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The power of literary analysis
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The power of literary analysis
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Living authentically is essential in life. People should never pretend to be someone else and should not act differently to satisfy others. The actions and opinions of people should be based off of their own personal beliefs and should not be influenced by others. In the novella The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, the author attempts to represent real people and their lives through the use of the authentic protagonist, Santiago, and his life on the sea, with symbols that demonstrate Santiago’s positive, negative, and inspirational moments of his journey.
First, the author uses symbols to represent Santiago’s positive support or accomplishments. The author includes birds and flying fish multiple times in the story to represent friends
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Santiago dreaming about being in Africa and seeing lions on the beach represent inspiration, as this is one of Santiago’s happiest memories. He dreams about this vacation constantly at night as he considers it a wonderful memory and as something that inspires him. Santiago also gets inspiration from his idol, Yankees baseball player Joe DiMaggio, who played extremely well in his career even though he had a bone spur in his heel. Santiago relates to DiMaggio as he sees his own struggles as a poor and aging man similar to DiMaggio’s foot injury. Santiago states, “But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel” (Hemingway 68). Even with the injury, DiMaggio is a successful baseball player so Santiago believes he can also be a successful fisherman even though he is aging. Finally, there is Manolin, a young boy and Santiago’s close friend who represents youth and the future. Manolin also serves as inspiration to Santiago as he attempts to be successful and pass down his knowledge and experience to
This may be true in all cases, but it is clearly predominant in Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. It is evident that Hemingway modeled the main character, Santiago after his own person, and that the desires, the mentality, and the lifestyle of the old man are identical to Hemingway's.
Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952, the last of his fiction stories to be published before his death in 1961 (Lombardi). The novella is still celebrated to this day as a riveting tale of man versus nature under the most dire of circumstances. The story’s protagonist, Santiago, is a man with supreme determination and hope. His battle with the great marlin is an illustration of human strength, physically and mentally, at its finest. These qualities about him, along with the decisions he makes throughout the novel, give him similarities to Christ, while other elements of Hemingway’s prose can arguably serve as Christian symbolism as well.
In the end, Santiago realizes that his heart really lied at Andalusia, his one true home. Santiago’s journey really outlined the idea of following your dreams, and to always persevere and never give up. It is important that you follow your heart and succeed, but at the same time, never forget where you
The first two obstacles that Santiago faces are that his father tells him he can not do something that he wants to do and that he wants to pursue his personal legend, but he does not want to hurt those that he loves. For example, Santiago’s father said, “The people who come here have a lot of money to spend, so they can afford to travel. Amongst us the only ones who can travel are shepherds.” Everyone is told by their parents and friends that everything we want to do is impossible. Since Santiago did not have money to spend to travel his only choice was then to become a shepherd to fulfill his desire. T...
One influential mentor to Santiago was the old king who encouraged him to go on his journey and gave him knowledge. “When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it” (pg.62) this was the knowledge the old king gave him before his journey. Santiago is convinced by the king to pursue his personal legend, because the king gives him knowledge about the way he should view his dreams. To Santiago the old king’s wise word had a great impact on his decisions and influenced the actions he made throughout the rest of his journey.
Lastly, the man who made a big impact on Santiago was The Alchemist. The Alchemist is the person that he bumps into after he is finish talking to the tribal chief man. The Alchemist asks Santiago, “Who demands knowing who has read the Omens in Hawks flight”. He is starting to test Santiago’s courage, which he believes is his life’s essentials. At the start in this part of his journey, Santiago starts expressing his fears and doubts to The Alchemist. He starts telling the Alchemist (a spirit) that maybe his heart is a traitor/enemy because it fears the journey that is yet to come. It tells Santiago he has already found his treasure, which means he is referring to Fatima's love, and it wants him to go back to her. The alchemist says that he thinks that it is a natural reaction for the heart to start to have, now that Santiago is finally starting to follow his dream. Santiago starts to also tell him that his heart is kind of afraid of the suffering and losing what he has
Then, he travels to Tarifa to meet with someone who could interpret his dream and it is here that he meets the old man who teaches him about Personal Legend. It is at Tarifa that he wants to change his life for the better instead of being a shepherd for the rest of his life. Santiago determines to know more about his dream, and it is the fortune teller and the old man who are the pushing force in “helping” him to “achieve it”.
