Hemingway reading reaction pp. 22b-26

The old man has spent the whole afternoon and the whole night holding tight to the line and being pulled away to nowhere. Tension continues.

Now it's getting light and the sun is rising. Alone, cold, eating nothing, he is feeling a failure of strength. He says four times in the midst of stalemate, "I wish I had the boy." He has to talk and think to himself, except when a little tired bird comes to rest on his line for a while.

The old man personifies fish or just treats them as persons. He thinks that the fish would have to choose "to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares, traps and treacheries." He wished he weren't a fisherman, but that was what he was born for. He is benign in nature but he has to fish and kill fish. This seems to be life, not only true for the old man, but also for everyone else, including you and me, without any choice.

Hemingway reading reaction pp. 13b-22a

Let's first look at a brief summary outline of today's passages.

1. Fishing preparation with tools and baits set up (pp. 13)

2. Sun rising, old man waiting patiently for fish to bite the bait (pp. 13-14)

3. Thinking and talking to himself from time to time (pp. 14)

4. A man-of-war bird circling again and again above the sea, hinting where there may be fish (pp. 14)

5. Old man following the bird to ship his oars with lots of psychological activity (pp. 14-17)

6. Sun setting, fish hooked, dragging the old man in the skiff to the further ocean (pp. 17-22)

Since it's a novel, it's not easy to summarize the progress of the story in a few phrases without losing the main phases; however, an otherwise detailed summary would be unnecessary. This is my opinion, as I am just beginning to learn to write summary outline. Now my response follows.

The boy is not with the old man fishing. It's the old man alone.

The old man, going 84 days without luck, is still admirably optimistic, thinking to himself, "Every day is a new day." (pp. 14) He persists keeping the fishing lines straighter than anyone does and being precise in the depth the hook should go. He won't let go of any luck that comes toward him. He's well prepared. Yes, fishing, that's what he was born for. That's also what he is dying for, which I can read out from the lines.

As the old man ships his oars into the far out, the story goes far out, too. In Hemingway's description, the ocean is extremely charming with mystical phosphorescence, attracting the old man's body, mind and soul. It's really breath-taking to read the pages where the old man finds the fish come and go, then he gets a big fish hooked (at least supposedly), cannot see what the fish looks like, but keeps being dragged away in his skiff by the fish. In the ocean of life, we, like the old fisherman, are also fishing something. Working hard toward it, we may believe we finally have something hooked, yet gradually we get lost with the things we are pursuing. More on this next week.

REFERENCE:

Hemingway, E. (1951). The Old Man and the Sea (pp. 13-22). Retrieved February 18, 2014, from https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_Xu94L2z5lDNDgzZjIyNDctYWQ0OS00Zjk5LWFhOTMtMDkxYTUzMTZhNWY0/edit?hl=en_US

Hemingway reading reaction pp. 6b-13a

The old man used to be young and strong. The boy's today is the old man's yesterday, I can imagine.

The old man used to travel to Africa on a square rigged ship and was able to see lions on the beaches in the evening. Now, he is in sound sleep in his shanty shack, and all the past is in his dream, the dream that used to be his dream when he was the boy's age. The storms, fights, pleasure and glory of the old days are all gone out of his dream. He only dreams of peaceful islands, tranquil harbors and golden beaches until the land breeze wakes him up in the early morning.

He keeps no alarm clock. Age is his alarm clock. And he is the boy's alarm clock.

When he wakes up, he goes up to wake the boy up. Now the moon is falling, and the old man and the young boy, carrying their harpoon and gaff, mast and sail, are already on their way to the far out ocean. The dark night is fading, and it's a new day dawning.

Btw, we have so far come to know their names, the old man Santiago, the boy Manolin.

Hemingway reading reaction pp. 1-6a

It's the beginning of the novel, and it's also the beginning of the novel reading.

It starts with a plain narration of an old unlucky fisherman and his young friend, the boy, going fishing with him. Laying out the scene of the tropic desert of sea, it simply depicts a dull picture of permanent defeat. Yet, the old man's sea-colored, cheerful and undefeated eyes shine with hope and faith in sharp contrast to what his surroundings look like, even in the unfortunate circumstance of going eighty-four days without taking a fish.

Still, the boy loves him and would like to go far out with him. Their following interesting and lengthy conversations reveal more of themselves, their lives, their thoughts and their dreams. They've gone fishing together since the boy was five years of age. How old is the boy now? No idea, but we know he buys a beer for his old fisherman friend.

Let's take a break before opening the book next week. Oh, boy, next week, that's too long a waiting.