Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway

As tiny as this book is, it definitely took me a while to get through. I was not so driven to read it as I have been with other books in the past. Hemingway has a way of writing that is so unimaginative. The whole story was supremely mundane and felt as though it was repeating itself over and over. If I had to guess however (since Hemingway is famous, and his work is award-winning) I would say he wrote this book in that fashion on purpose. My theory:

Perhaps he wanted his audience to understand and experience this struggle through the eye of the old man. The story kept repeating itself, because the man's mind was stuck repeating itself as well. The plight of this old man was to be lonely and even through a glimmer of hope be ultimately unsuccessful. By the end when the story has finished, your heart really extends to the old man and his life of bitter misfortune. However, you have to respect the character of the old man for continuing to have not only the will, but the optimism to continue fishing and living his life in utter poverty.

I would like to read more by Hemingway, hopefully with more exciting characters next time in the hope that my theory is correct and Hemingway writes through the eyes and plight of his characters rather than in a narrative sense.

6 comments:

Leah J. said...

Try A Farewell to Arms,. World War I (I think), set in Italy. Soldier meets Nurse, fall in love, sad but beautiful ending. It's an uphill kind of book (much of Hemingway is), but worth it.

Unknown said...

I have the same issues with Hemingway, I read The Sun Also Rises for a lit. class and it was all I could do to get through it. Talk to Tim about Hemingway suggestions though, he has read most of them.

Unknown said...

It is so cool to hear young people talk about literature and ideas. There are many "classic" writers I would like to read one day. Once life has settled down, I intend to find time to read a large variety of books.

Mikey said...

Literature is not one of my strong suits, so I'll have to track down the 1958 film with Spencer Tracy. I find that my analytical skills cater more to visual stimuli, as I, like Hemingway's writing style, am not very imaginative when it comes to visualizing works of literature.

Unknown said...

I must heavily suggest Ilands in the Stream, Hemingways last Work before his work. A true culmination, and not such a war story, but it has a little. a longer read, but i flew through it. Then again, I am a papa Hemingway fanatic so...

Unknown said...

Death. before his death. (suicide, real nasty one.)