Ernest Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea" - analysis. "The Old Man and the Sea": the philosophical meaning of the story, the strength of the old man's character Who wrote the old man and the sea

The writing

There are many photo portraits of the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. In one of them, the camera captured the writer on the deck of his yacht Pilar. A tall, shirtless man looks directly into the sun. In his slight smile and narrowed eyes, the joy of life and faith in his lucky star shine. His face and the whole powerful figure is a living personification of male strength, courage and unbending will. Such was Hemingway in life, such were the heroes of his best works. Few of the people of the middle and older generation did not “get sick” with Hemingway in their youth. He was attracted not only by his concise and expressive prose, but also by the amazing fate that tested the great American with war, love, violent passions and adventures.

In 1946 in Cuba, which became for the American writer

Ernest Hemingway's second home, he wrote the famous story-parable "The Old Man and the Sea" - a lyrical story about an old fisherman who caught and then lost the biggest fish in his life. Hemingway's compatriot, the humanist writer William Faulkner, spoke of the story in the following way: “His best thing. Perhaps time will show that this is the best of all written by us - his and my contemporaries. This time they created themselves, molded themselves from their own clay; defeated each other, suffered each other's defeats to prove to themselves how resilient they were. This time the writer wrote about pity - about something that created everyone: an old man who had to catch a fish and then lose it; a fish that was supposed to be his prey, and then the abyss; sharks that were supposed to take her away from the old man - created them all, loved and pitied them. Everything is correct. And, thank God, what created, what loves and pities Hemingway and me, did not tell him to talk about it further.

The story was a huge success not only among compatriots, it caused a worldwide outcry. In 1953, Hemingway won the Pulitzer Prize for it. And in 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his storytelling skills, once again demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea, as well as for his influence on modern prose."

The duel of the old man with the huge fish that carried his boat along the Gulf Stream for a long time became an occasion for the author to talk about the dignity of a person, about the bitterness and happiness of the winner, who was left with the skeleton of a fish gnawed by sharks. The fisherman Santiago confirmed the truth often repeated in Hemingway's books - "The winner gets nothing", however, the image of the protagonist of the story, the old Cuban Santiago, captivates from the very first pages.

Old Santiago "was thin and emaciated, deep wrinkles cut through the back of his head, and his cheeks were covered with brown spots of harmless skin cancer, which cause the sun's rays reflected by the surface of the tropical sea". His hands were covered with old scars, "like cracks in a long-waterless desert", cut through by a tow line when he pulled out a large fish. But there were no fresh scars. Everything about this old man was old except for the eyes. They were "the cheerful eyes of a man who does not give up." And yet he had something to be discouraged about. For eighty-four days he had been fishing all alone in his boat in the Gulf Stream, but he had not caught a single fish. For the first forty days the boy Manolin was with him. But day after day did not bring a catch, and the parents sent the boy from the "most unlucky" old loser to another boat, "which did bring three good fish in the first week." It was hard for Manolin to watch how the old man returned every day without a catch, and he went ashore to help him carry tackle or a hook, a harpoon and a sail wrapped around the mast. On the eighty-fifth day, early in the morning, the old man goes on another fishing trip. And this time he "believes in luck." Swimming and fishing still bring joy to the old man. He loves the sea, thinks of it with tenderness, as a woman who "gives great favors." He loves both birds and fish that live in the bottomless green mass. Having put a bait on the hooks, he slowly swims with the flow, mentally communicates with birds, with fish. Accustomed to loneliness, he talks aloud to himself. Nature, the ocean are perceived by him as a living being.

But then serious fishing begins, and all Santiago's attention is focused on the fishing line, its condition: he sensitively captures what is happening in the depths, how the fish reacts to the bait pinned on the hook. At last one of the green twigs trembled, which meant that, at a depth of a hundred fathoms, the marlin began to devour the sardines. The fishing line begins to go down, sliding between his fingers, and he feels a huge weight that entails it. A dramatic many-hour duel between Santiago and a huge fish unfolds.

The old man tries to pull up the fishing line, but he does not succeed. On the contrary, the fish pulls, as if in tow, the boat behind them, slowly shifting to the northwest. About four hours pass. Noon approaches. This cannot go on forever, the old man reflects, soon the fish will die and then it will be possible to pull it up. But the fish is too tenacious. “I would like to see her,” the old man thinks. “I would like to look at her with at least one eye, then I would know with whom I am dealing.” The old man talks to the fish as to a creature endowed with reason, although he does not yet see it, but only feels its heaviness: “Are you sick, fish? he asks. “God knows, it’s not easier for me myself.” “Fish,” says the old man, “I love and respect you very much. But I will kill you…” Santiago struggles with the fish, patiently waiting for it to run out of strength.

