The Old Man and the Sea- the Marlin

In the book "The Old Man and the Sea" the marlin fish was a very important character. In some ways, the marlin was like the antagonist of this book, but I could also see it being like a protagonist too. The antagonist in a book is the character that opposes the hero of the book. The marlin could be considered like an antagonist because in the book, the hero of the book, the old man, struggles against the marlin. The challenge that the hero or the old man faces in this book is trying to catch and kill the marlin. The marlin is a difficult opponent because it is a huge, very strong fish. The old man wants very badly to kill the marlin because he is so desperate for a catch and the marlin would be an incredible catch that would astound all the people in the old man's town who doubted his fishing abilities. The marlin is very difficult to catch because it is a very strong fish and the old man is not prepared enough to easily catch it. The marlin pulled the old man's boat for days through the sea before the old man could kill him. The old man could not pull the marlin up to his boat. He had to wait for the marlin to swim up closer to the boat and begin circling closer to the boat before he could kill it because if he tried to pull the marlin up to the boat, his line could break and the marlin would get away or the hook would create too big a cut in the marlin and the marlin would be free. The old man had to be very careful and precise. The marlin could be considered the antagonist of the story because it is battling the old man but it could also be considered the protagonist of the story because the old man did not really consider the marlin to be his enemy, but more of a brother. The old man thought the marlin to be a very worthy opponent, he considered it of more than a fish, he considered the marlin to be "great". To the old man, the marlin was an incredible creature that he would not be ashamed to lose to.



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

Grapes of Wrath- Values and attitudes

In the book, The Grapes of Wrath, the author uses his writing to reveal his own values and attitudes. In the book, he writes a lot about events in history. By doing this, the author shows that he values history and knowing about the past. The author makes reference to many events in history, for example, one of the main historical references made by the author in this book is to the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl is a huge drought that took place in the late nineteen thirties in many regions in America. Basically, the Dust Bowl ruined the lives of many farmers throughout America because all of their crops died and this forced them out of their homes. Without their crops, the farmers had no way to make money and no food to eat. Farmers make their money off the crops they sell. Crops that farmers grow is their only way of getting an income. Therefore, when the dust ruined all of the crops, the farmers had no income to rely on. Many of the farmers had to choose between packing up and leaving or staying and starving to death. This was a very hard time for a lot of people because they basically had no choice but to leave their homes and start their lives over. The author also writes about the Great Depression in this book. By writing about so many historical events, the author shows that he has a respect for history and the past. This book is written in a third person perspective, meaning that the story is narrated by some one who is not taking place in the action of the story. The positive part about books that are written in third person perspective is that the reader has the chance to form their own opinions about events and characters in the story instead of being influenced by the narration of a character in the story. The negative thing is that this kind of story, which contains historical events could have been very interesting if written in first person view. It would have given the reader a first hand account of what really went on.



Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: Penguin, 2002. Print

The Old Man and the Sea- Manolin

In the book 'The Old Man and the Sea', Manolin is a young boy who wants to be a fisherman. He learned everything he knows about fishing from the old man, and he has been fishing with him for a very long time. After forty days with out catching a single fish, Manolin's parents become inpatient and declare that the old man is "salao" which means the worst form of unlucky. Manolin's father tells Manolin that he can not fish with the old man anymore, and forces him to move to a more prosperous fishing boat. The young boy would rather stay with the old man and continue to fish with him, because he respects the old man so much and he has so much faith in him. He does not believe that the old man is unlucky. He never completely ditched the old man though, he always remained faithful to him. He would help the old man when ever he could in any way that he could, even though it may have been an inconvenience to himself. He would help the old man every morning in preparing his ship for a day on the sea. He would help the old man at the beginning of the day, by carrying all his fishing supplies from the old man's shack to his boat, and at the end of the day when the old man returned by moving all of his supplies back from the boat to the old man's shack. The young boy cared a lot about the old man. Every evening he would go to the old man's small shack and make sure that the old man had something to eat for dinner. He would go to the cafe and get the old man some food to eat for dinner and every morning he would bring coffee for the old man to drink to start off his day. When the old man was gone at sea for a few days, Manolin was very worried about him. Although he knew that the old man was a very skilled and experienced fisherman, he still worried that something might be wrong since the old man did not return in the evening. In conclusion, in this book, Manolin is a very caring and faithful character.



