The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man and The Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway. Ernest tells this old mans story not as an action packed story but more on the nature of the human soul and spirit. The story is probably one of the most intriguing and amazing stories of its time.

The main character of this story is an old man named Santiago, and the other two main characters are the boy who is Santiago's friend, and the huge fish Santiago catches. In the beginning of the story the old man hasn't caught a good fish in eighty-five days and the only thing keeping him alive is the young boy who is his one true friend. The old man never loses faith that there is a big fish out there for him and he just has to keep fishing enough to catch it.

During most of the story Santiago goes out in his boat and hooks a huge fish and is being carried by it. The only companion Santiago has is his mind and the fish he is trying to kill. Probably the only thing that kept the old man going was thinking of his hero De Maggio the baseball player. Whenever Santiago was getting to the point of give up he always thought about if De Maggio would and that would make him struggle on.

When Santiago finally catches his big fish he has to tie it to the side of the boat because it is larger than the boat itself! As Santiago finally starts his journey home he is satisfied but worried about the shark infested waters. When he enters the shark infested waters many sharks attack his fish and he does his best to kill them all but only gets a few. Eventually when he gets home his fish is ruined and gone.

All together this is one of the most intense and sad books I have read in a long time. It shows the thoughts you think instead of the actions you take in a situation. It shows the courage of an old man on his last string of life trying to achieve one more great thing.