Reading the old man and the sea


About the author
Ernest Hemingway, one of the greatest American writers in 20th century, is the representative of “lost generation” writer. He was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois. worked as a reporter after graduating from high school in 1917.,amd served as an ambulance driver in the Italian infantry and was wounded just before his 19th birthday. Hospitalized, Hemingway fell in love with an older nurse. In 1954, Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In his life, Hemingway married four times and wrote numerous essays, short stories and novels. The effects of Hemingway's lifelong depressions, illnesses and accidents caught up with him. In July 1961, he committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho.

About the book
The old man and the sea is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power , it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman ,down on his luck ,and his supreme ordeal ---a relentless , agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream . Here Hemingway recasts , in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat , of personal triumph won from loss . Written in 1952 ,this hugely successfully novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a huge part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature .

About the old man
Santiago is described as a failure by other fishermen in the village for catching no fish for a long time . However, he should be regarded as a hero all his life , when he had played the hand game with the great Negro from Cienfuegos who was the strongest man on the docks ;when he fight with that large marlin ; when he struggle with the sharks . You can find his optimism, confidence, wisdom, perseverance and bravery anywhere . I admire him not only because these but also his regarding these as the things he had to do , the rules he had to obey .

Such a man is really a man , a marvelous man . All the characters of him is worth being learned not only in Hemingway’s times ,but for ever ; not only for a certain kind of man , but for all of us .Let’s always remember his word “But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”