The Old Man and the Sea quite possibly the most boring book I have read in my life. Not to say that it is necessarily “bad”, with all the possible interpretations, which bring about the book’s own sense of mystery, and actually decent characterization, perhaps it is worthwhile. But, nonetheless; the most boring, unexciting book I have ever feasted (or perhaps forcefully overindulged) my eyes upon. I guess it just wasn’t quite my cup of sea. This novella was written by Ernest Hemingway, who is widely known to have this obsession with death, at least in his novels. He had a distaste for war believing it was tragic and horrible. He killed himself July 2nd, 1961 by shotgun. Now, I make these ideas Hemingway had and these quite depressive and
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Let’s start with the old man. So, the information we get about the old man, Santiago is that he is an old man, though still “youth” in his eyes, and reasonably in decent shape (the boy had described his shoulders as ‘strong’). He is very poor. He lives in a shack, sleeping on newspapers as a mattress, and does not even have enough money for food, and the boy usually buys him food. He’s practically homeless. Not to mention, he is a widower. All he has left of his wife is a photo of her, which he can hardly look at because of the sadness it brings him. All Santiago has is the young boy who cares and takes care of him better than he does himself, and fishing. So, we look at these facts and see- that the are all sad. Painfully sad. This is what was the most prominent detail to me was as I read the book; Santiago was a sad, sad man. But, who can blame him? I get depression as a privileged white girl, let alone as a man with as much loss he has, and probably always has had such …show more content…
But who’s to say that that wasn’t part of Hemingway’s depression as well? The book was published in 1952, nine years before his passing, which would make him about fifty. That’s well on the way towards the end of one’s life. Maybe Hemingway was feeling the same was his character did- the depression of growing old. Though not quite an elder, Hemingway was getting there. His fear and yet want of death was slowly creeping up upon him. And maybe ten years later, the fear ate him whole and he figured it was better to take his own life, then the grave take it for
Let’s start with the old man. So, the information we get about the old man, Santiago is that he is an old man, though still “youth” in his eyes, and reasonably in decent shape (the boy had described his shoulders as ‘strong’). He is very poor. He lives in a shack, sleeping on newspapers as a mattress, and does not even have enough money for food, and the boy usually buys him food. He’s practically homeless. Not to mention, he is a widower. All he has left of his wife is a photo of her, which he can hardly look at because of the sadness it brings him. All Santiago has is the young boy who cares and takes care of him better than he does himself, and fishing. So, we look at these facts and see- that the are all sad. Painfully sad. This is what was the most prominent detail to me was as I read the book; Santiago was a sad, sad man. But, who can blame him? I get depression as a privileged white girl, let alone as a man with as much loss he has, and probably always has had such …show more content…
But who’s to say that that wasn’t part of Hemingway’s depression as well? The book was published in 1952, nine years before his passing, which would make him about fifty. That’s well on the way towards the end of one’s life. Maybe Hemingway was feeling the same was his character did- the depression of growing old. Though not quite an elder, Hemingway was getting there. His fear and yet want of death was slowly creeping up upon him. And maybe ten years later, the fear ate him whole and he figured it was better to take his own life, then the grave take it for