The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Miller Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
"The Old Man and the Sea", written by the American writer Hemingway. "The Old Man and the Sea" is Hemingway's masterpiece and a symbolic novel. The protagonist Santiago is an old fisherman. After many hardships and dangers, he caught "a big marlin weighing more than 1,500 pounds." However, the big marlin was eaten up by sharks. Santiago Brother Ya only dragged back a fish skeleton.
Story Summary
Santiago is an old fisherman in Cuba. He was very outstanding and strong when he was young. He once competed with a black man in arm wrestling for a day and a night. Finally defeated the opponent. In his later years, his experiences and reactions were not as good as before. After his wife died, he lived alone in a simple hut by the sea.
For a while, the old fisherman was fishing alone in a small boat. He fished for 84 days in a row, but he didn't catch a single fish. Originally, a boy named Manolin was always with him, but as time went by, Manolin's parents thought that the old man was unlucky and ordered the child to take another boat to go to sea. Sure enough, they caught three good fish in the first week. Every time the child sees the old man returning home empty-handed every day, he feels very sad and always has to help him get something.
Santiago is thin and haggard, with wrinkles on the back of his neck and pimples on his face, but his eyes are as blue as the sea and there is no trace of depression. He and the child have been friends for many years. The old man taught the child to fish because the child loved him very much. Many fishermen in the village made fun of the old man because he couldn't catch fish, but in Manolin's eyes, the old man was the best fisherman. They fish not only to make money, but as a hobby. The child prepared meals for the old man and commented on the softball game with him. The old man especially admires the softball player DiMaggio. He is the son of a fisherman. Although he has a splinter on his heel, he plays ball with flying colors. The old man thought that he was old and his physical strength was not as good as his prime, but he knew many tricks of fishing and was very determined, so he was still a good fisherman.
The old man and the child met to go to sea together early the next day, the 85th day. After waking up in the middle of the night, he walked under the moonlight to wake up the child. The two took two boats, and after leaving the port, they each sailed to the sea of ??their choice.
The old man has already put down the bait before dawn. The belly of the bait is wrapped with the handle of the fishhook, and the protruding parts of the fishhook are wrapped with fresh sardines. The bait is fragrant and delicious.
While Santiago was looking at the fishing line intently, he saw a green pole emerging from the water and quickly attached to the water. He held the fishing line lightly with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. Then the fishing line moved again, and the pull was not strong. The old man understood that, a hundred fathoms below, a marlin was eating a sardine he had caught. He felt a slight tug underneath and was very happy. After a while he felt something hard and heavy. He concluded that it was a big fish. This inspired him to challenge it.
The old man first let go of the fishing line, then shouted loudly, and used all his strength to close the fishing line, but the fish refused to give in easily. Instead of coming up an inch, it slowly swam away. The old man carried the fishing line on his back to increase the pulling force against the marlin, but it had little effect. He watched the boat float to the northwest. The old man thought that the fish would die soon if he exerted too much force, but four hours later, the fish was still dragging the boat towards the boundless sea, and the old man still held on to the fishing line on his back without any slack. They confront.
At this time, the old man looked back and saw that the land had disappeared from his sight. The sun sets in the west and the sky is filled with stars. The old man made a judgment based on his observation of the stars: the big fish did not change its direction all night long. It was cold at night, and the old man's sweat dried up, and he felt cold all over. He put a sack under the fishing line on his shoulder to reduce friction, then bent over the bow of the boat, and he felt much more comfortable.
In order to persevere, he kept talking to fish, birds, and the sea, constantly recalling the past, and thinking of Manolin. He said to himself loudly: "It would be great if the child was here, so that he could help Let me take a look at all this again."
It was very cold before dawn, and the old man leaned against the wood to keep warm. He thought that as long as the fish could last, so could I. He said loudly in a gentle tone: "Fish, as long as I don't die, I will fight with you to the end." After the sun rose, the old man found that the fish was not tired yet, but the slope of the fishing line showed that the fish might jump up. It was something he couldn't ask for. He said: "Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I must kill you before dark today." The fish became restless, and it suddenly rocked the boat. The old man touched the fishing line with his right hand and found that his hand was bleeding. After a while, his left hand cramped again, but he still tried his best to hold on. He ate a few pieces of tuna to give him some strength to deal with the big fish.