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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 5

The Old man is still sleeping when Manolin comes to visit him. When the young boy sees his hands, which are still badly cut up from the marlin pulling sharply on the lines, he gets very sad. He knows that his friend and teacher has been through a lot and it could have been avoided if he would have been there for him. The young boy runs to get the old man some coffee. When he comes back, he decides not to wake the old man, but to wait for him to wake up. He keeps the coffee warm over a fire so it will be ready as soon as the old man wakes. Finally the old man wakes up. He drinks his coffee while he and Manolin talk. They talk about the old man's adventure. The old man tells the young boy that he was beat by the sharks. He told him about how he had such a great catch but the sharks destroyed it by eating it. Then Manolin told him that no matter what his father says, he promised to return fishing with the old man. The old man was very happy about this. Around the old man's boat, many fisherman have gathered to see what he had caught. They see a giant carcass larger than the skiff itself. Some fisherman even measured the skeleton of the marlin. They find out that it is eighteen feet long. This is probably the biggest fish any of them had even seen. They were all very amazed by the old man's catch. The old man and the young boy are still talking when the young boy tells him that there had been a large search party for him when he had not returned home for so long. He told him that they even used the coast guard and planes to look for him. The old man was touched that people cared enough about him to go to such measures to look for him.




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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4

Two hours after the first shark attack, two more sharks swim up to the marlin. The sharks attack the marlin's body, and even though the old man knows that it is a hopeless battle without his harpoon, he uses a knife to try to fight off the sharks. He kills the two sharks, but only after they take more of the marlin meat. The old man feels very bad now for killing the marlin. He feels that it was all a waste now that the sharks ate him. He apologizes for going out to sea so far where he did not belong. He tells the marlin that it did neither of them very good, because the sharks were not worthy of eating the great marlin's meat. The old man can not bring himself to look at the torn up marlin, when another shark attacks. The old man kills the single shark with his knife, and he loses his knife in the battle. Now the old man has only the clubs he used to kill bait fish as a weapon. Two more sharks arrive and the old man manages to club them enough to get them to leave, but only after they take a very large chunk of the marlin. Again the old man apologizes to the marlin, but tries to justify killing it by how many sharks the marlin has killed. He vows to the marlin to keep killing the sharks until he himself dies, although he hopes that no more sharks will come. Later that night, a giant pack of sharks shows up and attacks the remains of the marlin. It is dark so the old man can not see, but he swings his club blindly at the sharks anyways. His club is taken away and now he is out of weapons. He broke a piece of wood off the boat's tiller and desperately swung it at the remaining sharks. He stabbed the sharp end of the wood into the last remaining shark and killed it. The pack of sharks ate the last of the marlin's meat in the attack. The old man is dreadfully tired when he arrives back at the shore. He pulls his boat in and walks home. He has to stop many times before he gets home because he is so tired. Finally the old man made it home and went to sleep.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4 (pt 2)

The fish is very close now. The old man takes his harpoon and plunges it into the side of the giant marlin. The fish jumps high out of the water and when it falls back down, it's blood pours out into the ocean. He pulls his small skiff up close to the side of the dead fish and fastened the fish to the side of it. He thinks of his hero the great DiMaggio and thinks that he would be proud of him for this kill. He also thinks of how much money he will make from the meat of a fish the size of this marlin. His hands are extremely cut up from the battle with the marlin. He draws his sail and sets for land with his giant fish. As he sails back to land, the old man is very proud of his catch. It is something other fishermen could not imagine catching and he could not wait to show it off to the other fishermen and the young boy and the people who called him unlucky. After about an hour of sailing, a shark arrives by the skiff, smelling the blood from the dead marlin. The old man thinks the shark is a beautiful fish. The shark attacks the body of the marlin, when the old man sinks his harpoon deep into the shark's head, killing it. The dead shark sinks to the bottom of the sea, along with the old man's only harpoon. Before being killed, the shark tore off about forty pounds of meat from the marlin's body, not only stealing valuable meat from the old man, but also spilling even more blood from the marlin into the sea. The old man knows that this is not good, and all that fresh blood will no doubt draw in more hungry sharks to his skiff. Now Santiago realizes that the entire battle between him and the marlin was all for nothing, because the sharks will end up eating the marlin.


