Because The Old Man and the Sea is a novella it obviously has a conflict, which in turn has causes, gains, and losses. In this particular book it is almost silly how obvious the conflicts actually are. The initial conflict is that the old man has hit a dry spell of eighty-four days. He has not caught one fish in that time and he seems to think that the cause is because he is very unlucky. Although I am pretty sure after going that long without a fish on his hook it has nothing to do with luck and more about what is happening in the natural habitat that he is fishing in. From this initial conflict he has gained extreme patience. As for losses, coming from the mind of a teenager he really did not lose much of anything besides some quality sleep time. He may have lost a little bit of his sanity through the long days as well.
Now comes the big kahuna of conflicts. The old man finally caught the fish of his dreams but it is almost to big to tame! But as I said in my previous blog the old man has incredible will power. He decides to hold on to the fish for dear life. It is going to be a fight to the death. Who will win? You decide! Not really, but that could be fun. The loss in this conflict is obviously blood. Ok, that is only a part of it, because we all know it is the fish. The fish is his dream come true and now a friend in the rough waters of the ocean. Even though his plan was to kill and sell the fish he was saddened by it's demise. In the end the gain seemed worth all of the struggle. The boy now admires and loves the old man for everything he stands for and all of the tribulations that he faced on the sea.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment