There is hardly any progress, determination or success without unforgiving struggle and defeat. The road to success is a never-ending battle, but the outcomes of the war are rewarding and the avails are extraordinary. It is just a matter of having endurance when the will to continue becomes impossible and unimaginable. The idea of struggle lies deep within the plot of the novel, The Old Man and the Sea and the motion picture, Life of Pi. In the novel, the old fisherman, Santiago spends a few days out at sea attempting to capture the fish of his dreams. He battles through pain, thirst and hunger in order to bring the Marlin to the shore. However, while losing his prey, he gains a priceless experience combined with pride, respect and …show more content…
In Hemingway’s novel, the battle between a person and nature is predominantly shown through Santiago’s desire to catch a Marlin while overcoming obstacles set by the ocean, such as fluctuating temperatures and dangerous Mako sharks. Although these physical barriers impacted the old fisherman greatly by causing him to sustain wounds, he overcame these complications through his unbreakable will and desire to capture the formidable Marlin and return back to Havana with his prize. While fishing for the Marlin, Santiago consistently talks with the sea creature whom he considered an equal and emphasized his determination to overcome nature through his prayer. Not once, but many times he prayed: “Christ, I did not know he was so big. I’ll kill him though…in all his greatness and his glory, I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures” (Hemingway 66). This promise repeated numerous times through Santiago’s struggle, clearly presents the strength of the old man’s mind and his will to win the battle. Likewise, in the movie Life of Pi a young boy is faced with many challenges from the ocean when he is forced to survive while combating the dangers of nature and attempting to control the animals that were placed in his raft. Once again, this conflict
Using the quick tests for locating errors, find the error in each of the two questions below. Describe the type of error, explain how you discovered it, and make corrections.
During this stage, the hero learns things about themselves they never knew before. While on their journey of the unknown, they encounter different people and different situations where the hero must either rise to the situation in order to get back to their known state, or give up and never complete their heroic cycle. It is evident that in both the novel, Life of Pi, and the film, Big Fish, that the hero's rose to the challenging circumstances, and went through transformation. To start, in the novel Life of Pi, Piscine survives the ship wreck, which can be seen as his entrance to the unknown world, and is trapped on a life boat in the middle of the ocean with a 450 pound Bengal tiger, Richard Parker. Pi has no choice but to either change his old values and beliefs to fight the environment in order to survive.
In both competitions, Santiago demonstrates a great sense of will power and perseverance. For example, the arm wrestling match was also a test of endurance, just like his battle with the marlin: “They had gone one day and one night with their elbows on a chalk line…the odds would change back and forth all night…but [Santiago would] raise his hand up to dead even again” (70). Similarly, he fights the fish for three long days and does not give up. After this twenty-four hour arm wrestling game, “everyone called him The Champion” (70). This defeat was important for Santiago because it proved that Santiago once had enough strength to beat the strongest man on the docks, who is implicitly compared to the marlin. It is also interesting to note that during this part of the narrative, Santiago also remembers another worthy opponent: Joe DiMaggio, another hero who shows an amazing strength of will that helps him overcome adversity. With this flashback, then, Hemingway establishes a sense of heroic virtues as spiritual rather than physical qualities.
The epic journey of “The Old Man and the Sea” describes struggle, discipline and manhood. The main characters relationships exemplify how faith and skill overcome man’s adversity during life on the sea. Santiago’s growing relationship with the boy idealizes his statute as a father figure and develops his integrity and values towards the boy. Hemmingway shows us how an old fisherman’s will to overcome the sea’s obstacles proves his manhood to himself and the young boy. His skills and knowledge of the sea provide a positive influence for the young boy to become a great fisherman someday.
