The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a story about an old man and his quest to kill a big fish and change his bad luck in fishing forever.

Plot Summary:

Santiago is an ancient fisherman living in Havana, Cuba. He is not terribly rich to put it nicely. (He is very poor.) Santiago is a grandfather figure and teacher to Manolin, a young man in the village that has fished with Santiago for quite some time. Manolin must stop fishing with the old man because he parents deem Santiago bad luck because he cannot catch even one fish. Santiago must change his luck or he will be in this never-ending cycle of bad luck and no fish. Santiago hooks a fish one day; it is a big fish. Once this fish is hooked, he is not dead. The fish barely even notices the hook; therefore, the fish keeps swimming. Being the stubborn man that he is, Santiago decides not to let go of the line and keep the boat going with the fish. Read The Old Man and the Sea to find out whether Santiago’s luck changes and how far the big fish will take him.

Author Praise/Critique:

Ernest Hemingway’s specialty in this book is symbolism and creating motifs that lead the reader through the novel. It is entertaining and somewhat difficult to find the symbolism in the book. This element keeps the reader constantly engaged. This short, 125 page, book gets a big idea across, never give up. While the symbolism and main messages are on point, there is a lot of dead space in the middle of the novel. I understand that the author may be trying to get the setting and the boredom of Santiago to come across, it was hard to read through this section of the novel. However, the plot and characters are well developed.

Rating and Reasoning:

I rate this classic three stars. This is a book that will impress your English teachers and that will challenge you to find the symbolism and motifs, but there was a lot of dead space, and the novel is already very short. The difficulty of reading this part of the novel gives this book three stars, however, it is a classic.

Audience: 7^thto 8^th graders

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Date Published: September 1, 1952

ISBN: 9780684801223

Format: Paperback

Genre: Historical/Realistic Fiction

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