The night passes. The fish pulls the boat farther from the shore. Old man. tired, he tightly grips the rope thrown over his shoulder. He cannot be distracted. He is very sorry that Manolin is not around to help him. “It is impossible for a person to remain alone in old age,” he inspires himself ... “But this is inevitable.” The thought of the fish never leaves him for a second. Sometimes he feels sorry for her. “Well, isn’t this fish a miracle, God alone knows how many years it has lived in the world. Never before have I come across such a strong fish. And just think how strange she is acting. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t jump, because she’s very smart.” Again and again he regrets that his young assistant is not next to him. Refreshed by caught raw tuna, he continues to mentally talk to the fish. “I will not part with you until I die,” the old man tells her.

This is the first time he has to fight such a huge fish alone. Not believing in God, he reads the prayer "Our Father" ten times. He feels better, but the pain in his arm does not decrease. He understands that the fish is huge, that he needs to conserve his strength. “Although this is unfair,” he convinces himself, “but I will prove to her what a person is capable of and what he can endure.” Santiago calls himself an "extraordinary old man" and must confirm this.

Another day passes. To somehow distract himself, he reminisces about playing in baseball leagues. He remembers how once in a Casablanca tavern he measured his strength with a mighty black man, the strongest man in the port, how they sat at the table for a whole day, not lowering their hands, and how he finally prevailed. He participated in such fights more than once, won, but then gave up this business, deciding that he needed his right hand for fishing.

The last act of Santiago's duel with a huge fish comes. The old man feels that this fish is a worthy opponent, and understands that he must kill it in order to survive himself. And his only weapon in this duel is will and reason.

Both the fish and the old man were exhausted. Both suffer unbearably. "You're killing me, fish... But you have the right to do so," the old man admits. But still Santiago wins the fish. He “collected all his pain, and all the rest of his strength, and all his long-lost pride, and threw it all against the torment that the fish endured, and then it turned over and quietly swam on its side, almost reaching the side of the boat with its sword; she almost swam past, long, wide, silver, intertwined with purple stripes, and it seemed that she would never end. Picking up the harpoon, the old man, with all the strength that is left in it, plunges it into the side of the fish. He feels the iron enter her flesh and push it deeper and deeper...

Now the old man ties the fish to the boat and starts moving towards the shore. Mentally, he estimates that the fish weighs at least fifteen hundred pounds, which can be sold for thirty cents a pound. Referring to the famous baseball player, he says to himself, "I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today." And even though his hands are still bleeding, he is tired, exhausted, but he defeated the fish. The direction of the wind tells him which way to swim to get home. But here a new danger awaits him. Smelling the smell of blood, the first shark appears and rushes after the boat and the fish tied to it. She is in a hurry because the prey is close. She approached the stern, her mouth dug into the skin and meat of the fish, began to tear it apart. In rage and anger, gathering all his strength, the old man hit her with a harpoon. Soon she sinks to the bottom, dragging with her both the harpoon, and part of the rope, and a huge piece of fish.

“Man is not created to suffer defeat,” the old man says, words that have become textbook. “A man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated.”

It is reinforced by a piece of fish meat in the part where the shark's teeth have been. And at that moment he notices the fins of a whole flock of spotted predators. They are approaching at great speed. The old man meets them by lifting an oar with a knife tied to it... And at midnight “he fought the sharks again and this time he knew that the fight was useless. They attacked him in a whole flock, and he saw only the stripes on the water that their fins traced, and the glow when they rushed to tear the fish. He beat them on the heads with a truncheon and heard the jaws snap and the boat shake as they grabbed the fish from below. He desperately beat with a baton on something invisible that he could only hear and touch, and suddenly he felt something grab the baton, and the baton was gone. Finally the sharks left. They had nothing to eat.

When the old man entered the bay, everyone was already asleep. Having dismantled the mast and tying the sail, he felt the full extent of his weariness. Behind the stern of his boat rose a huge fish tail. All that was left of her was a gnawed white skeleton. He entered the hut, lay down on the bed and fell asleep. The fisherman was still asleep when Manolin came to see him. He assures the old man that from now on they will fish together, because he still has a lot to learn from him. He believes that he will bring good luck to Santiago. “They got me, Manolin,” Santiago complains. “They beat me.” But the boy reassures the old man, objecting: “But she herself couldn’t defeat you! The fish didn't beat you!" Yes, the fish couldn't beat Santiago. It was he who defeated the fish, and with it, both old age and mental pain. He won because he thought not about his luck and not about himself, but about this fish, which he hurts; about the stars and lions that I saw when I was still sailing as a cabin boy on a sailboat to the shores of Africa; about his difficult life. He won because he saw the meaning of life in the struggle, he knew how to endure suffering and never lose hope.

Hemingway's story is written in the form of reasoning, memories of the old man Santiago, his conversation with himself. In the remarks of this wise man there are many aphorisms that emphasize the credo of Hemingway - a writer and a strong, courageous person: “Never regret anything. Never count losses”, “... man is not created to suffer defeat. Man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated." Stoically following his idea of ​​honor and dignity, old Santiago, even in his defeat, managed to win an unconditional victory. He was a real person who didn't give up.

Once again I return - a true classic of the 20th century. "The Old Man and the Sea" is a truly unusual story, full of allusions, metaphors, symbols. On the one hand, we seem to be following the story of an ordinary fisherman and the fish he caught, but on the other hand, this is a story about a man and his struggle with nature. And you can find a dozen such sides in this work, for example, praising courage and masculinity (such a typical feature for all of Hemingway's work), the courage of a person as an individual in the face of danger, as well as his opposition to the image of social groups that dominate right now in our minds . For one reader, this story will seem like the most ordinary story about a futile attempt to achieve happiness, while someone will find more "distant" messages. It is thanks to this ambiguity in the interpretation that we find a reason to discuss this work.

In the center of the plot is the old fisherman Santiago, who again goes to sea in his small boat. For 84 days now, he has not been able to catch a decent fish, and the thirst for profit takes him further from the coast, and now a huge fish is already on the hook. A real struggle for life begins, and from both sides, and in desperate attempts to free themselves, the fish takes the old man's boat far into the sea. The fight lasts for two days, and the old man Santiago overcomes the enemy in an equal fight, but on the way home, all this precious catch disappears in the teeth of voracious sharks.

“The Old Man and the Sea” is a later work by Hemingway, so it is possible to trace in it the main features that he scrupulously worked out throughout his entire work. Using the example of Santiago, he demonstrates the courage and steel character of this old man. For Hemingway, the paramount concept is a strong, tough, brave and courageous person who does not even think about appearing like that - because he is like that. We see the echoes of such a person in the face; this image is synthesized even more firmly in the novel For Whom the Bell Tolls in the image of Robert Jordan. Hemingway does not change himself in his chosen style, which is still characterized by verbal and descriptive stinginess. All this "variegated" style has long been a victim due to a different priority - the creation of an individuality, an internally strong personality that does its job regardless of any circumstances, and does it very well.

Probably, not everyone is able to truly appreciate or accept the world created by Hemingway, because of its excessive callousness, imbued with machismo and brutality literally from all sides. Perhaps it is doubly difficult because the modern world completely rejects such radical individualism, which we have the opportunity to observe in almost every Hemingway work. He endowed Santiago with such a character. Yes, if this old man were at least twice a murderer or a traitor, one could hardly help but sympathize with him in this situation! That is the power of Ernest Hemingway's words!

But there is also a downside to this story. After all, behind the guise of such a pronounced individualism, there is a person who is actually not so alone. After all, he has a friend - a little boy who always helped him in fishing. While still a five-year-old toddler, he devoted his time to the old man, but one day he left for another, more successful boat, as his parents believed. But even at the moment when Santiago was embroiled in a desperate struggle with the fish, he did not stop repeating: "If only the boy were here now." Personally, I see hope in this! The belief that a person is not alone, and even having managed to comprehend the evil, insidious and greedy side of life, he will surely have a chance to meet a person who will empathize sincerely.

The life of most modern people has long moved from small settlements to large labyrinths of megacities, so every day we have less and less contact with wildlife, but Hemingway makes you feel some innate instinct, more inherent in our distant ancestors, when your ability depended on your inner strength survive in the environment. Even more remarkable is that Hemingway allows you to know the true strength, courage and bravery of a person, but he does this not with the help of weapons, but with the help of words!

Year of publication of the book: 1952

The story "The Old Man and the Sea" by Hemingway was first published in 1952 in one of the American periodicals. It was for this work that the writer received the Pulitzer Prize. Based on Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea", many performances were staged and several feature films were shot. The last film in 2012 was Shal, produced in Kazakhstan.