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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 4

The old man wakes up from dreams of lions on the beach, and decides to butcher the dolphin. He finds two flying fish in the belly of the dolphin. He cuts the dolphin up and eats one filet of dolphin meat along with one of the flying fish. Suddenly, the marlin goes crazy. It jerks the line back and forth throwing the old man around. He is thrown around into the boat and then face down into the dolphin meat. The line is going out quickly, so the old man grips onto it and stops it, badly cutting his left hand again. He thinks of the boy and how helpful he would be if he were with him. He could wet the coils of the line which would lessen the friction and stop it from cutting the old man's hands as bad as it is. The old man's hands are now badly cut and his face covered in raw dolphin meat. Afraid that the smell of the dolphin meat so close to his face will make him nauseous, the old man wipes the chunks off of his face as well as he can. He is losing strength, so he decides to eat another one of his flying fish in hopes of building his strength back up again. The sun starts to come up now and the marlin begins circling around the old man's skiff, making the old man one step closer to catching the giant fish. Every circle that the fish does brings it closer and closer to the boat. As the marlin circles, the old man slowly brings in the rope. He begins to feel very faint and dizzy and then he starts to see black spots before his eyes. The fish is circling closer and closer to the boat until it is finally close enough for the old man to kill.


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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3

Day three is coming to an end when the line that the old man baited catches something. The old man quickly brings in his catch to find a dolphin. He brings it in with one hand and clubs it to death. He saves it for the next day. He begins talking to the marlin, saying that he feels good and is ready for the battle coming up the next day. Although this is what he says to the marlin, on the inside the old man is in a lot of pain, but he will not admit to the marlin that it has an advantage over him. Night falls and the stars come out along with the moon. The old man thinks of how lucky he is that in his life he does not have to battle with anything as great and magnificent as the stars and the moon. He considers them his friends as he does with the flying fish. He thinks again of the marlin and begins to feel bad for killing it, but also feels more determined now than ever to end the battle by killing it. He justifies it by telling himself that the meat of the marlin will feed many hungry people, although on the inside he feels that none of them are worthy enough to eat such a great creature. Santiago thinks about rigging the oars to slow the fish. This technique would help him because it would make the fish swim slower and also tire the fish out faster, but it is risky and not something that the old man wants to risk. He decides to rest, which means that he will use his back and body weight to hold the rope instead of his strength. He rests for two hours and then becomes upset that he did not sleep, worrying that his mind will not be as clear as it should be, risking the loss of the marlin. When the marlin calms, the old man decides to get some sleep.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3 (part 4)

As the old man's third day drags on, the old man becomes very weary. When noon comes around, the tuna finally kicks in and his hand becomes uncramped and is no longer a claw. The old man is so happy that he can finally use both of his hands again. Just like he promised, he says ten hail Marys and ten our fathers. He still claims not to be religious, but he promises that if he catches the great marlin, he will go on a pilgrimage, or a religious journey, to the virgin of cobre. Although he hopes it is unnecessary, the old man decides to be on the safe side and bait another line in hopes to catch a meal just in case the marlin forces him to stay out on the sea for another night. As the day continues the old man has thoughts of if it is right for him to kill such a great beast. He argues with himself on whether it is moral or not, trying to both justify and question it. His thoughts go from that to baseball and then to his hero, The great DiMaggio. He thinks about the problems the great DiMaggio faces while he plays his game. DiMaggio plays well even with the bone spur that he has, which is inspirational to the old man. Even though he does not know what a bone spur is, he believes that he himself probably could not bear the pain himself, let alone play baseball with it. He thinks of what the great DiMaggio would think of the old man staying all night with a fish and whether or not he himself would do it. The old mans thoughts then switch to the memory of the time the old man won the all night arm wrestling match. He won against the great negro from Cienfuegos, making him the champion. This memory makes the old man more confident in himself making him think that he has a chance at catching this fish.



