The old man and the sea- imagery

The author of 'The Old Man and the Sea', Ernest Hemingway, uses a ton of imagery in this book. Imagery is the use of certain words and details that writers use to make the reader see very clearly what the writer is trying to show. The author uses imagery when he describes the looks of the old man. He describes the old man's skin as wrinkled, which helps us understand how old the old ma is. He also uses the words splotched and scarred to describe the skin of the old man. These words show us that the old man is a hard worker. The author says that the old mans skin is splotched from being out in the sun. This shows us that the old man is out working a lot in the sun out on the sea fishing. By saying the old man's skin is scarred, we are shown that the old man has many scars from getting injured by fish and being cut by fishing lines. It shows us that the old man is not pampered and does not care about his looks. We learn all this just from three words the author uses to describe the old mans skin. The author also uses imagery later on in the book when he describes the condition of the old man's hands after he returns from his fishing battle with the marlin. He says that the old man's hands are cut up so badly that they look like raw meat. This imagery is helpful because it shows us how strong the old man was to endure all that pain of getting his hands cut by the line and it shows us how desperate to catch the marlin and how badly he wanted to catch it because he would go through all that pain in order to bring it home. The authors use of imagery in this book was very helpful in understanding the personality, behavior and struggles that the old man went through in this book.



Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.