 1). Santiago however does not let this stop him. The whole book he is being defeated, but does not let it keep him down and does not let defeat stop him at everything. This makes me think that the author has too faced defeat in his lifetime, and as cliche as this sounds it is a story about never giving up. I believe that the author has faced defeat in his lifetime probably over and over, but he too never gave up and he wants his readers to see that if you do not give up then you will perservere. It is a way to show his values through the character of Santiago.

Hemingway writes in perspective of Santiago. As a reader you learn about everything through the hopes and thoughts of the old man himself. When an author writes like this it makes me feel as if I am part of the story because I am learning it through an actual character in first person. The only downside to having a first person narrator is to me it is harder to invision the personal qualities of the character because they rarely spend time describing themselves because well face it that would be a boring book.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.