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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3 (part 3)

Santiago is still desperately waiting for the cramp in his hand to go away. He is starting to become very worried and fearful and even though he is not religious, he promises that if the cramp will go away quickly, he will say ten hail Marys and ten our fathers. As he continues to sail, he looks out to sea and thinks to himself that he is completely alone. He can see no land and no man in any direction that he looks. Just then, a flight of ducks flies by and makes the old man realized that a man can never be completely alone at sea. He says that it is impossible. As he is thinking about this, the slant of the marlin's line changes. This means that the fish is heading in a different direction. As the slant changes, the old man knows that the marlin is approaching the surface of the water. The old man is getting excited and hopes that the marlin will jump. Suddenly, the marlin jumps out of the water. The old man now sees for the first time how big the marlin really is. He is amazed at what he sees. The marlin is giant, bigger than even the old man had expected. It was at least two feet longer than the skiff itself. It is the biggest fish that the old man had ever witnessed and he declares it great. He fears that the fish will learn it's own strength and vows never to let that happen. One of his hands is still cramped up, but he is happy because now that the fish jumped out of the water, its air sacs are filled and it will make it easier for the old man later on in the battle. The fish swims quickly as it drops back into the water, but soon slows down to the same steady speed it was swimming earlier.

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

the old man and the sea Day three continued

Things have calmed down as a small bird called a warbler flies out to Santiago's boat and lands on the line. The old man thinks that it is probably the warblers first trip out to sea. He thinks that the warbler probably knows nothing of the hawks that will greet him as he flies back. He realizes that the warbler can not understand him, but tells him to stay and rest anyways. Just as he says this, the marlin pulls sharply on the line, scaring the warbler away. The surge of the marlin is so strong that it nearly pulls the old man overboard. The marlin settles and the old man notices that he has gotten a cut from the line on his hand. The cut is not bad but is bleeding. The old man realizes that he must keep his strength, so he reluctantly eats the ten pound tuna that he caught earlier. He does not want to eat the tuna, because he had been planning to use it as bait later, but he knows that he must if he wants to keep his strength up. He uses his uncut right hand to cut up the tuna. He uses his left hand to hold all of the weight of the marlin on the line. The strain from holding all the weight causes the old man's left hand to cramp up very badly. His left hand is now just a claw which he cannot use for anything. The old man is becoming very aggravated at the weakness his body is displaying to him. He finishes cutting up the tuna and hopes that by eating it, it will give him strength and fix his hand from being a claw. While he is eating the tuna, he begins to think of the marlin. He thinks of how the marlin is trapped and unable to eat anything. The old man thinks that he has an advantage over the marlin now. He feels bad and gets a desire to give some of his tuna to the marlin to even out the battle.


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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 3

On the old man's first morning at sea with the marlin, he has a lot of new concerns. The fish is still steadily swimming, not slowing a bit. One good thing that has happened is that the fish has begun swimming in shallower waters. Also, a small weed has become attached to the line, which has slowed the fish down a bit. The old man is concerned that if he increases the tension on the line too much, it will become too taut and it will snap, releasing the fish. He is not willing to take any chances on losing this fish, because he has not had a single catch in eighty five days now. He can not afford to lose this giant marlin. He also fears that if the hook pulls on the fish too much, it will cut the fish's mouth too much and the fish will get loose. He can not afford to make any mistakes or he could kill the fish. He still has not seen the whole fish yet or how big it is in size, so he is hoping that the fish will jump out of the water soon. He also hopes for this to happen so that the fish's air sacs might fill up with air, which will keep it from going too deep into the ocean. He does not want the fish to go deeper into the ocean because it is much easier for the old man to pull the fish out of shallow water than deep water. At this point, all Santiago can do is hold on to the fish and hope. Hope that everything will go his way and that he will be lucky and catch this fish to prove to everyone that he is not unlucky. Santiago begins to feel a great respect for the fish and he pledges his love and respect for the fish, but he also promises that he will kill him by the end of the day.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 2 continued

