Old Man and the Sea
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Old Man and The Sea – Rough Draft
Human beings need to live in a group where everyone respects them and treats them equally. No human being can live alone isolated from other people because one hand can not clap by itself. In The Old Man and The Sea, the author uses setting, character and symbolism to show that people who society perceives as different are usually isolated. Once one is able to discover the reason of their existence, they are able to accept themselves in order to fulfill their goals.
Through settings the reader understands that society isolates people who are considered to be different. The first thing that shows us the isolation of the old man is the picture that Hemingway has drawn of the old man\\\s shack. He describes it as: \\\”went through its open doorand in it there was a bed, a table, one chair, and a place on the dirt floor to cook with charcoal.\\\” (p. 15) Also Hemingway shows that Santiago, the old man, feels his isolation through \\\”Once there had been a tinted photograph of his wife on the wall, but he had taken it down because it made him to lonely to see it.\\\” (p. 16) Everything in the old man\\\s shack gave a feeling of his loneliness and isolation, such as his one bed, one table, one chair, and his wife\\\s picture that he did not stand to look at so he took it down. The open door symbolizes Santiago\\\s mind showing his hope that someone will stop by his cottage the same day and come in without knocking.
Another incident that shows the isolation of the old man is the Terrance. The Terrance is a place that shows how other fisherman threat the old man and make him feel as a stranger among them. The narrator of the novel supports this idea when he says: \\\”They always sat on the Terrance and many of the fisherman made fun of the old man and he was not angry.\\\” (p. 11) The younger fishermen do not want Santiago around them because he is different from all of them. They always try to make fun of him and make him feel out of place. This didn\\\
harm Santiago because it didn\\\
break his spirits, but it motivated him to work harder to prove himself to them.
The setting that Hemingway uses gives the reader a feeling of the pain and alienation of the old man. At the same time it shows us that if Santiago had never been through this pain and isolation he would have never decided to go on the journey through the sea He wanted to prove to everyone that neglected him from society, that he is still able to reach his goals and he is still strong and active. Even though the younger fishermen made fun of him, he never got angry. Hemingway said that shows that the old man, in his mind, knows that he is still a good fisherman regardless to all what they are saying about him. That is why he worked hard until he discovered himself and let other people see the real him. Hemingway through the character of the old man shows that people are usually isolated because they do not fulfill the other people\\\s expectations. Santiago is used to fish alone in his boat without help from anyone. The narrator describes that the old man is alone in his boat after the boy has left hi
m: \\\”He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty-days without a fish the boy\\\s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and he boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.\\\” (p. 1) Also the narrator shows how The Old Man talks to his had in his boat: \\\”how do you feel hand? He asked the cramped handI\\\ll eat some more for youHow does it go, hand? Or is it too early to know?\\\” (p. 58-59) Even though the old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him, the boy\\\s parents forced Manolin to leave Santiago to another boat. The old man in their eyes represented the failure because he wasn\\\
fortunate enough to catch a fish for 40 days. This shows how people isolated him because he becomes different from, the other fishermen. The old man feels his loneli
ness and that is why he entertains himself by talking with himself. He encourages himself to go on and prove that he is still able to catch a fish by talking to himself. He encourages himself to go on and prove that he is still able to catch a fish by talking with his cramped hand to ease its pain since no one else is with him to do that.
Santiago believes that old people shouldn\\\
stay alone and he misses the boy a lot. Whenever his loneliness and isolation grows greater his feelings of needing the boy grows greater as well. The narrator shows this idea through the words of the old man: \\\”He said aloud. I wish I had the boy to help me and see this. No one should be alone in their old age, he thought. But it\\\s unavoidable.\\\” (p. 48)
He is an old man who is alone in his boat. From what he wishes, we can notice how does he feel about his isolation. He said old people should not stay by themselves because they might need help. He really needs someone to be with that is why he misses the only person who did not isolate him, the boy. He feels pain because people do not want him anymore but he says it is \\\”unavoidable\\\”, that means no matter what he does it won\\\
change.
The isolated old man feels that people do not want him around, so he chose to go far out leaving the smell of the land and people behind him. Hemingway describes this through the old man talking with the fish many times, first: \\\”My choice was to go there to find him beyond people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and heave been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.\\\”