The Old Man and the Sea

I read this book for the first time

in high school and I remembered it just as well as if I had

read it yesterday. As I read it again I remembered some of

the same language, especially the old man talking to his

hands. Cursing his left hand when it cramped up on him like

it was a separate part of himself and had a mind of its own

was particularly interesting. We can see immediately in the

beginning of the book that this old man is in a struggle to

catch fish and hasn't done so for eighty four days. He leaves

early on the eighty fifth day and by himself which is important

because it defines the journey. He seems to be the pinnacle

of the Hemingway hero, a culmination of a life time of writing

that comes together in the portrait of Santiago. He is old,

unlucky, humble despite is glorious past of fishing and el

champion, trying to do the most he can from his weathered

body. He has lived so much that he does not need to dwell

on the past events