The Old Man and the Sea - Question 3

What universal themes does this book address?

The Old Man and the Sea addresses many themes that are commonly found in summer reading books for advanced English classes. In the story, the old man must persevere through his struggles. I mean, he didn't catch a fish for 84 days. That's a really long dry spell for a fisherman. The old man has to persevere through all of the ridicule that he received from the other people that put him down for being old and not being able to catch a fish for so long. He also had to persevere through the intense hunger that he faced when he was trying to catch his final fish. But why even catch a fish? Obviously, so that he didn't starve to death, but it was more than just to survive. That fish was more than just a fish. It stood for much more than just a fish. The fish stood for all of the negative things that people said about him and if he could just catch that fish, he would be able to prove everyone wrong.

Another common theme throughout the book was man's interactions with nature. Through out the book, the old man refers to the sea as a "woman." Okay, obviously the sea is not really a woman. It was just a body of water that contained fish and plants and the occasional piece of trash. If it was even a sea is another question, but that's not the point. The old man was very connected with nature, he even called the birds his friends. The way that the old man treats and refers to nature also helps the reader (me) to understand the old man on a deeper level.

Many people overlook the theme of a book, and sometimes that is the reason that someone would say that a book is "stupid" or "boring." The themes help the reader relate to the reading and provide a real life application of things that we all expirence. The theme or themes of a book is one of the most important key elements of a novel.

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