Santiago’s dream symbolizes his passion to be successful. Santiago had a dream in which he is in the fields with his flock as a child transports him to the pyramids of Egypt where he searches for the treasure. However, every time Santiago is about the find the location of the treasure, he wakes up. According to Freud, dreams perform important functions for the unconscious mind and serve as valuable clues for our needs. It can be proven that Santiago’s dream represents “Signs are an individual language you develop with the divine energy” (Swarbrick). Hence, Santiago wanted to find the treasure and become wealthy in the first place, that is why he dreamed of it and overcame every obstacle to ensure his
In the story, Santiago’s bravery is unsurpassed, but it is not until he hooks the “great fish” that we truly see his valor and perseverance. Through Santiago’s actions, Hemingway teaches the reader about bravery and perseverance in the face of adversity. He demonstrates that even when all is lost and seems hopeless, a willful heart and faith will overcome anything. Santiago had lost his “luckiness” and therefore the respect of his village. Through the description of his cabin, we also suspect that Santiago is a widower.
Reading through the novel The Old Man and the Sea one, as a reader, can perceive several themes in the book. Hemingway suggests certain subjects for discussion which built up the whole plot, therefore giving us options to choose the one we believe is the main one. In the past weeks we have been discussing, in a debate, which is that main theme. My group’s theme was “Man Defeated” and although it is hard to affirm that this theme was the prevailing one of the book, we firmly defend it. Various arguments were established. Some argued that the novel’s theme was Santiago’s struggle, the friendship with the fish and other characters; Santiago’s perseverance and that he really ended up as a triumphant man. But to argue that those were also the main themes of the book is also a difficult thing to do. Even though Santiago fought and kept on with his struggle to catch the fish, he was defeated because he lost it at the end.
The Old Man and the Sea is novella written by Ernest Hemingway in 1952. It tells the epic journey and struggles of the old fisherman, Santiago, and his younger fishing partner, Manolin. The story goes into detail the day to day life struggles that a fisherman off the coast of Africa endures. The majority of the story focuses on one particular trip out sea. In life, one will go through a number of stages in life. Infancy, Youth , Adulthood, and Old Age are all key stages. As one grows, they mature through these various stages. When one reaches old age, there is often a lot of doubt surrounding their lives. Serenity, and independence are often the two most questioned. These are some questions that Santiago has to ask himself as well.
In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, pits his strength against forces he cannot control. We learn from Santiago's struggles how to face insurmountable odds with bravery and courage. Though we find an indifferent and hostile universe as Santiago's stage, his unwillingness to give in to these forces demonstrate a reverence for life's struggles. Santiago's struggle is for dignity and meaning in the face of insurmountable odds. His warrior-like spirit fights off the sharks full-well knowing the fate of his marlin. Santiago loses his marlin in the end, but his struggle to keep it represent a victory because of the dignity and heroism with which he carries out his mission. However, as Santiago acknowledges, he is almost sorry he caught the marlin because he knows the animal and he have a great deal in common as fellow beings in nature. However, he only caught the marlin "through trickery" (Hemingway 99). Santi...
The old man and the sea is a novella about an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago, and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin fish. Throughout the novella, Santiago is portrayed in different perspectives. He is tough and refuses to give up at any time. He withholds the will to continue and the courage to overcome what is believed to be the impossible. His persistence and confidence, his absolute determination and his unique way of accepting the reality makes him a noble hero.
There is never a simple key to any writer worth much attention, but in the case of Hemingway there is something that looks so like a key… that it cannot escape any informed and thoughtful reader’s notice" (O’Conner 153). Ernest Hemingway was one such author. Very rarely did he summarize statements, therefore the only way to solve his puzzle was to take it apart and examine each components. One of the hidden elements that the reader must analyzie closely is the parallel between Santiago and Jesus Christ. In the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway creates connections between Santiago and Jesus Christ that adds religious coloration to the story.
Hemingway has a way of making his readers believe that the feats and strengths that his characters obtain in his novels are actually possible. Although this statement may be too critical, and maybe there is a man out there, somewhere on the coast of Cuba who at this very moment is setting out to the open sea to catch a marlin of his own. The struggle many readers have is believing the story of Santiago’s physical powers and his strength against temptation bring forward the question of whether or not The Old Man and the Sea is worthy to be called a classic. Hemingway’s Santiago brought Faulkner and millions of other readers on their knees, while to some, believed Hemingway had swung his third strike. As we look further into Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, we can analyze the criticism and complications of the character Santiago. He is portrayed as a faulty Jesus, an unrealistic and inhuman man, and again still a hero to those who cannot find happiness in their life.