After the fish finally took the bait, it continued swimming. The fish was so large and strong that it dragged the boat. The old man pulled on the line as strongly as he could, with no result. He tried again and again but he was not strong enough. The fish continued pulling the boat farther and farther away from land. Now when the old man looks, no land is visible to him at all. The fish pulled the boat farther away from land all day, seeming to not lose any strength at all. The old man gives up trying to pull the fish in. He holds the line tight in his hands with part of it braced against his back. He holds the rope all day and gives the fish more if necessary, afraid that the line might break ruining his chances of catching the fish. The struggle between the old man and the fish goes on all night as the fish continues pulling the boat away from shore, and now when the old man looks, the light from the havana begins to fade. He knows that this means that his boat is farther out from land than ever before, which worries him a bit. As the old man thinks, he wishes that the young boy could be with him. He knows that having the young boy would make the situation a lot easier. He does not like being alone. While he battles the fish, the old man has a flashback to a time when he was trying to catch a different marlin. There were a pair of them, a male and a female. The male marlin let the female marlin take the bait, and after the old man caught the female, the male fish stayed right next to the boat, mourning the loss of the female marlin. Thinking of this memory makes the old man sad, but he stays determined to catch this new giant marlin.

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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 2

The next morning, the old man wakes up early. Like every morning, he goes to Manolins house to wake up the young boy. They head back to the old man's shack to carry his gear to his boat. After they get everything ready, they drink their morning coffee. After they finish, they part on the beach to go begin their day of fishing, as they wish each other good luck. The old man feels extra confident today and well slept. As the old man rows away from the beach, he thinks of the flying fish, jumping out of the water. He feels bad for all the birds trying to catch them. As he rows farther and farther, he drops the lines with bait to officially start the fishing day. As Santiago continues to go farther out to sea, the sun comes up. He follows a seabird, hunting for fish, to use as his guide. Soon enough, one of the old man's lines goes down. It is the first catch of the day, a ten pound tuna. The old man speaks out loud that the fish will make great bait. The old man had made a habit of talking to himself when he was alone at sea. He can not remember when he began doing this habit. He thinks about how if other people, like other fishermen, saw him talking to himself, they would probably think that he had gone insane from being out at sea alone too much. He knows that he is not really crazy though, he just enjoys talking to himself. As the old man is thinking about this, he realizes that he has sailed very far out and can not see land anymore. The old man continues to drift out farther and farther, until suddenly, the stick that marks the one hundred fathom line goes quickly under the water. The old man knows that this means that the fish on the other end of the line is probably quite large. He prays and prays that the fish will take the bait. It plays with the bait a while longer and finally takes it.


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

The Old Man and the Sea - Day 1

In the book 'The Old Man and the Sea', the old man, or Santiago, goes through a journey of trying to catch a fish. On the first day, he has already gone out to sea eighty four times. On these eighty four days, the old man has not caught a single fish. He has not quite lost his faith, though. For the first forty days of his journey, he had his young apprentice, Manolin, with him to help him fish. Manolin was forced by his father to leave for a different ship after forty days with no catch. His father believed the old man to be "salao" or "unlucky". Manolin still helps the old man by supplying bait to him, which the old man reluctantly accepted. The old man carried all of his fishing gear back to his shack with the help of the young boy. When they arrived back at the old man's shack with all of their gear, the young boy asks the old man what he was going to eat for dinner. Like every night, the old man replied by saying that he would be eating yellow rice and fish for dinner. He offered the young boy some food, knowing that he would not accept. The boy then offered to start the fire for the old man to cook his dinner on and like every night, the old man refused. They both knew that the old man did not really have any food to eat that night. Next, the old man excitedly grabbed the newspaper that was given to him by Perico. He reads about his favorite player "the great Dimaggio" while Manolin goes out to get him the bait he promised him and dinner which was a gift from Martin, the man who owns the cafe. As they eat the dinner, the old man and the boy discuss baseball. After eating dinner, the boy leaves and the old man goes to sleep. While he sleeps he has his favorite reoccurring dream of the lions playing on a beach.



