The Old Man and the Sea - Question 1

What does the writing reveal about the author's attitudes and values? From what perspective does he or she write?

Even though some of the books that we read for summer work are sometimes boring or older, there are many things that we can learn from them that we can't get from a Harry Potter book. An author can't write about something that they themselves don't believe in, so the attitudes and values reflected by the characters may also be the same attitudes and values supported by the author. In the story The Old Man and the Sea, the old man really cherishes his connection with nature and the outside world. When he was fishing, he was separated from all of civilization. All he had to keep him company were the fish and the sea. Hemingway believed that a connection to something often overlooked was important.

Hemingway wrote the novella from a third person point of view. The story had an omniscient narrator, and throughout the story, was able to switch from the old man's mind to the boy's thoughts. I believe that Hemingway wrote the novel from the point of view that the old man was a failure. At the end of the story, it says that the skeleton of the fish washed up on the beach and people thought it was a shark. Actually, sharks are what ate the fish and destroyed the man's dreams of finally proving to everyone that he was a great fisherman. I believe that if Hemingway would have written a happy ending, it would have changed his point of view for the story.

The fact that Hemingway wrote this novel with short, declarative sentences shows that he wanted to get his point across as easily as possible. This book did attribute to his Nobel Prize, and he claims that it was the best that he could write. Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, in my opinion, was a great book that really demonstrated his true personality.

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