A Man Can Be Destroyed But Not Defeated –The Struggle of Life in “The Old Man and the Sea”
In the timeless novel The Old Man and the Sea, the hero is undoubtedly the old man, Santiago, whom us as readers become very acquainted with. Santiago is a hard-worker and perseveres through every problem nature brings to him. He is in the midst of a horrendous fishing drought, during which the townspeople laugh and ridicule him. Santiago just lets the criticism pass him by because he is confident that the fish of his lifetime is coming soon. In a sense, Santiago represents the ideas of honor and pride. He is also a hero to a young boy named Manolin who conveys the image that the old man is whom he would rather live
Santiago, the protagonist of The Old Man and the Sea, fought a long and drawn-out battle with a marlin. He remains optimistic for the entire novella, even in the darkest of his situations. When he realizes the sharks had finally destroyed him, he states, “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” (103) Regardless, he kept fighting fiercely, even though there wasn’t a chance for success. Although he did lose the battle against nature, he did not fail. A man who keeps fighting cannot be regarded as a
Ernest Hemmingway and Amitav Ghosh, both having completely different writing styles and ideas, seem to have an underlying similarity in how they view leadership and heroism. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway and Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh both show internal battles and undeniable fate within characters throughout each novel. In The Old Man and the Sea Hemmingway uses Santiago, the old Cuban fisherman, to represent internal transformation, renewed life, triumph, and defeat. Ghosh also represents similar struggles through one of the most prominent characters, Deeti. Hemmingway and Ghosh seek to first surpass and overcome internal struggle, secondly show leadership through the toughest situations, and lastly the realization of life itself. Though many different things can be deciphered through each novel, both try to take the reader through a journey of tranquility and distress making each character the leaders and heroes that we see them as.
In the novel The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway uses the literary device of metaphors. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the ocean to symbolize life, and to depict the role that individuals play in life. Hemingway uses the metaphor of the lions to signify people who live their lives as active participants. The tourists in the novel represent the individuals, who in observe their lives and are not active participants. In the novels that Ernest Hemingway writes, he uses metaphors to reflect his life experiences and opinions. The ocean in The Old Man and the Sea is a metaphor, which represents Hemingway 's personal view of life. Hemingway believes that in life everyone must find their own niche and uses the metaphor of the ocean and the
In the novel The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway, there is a fish that the old man finally catches after 84 days, but is consumed by Mako shark’s in the process of reeling it in. Santiago, the old man, had a strong connection with the marlin even though he only saw him for a short period of time. They taught each other many things through a tug and war type of play. Catching a marlin fish was a goal of Santiago that he had been attempting to fulfill for a decent period of time, and after being persistent and patient, slowly but surely he was able to succeed. Many symbols in Hemingway’s novel have their own counterparts in my own life, which include a goal, hope, and idolization.
succeed. He uses his hands and he uses his instincts to master the art of
"There is never a simple key to any writer worth much attention, but in the case of Hemingway there is something that looks so like a key that it cannot escape any informed and thoughtful reader's notice" (O'Conner 153). Ernest Hemingway was one such author. Very rarely did he summarize statements, therefore the only way to solve his puzzle was to take it apart and examine each components. One of the hidden elements that the reader must analyzie closely is the parallel between Santiago and Jesus Christ. In the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway creates connections between Santiago and Jesus Christ that adds religious coloration to the story.
The Old Man and the Sea is the story of a fight between an elderly, accomplished fisherman, Santiago, and a really big fish. Like... HUGE. The story opens with Santiago suffering eighty-four days without catching a fish because he's the unluckiest son-of-a-bitch on planet earth. Honestly, if you were in a boat for eighty-four days, it'd be hard to NOT catch a fish... even by accident. Santiago was so unlucky that his apprentice, Manolin, was forbidden by his Ma and Pa to fish with him.
“Survival is the ability to swim in strange water” (Frank Herbert). Pi demonstrated life on the Pacific as a test of all aspects. Life on the Pacific tested his physical endurance, he was lost for two-hundred and seventy seven days. In that time, Pi demonstrates his faith towards God, himself, and Richard Parker. Pi develops a robust bond with Richard Parker, then connecting spiritually. Survival in the novel Life of Pi is etched in the deepest parts of the story. These aspects of the novel are depicted through personal and self-reflection within himself. Pi survives because of his strength, faith and a close relationship with Richard Parker.
Ernest Hemingway uses the characters in The Old Man and the Sea to demonstrate how perseverance is necessary for survival. After battling with the fish for several days, Santiago wishes the circumstances could be different: “‘Be patient, hand,’ he said. ‘I do this for you.’