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

What I liked about The Old Man and the Sea

'The Old Man and the Sea' was a good book, in my opinion. Unlike a lot of the books that we are forced to read for school, I actually enjoyed this book. It was about fishing, which is something that I do not do a lot of. Even though it was about fishing and I do not know a lot about fishing, I actually could follow along with the things the author was describing. It used some fishing terms, but not too much that it confused me. I liked how the book was about fishing, but it was more about the struggle between the old man and the fish. It described all of the old man's struggles and challenges and it was an interesting book. Even though the book was not packed with adventure and a bunch of crazy stuff, it was still interesting and it still kept me entertained. I liked the characters in the book. It focused mostly on the old man and the fish. The book kind of gave the fish a personality. It described the fish so that it didn't seem like any ordinary fish. The old man respected the fish. My favorite part of 'The Old Man and the Sea' was the ending. It did not end the way you would have expected it to end. I expected the old man to get really lucky and catch the fish and bring it home in one piece and to get a bunch of money from the fish, but it turned out that the sharks ate the fish's meat. All they left was the skeleton of the fish. I liked how even though the old man did not get the money off the fish like he wanted, it was still a happy ending because he still got the respect he deserved and he got the young boy to fish with him again. 'The Old Man and the Sea' turned out to be a pretty interesting book that I enjoyed.

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

the old man and the sea- why we still read this book

The book 'The Old Man and the Sea' contains a timeless message. The message in this book is that patience is rewarded and that if you really want something, you must work for it. In the book, the old man had to work very hard and be very patient in order to catch his fish. He knew that if he did pull off catching this giant marlin fish, it would be worth it. That is why he was so determined and that is why he was willing to work so hard in order to catch it. He went through a lot of hard work to catch the marlin. He had to endure the heat while he was out on the sea. He also had to deal with his own body betraying him. He became very tired from lack of sleep while he was out on the sea and this lack of sleep made him weaker and weaker. His tiredness threatened the chance of him catching the fish. He also had to endure his hands cramping up and turning into "claws". This made it more difficult for him to catch his fish because he is used to using both of his hands to hold the rope, but when his hand is all cramped up, he cannot use it and so he has to figure out how to hold on to the rope with only one hand. When the old man caught a dolphin, he had to deal with his nausea from the smell of the raw meat. All of these challenges made the old man have to work that much harder, but in the end, it was worth it for him. The old man had to be very patient in this book, but in the end, his patience was rewarded when he caught the eighteen foot long marlin fish. Even though the fish's body was attacked and eaten by sharks, the old man still brought the skeleton home, and this is what made everyone stop mocking him and calling him unlucky. It earned him the respect that he deserved and also the companionship of the young boy, making all the hard work worth it. The message that we can learn from the book 'The Old Man and the Sea' is that patience is rewarded and that if you really want something, you have to work hard for it.


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

the old man and the sea- abstract ideas

In the book 'The Old Man And the Sea', the old man represents some abstract ideas. There are many abstract ideas that he represents, but the two main ones are patience and perseverance. The old man is very patient in the book. He is patient while he is waiting for himself to catch a fish. He goes out to sea for eighty four days without catching a single fish. He also has to persevere everyday and keep his head up and keep trying to catch a fish. He probably felt like giving up after a while of not catching anything, but he persevered and kept going out everyday and finally it paid off for him. Another way that the old man represented the abstract idea of patience was when he was very patient with the young boy and all the fishermen who lived in his small town. Everyone judged him for not catching many fish and they all believed that he was unlucky. The old man knew he wasn't unlucky and even though being called unlucky every day was probably very annoying, he ignored them and kept trying to prove them wrong. Another abstract idea that the old man represented in the book is strength. He was very strong in the book. He endured a lot of difficult challenges and pain while he was out at sea trying to catch his fish. He endured the pain when his body was betraying him. When his hand got cramped up and turned into a claw and when he was beginning to feel nauseous from the smell of the raw dolphin meat, he had no choice but to just try to get through it. He also had to endure all the cuts he got on his hands from holding on to the rope that the fish was on. Every time the fish would make sudden movements, The old man's hands would get cut. He had to endure hunger and being extremely tired too. In this story, the old man was very strong and had to endure a lot more than other fishermen in order to catch his marlin.


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