At this moment, the fishing line slowly rose, and the big fish finally came out of the water. In the sun, this whole body is bright and colorful. It was 18 feet long, bigger than his boat. Its beak is as long as a softball bat and as pointed as a slender sword. After its scythe-like tail entered the water, the fishing line slid down quickly.
The old man and the big fish continued to fight until sunset. The two sides had been fighting for two days and one night. The old man couldn't help but recall the experience of competing with a black man in Casalanca when he was young. They put their elbows on the chalk line on the table, with their forearms straight and their hands clasped, and they stayed in this stalemate all day and night. After eight hours, a referee will be replaced every four hours and they will take turns sleeping. His and the black man's fingernails were bleeding. The fisherman who betted the black man drank rum and exerted all his strength to push his hand down nearly three inches. However, Santiago pulled his hand back to its original position and at dawn the next day, he struggled to remove the black man's hand. He was knocked down by his hand, and from then on he became the "champion" in people's minds.
The protracted battle between the old man and the big fish continued from night to dawn. The big fish jumped twelve times and began to circle around the boat. The old man was dizzy and saw black dots shaking in front of his eyes, but he still held on to the fishing line tightly. When the fish swam up to him, he dropped the fishing line and stepped on it, then raised the harpoon high and plunged it into the fish. The big fish jumped into the air, fully demonstrating its beauty and strength, and then fell into the water with a roar. The waves splashed all over the old man and the entire boat.
The fish lay on its back, its silver-white belly turned up, and the blood flowing out from its heart dyed the blue water red. The old man tied the big fish to the side of the boat and returned successfully. But more than an hour later, the shark smelled the bloody smell of the big fish and followed it to eat the fish. The old man saw the blue back of the first shark that came. He got his harpoon ready and killed the first shark. A few hours later, two more sharks approached the stern of the boat to bite the tail of the big fish. The old man tied a knife to the oar and killed the two invading sharks. However, the knife also broke during the subsequent fight, so he switched to a short knife. stick. However, when sharks came in droves in the middle of the night, he had no way to deal with them, but he persisted in fighting and even broke the rudder of the boat. In the end, the sharks ate up the old man's two days of hard work, leaving only the fish head. And the fish tail...
The boat sailed into the small harbor and the old man returned to his shack. After dawn, people saw the huge white fish spine next to the boat. Everyone marveled at the old man Santiago.
The next morning, the child came to visit the old man and burst into tears when he saw that he was so tired that he fell asleep. When the old man woke up, the child brought him a cup of steaming coffee. The two made an appointment to go fishing together in a few days. The child said that he still had a lot to learn. After the child left, the old man fell asleep, and he dreamed of African lions again...
This book tells the story of an old fisherman named Santiago in Cuba, who went fishing alone. , after 84 days of catching nothing, he caught an extremely huge marlin. This was a big fish that the old man had never seen or heard of that was two feet longer than his boat. The fish was so big and powerful that it dragged the boat drifting for two days and two nights. During these two days and nights, the old man went through a difficult test he had never experienced before, and finally stabbed the big fish to death and tied it to the bow of the boat.
However, he encountered a shark at this time. The old man fought with the shark to the death. As a result, the big marlin was eaten up by the shark. In the end, the old man dragged home only a bare fish skeleton.
Wonderful language
1. Every day is a new day. Of course it's good to be lucky. But I would rather do it exactly. That way, when luck comes, you'll be prepared.
2. But then again, nothing is easy.
3. "But people are not born for failure," he said, "A person can be destroyed, but not defeated."
4. Clouds over the land At this time, it stood like a hill, and there was only a long green line left on the coast, with some gray-green hills behind it. The sea water was now blue, so deep that it was almost purple.