1. Surf the Internet to see the different online activities devoted to The Old Man and the Sea. Once you have an idea of the many ways the developers have chosen to explore this novella, create your own Web site, chat room, bulletin board, photo and/or illustration gallery, Web movie, […]
Read more Study Help Practice ProjectsStudy Help Essay Questions
1. Consider just some of the literary and biblical characters with whom Santiago is identified. In what ways is he the same and in what ways different? 2. Three times during the novella’s conclusion, Manolin expresses his faith in Santiago and all he represents. What do each of these three […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsStudy Help Full Glossary for The Old Man and the Sea
Adolpho Luque pitcher for the Reds and Giants and a native of Havana, Cuba. agua mala (Spanish) jellyfish; Portuguese man-of-war. albacore a tuna with unusually long pectoral fins, important as a game and food fish in all warm seas. barracuda any of a family of fierce, pikelike tropical fish: some […]
Read more Study Help Full Glossary for The Old Man and the SeaCritical Essays Foundations of Behavior in The Old Man and the Sea
Hemingway’s contention that what shows in The Old Man and the Sea is just “the tip of the iceberg” seems a particularly accurate assessment of the philosophical and socioeconomic foundations of his characters’ behavior. Among the most obvious are the disparate codes that divide the fishermen of Santiago’s village into […]
Read more Critical Essays Foundations of Behavior in The Old Man and the SeaCritical Essays Themes in The Old Man and the Sea
A commonplace among literary authorities is that a work of truly great literature invites reading on multiple levels or re-reading at various stages in the reader’s life. At each of these readings, the enduring work presumably yields extended interpretations and expanded meanings. Certainly, The Old Man and the Sea fits […]
Read more Critical Essays Themes in The Old Man and the SeaCritical Essays Hemingway’s Style
Hemingway’s writing style owes much to his career as a journalist. His use of language — so different from that of, say, his contemporary William Faulkner — is immediately identifiable by most readers. Short words, straightforward sentence structures, vivid descriptions, and factual details combine to create an almost transparent medium […]
Read more Critical Essays Hemingway’s StyleErnest Hemingway Biography
Early Years Ernest Miller Hemingway was born the second of six children in Oak Park, Illinois, on July 21, 1899. His mother, Grace, was a religious woman with musical talent, while his father, Clarence Edmonds (“Ed”) Hemingway, was an outdoorsman who loved hunting and fishing in the northern Michigan woods. […]
Read more Ernest Hemingway BiographyCharacter Analysis Marlin
The marlin is more than a great fish locked in an evenly balanced and protracted battle with an accomplished fisherman. It is also a creature onto whom Santiago projects the same qualities that he possesses, admires, and hopes to pass on: nobility of spirit, greatness in living, faithfulness to one’s […]
Read more Character Analysis MarlinCharacter Analysis Manolin
Manolin is Santiago’s last and deepest human relationship, his replacement in the generational cycle of human existence, the one to whom he wishes to entrust his skill as a fisherman, the transforming power of his vision, and his memory. As Santiago is mentor, spiritual father, and the old man or […]
Read more Character Analysis ManolinCharacter Analysis Santiago
Santiago is an impoverished old man who has endured many ordeals, whose best days are behind him, whose wife has died, and who never had children. For 84 days, he has gone without catching the fish upon which his meager existence, the community’s respect, and his sense of identity as […]
Read more Character Analysis Santiago