Reading Log for the month of January

Third Entry:                                                                                                            January 1, 2014

The Old Man

and

The Sea

by

Ernest Hemingway

Part1:                                                                                                                                               

Reflect:    The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is not only short at first glance but simple at first read. It tells of an old man, Santiago, who goes out to sea one day on his own, hooks a great, big swordfish, defeats it and brings it home. However, what makes this story much more compelling and complicated is its use of symbols. Since the novel has a full array of symbols, this reaction will focus on one that human beings, in general, have in their lives and take for granted most of the time, never knowing its true worth only until it is not beside them. 

Connect:  When i was in high school, I used not to wait too long because for me it is just but wasting my time in short i was an impatient person. But there was an instance that shifted me into being patient. And it makes me realized that patient is a virtue. Patient is a grace. Like Santiago he waited so long in order to catch a great big swordfish and it happened because of his being patient.

  

Question: I wonder what the reason of Santiago was in staying long days in the shore. I found it hard for him in staying long days in the shore without catching fish or having an empty skiff. But in the latter part i understand why Santiago did that. And is so, because he believes that a man is not made for defeat and he has that patient which is really powerful. 

Prediction: I think that when the old man wakes up, his dream of lion playing on the beaches of America will be come true. And i also predict that Mandolin his young apprentice will be the next Santiago. I hope so.

Part2:                                                                                                                                                

 “A man is not made for defeat.”

Santiago has nothing but a broken-down shed and a rickety skiff with a sail that is “patched with flour sacks” and looks “like the flag of permanent defeat.” The skin of his gaunt body illustrates his hardships and is marked with deeply-set wrinkles, scars, and blotches from the punishing sun. And because of his terrible misfortune, he is a pariah in his small fishing village.

But while nearly “everything about Santiago is old,” his eyes remain “the same color as the sea and are cheerful and undefeated.” Instead of throwing in the towel after 84 days of terrible luck, he sails farther out into the Gulf than he has gone before.

A man continues to do whatever he must do to the best of his ability, no matter what tribulations befall him. While challenges and setbacks can strip a man of all outward signs of success, still his spirit can remain undefeated. For it can will a man to never give up and to keep on trying.