The story "The Old Man and the Sea" summary

Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an old man named Santiago has been going to sea every day for more than two months, but he never manages to catch anything. Because of this, the inhabitants of his village consider the hero unlucky. A few days ago, Santiago went to sea in the company of a boy named Manolin. However, now the parents of this same boy forbade their son to communicate with the old man, because they believed that he brings him bad luck. Nevertheless, Manolin is very fond of Santiago, who taught him all the tricks of fishing. The boy even buys large sardines, which would pass for good bait, and brings them to the old fisherman's house.

In the work "The Old Man and the Sea" we can read that Santiago himself lives quite modestly and has even come to terms with his poor life. The next morning, the old man again goes fishing, which, as it were, will bring terrible trials. Manolin helps him prepare the boat for sailing. With all his heart, the main character believes that this time he will be lucky. While fishing, he enjoys the view of the sea and plunges into memories. The first fish to take the bait is a small tuna. Santiago was delighted, expecting larger fish to swim near the tuna.

In the work “The Old Man and the Sea”, the summary says that soon the old man’s fishing rod begins to stretch to the side. Pulling on the line, Santiago realizes that a huge fish has pecked at his bait. He tries to pull her out, but to no avail. The hero regrets that there is no Manolin next to him now, who could help him get the fish. Meanwhile, evening falls, and Santiago's hands are already scarred from the fishing line. He pulls on the line and puts a bag under it to be able to rest a little.

In Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" we can read that throughout the night the fish continues to pull the old man's boat as far as possible from the village. Despite being very tired, Santiago does not stop thinking about how lucky he was in the form of a large fish. The hero understands that he will try to get her to the last. In the morning, the exhausted old man was forced to eat a single tuna. From pulling the fishing line, Santiago's left hand was cramped. Suddenly, the same fish appears above the water. She was purple in color and had a huge sword sharp nose. The old man is surprised because he has never seen such a large fish. Now he certainly doesn't want to lose her.

In Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the summary tells that another day passes, and the main character is still fighting the fish. Distracted from hunger and loneliness, he begins to remember his childhood and youth, and even talks to himself. Alternately changing hands, he continues to hold the line so as not to miss the exhausted fish. At night, the old man manages to drive the harpoon into the side of the prey. He ties her to the boat and heads home.

Meanwhile, a shark had already swum up to the smell of blood. Santiago gets rid of her with a harpoon. However, having plunged to the bottom, the shark took the weapon with it. In addition, she managed to bite off a large piece of fish. After that, there were several more sharks, which Santiago tried to scare away with a knife and a huge club. They all took turns biting the fish, so the old man soon noticed that he only had a huge prey head and its backbone tied to the boat.

Ernest Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" tells how an exhausted Santiago enters the bay and goes home. Manolin comes to him in the morning. The boy notices the wounded hands of the protagonist and tries to think how to help the old man. He brings him coffee and tells him that he wants to continue fishing together so that Santiago doesn't feel lonely. That same morning, all the inhabitants of the village are considering the old man's huge catch. Even the tourists gathered around the fish, trying to figure out what exactly Santiago had caught. The old man continues to sleep soundly and sees in a dream huge lions walking along the coast of Africa.

The story "The Old Man and the Sea" on the Top Books website

Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea" is still as popular to read as it was decades ago. Thanks to this, the story got into ours, as well as into. And given the consistently high interest in the work and work of Hemingway, we will see this work more than once among.

The Old Man and the Sea is Ernest Hemingway's most famous novel. The idea of ​​the work was nurtured by the author for many years, but the final version of the story was published only in 1952, when Hemingway moved to Cuba and resumed his literary activity after participating in World War II.

At that time, Ernest Hemingway was already a recognized writer. His novels Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, collections of short prose Men Without Women, The Snows of Kilimanjaro were in great demand among readers and were successfully published.

The Old Man and the Sea brought Hemingway two of the most prestigious awards in the field of literature - the Pulitzer and the Nobel Prizes. The first was awarded to the writer in 1953, the second - a year later, in 1954. The wording of the Nobel Committee was as follows: "For the narrative skill, once again demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea."

The story is truly a masterpiece. She inspired many cultural figures to create new works, in particular artistic adaptations. The first film was made in 1958. The issuing country is the USA. The director's chair was taken by John Sturgess, the role of old man Santiago was played by Spencer Tracy.

Screen version of the work

In 1990, Jud Taylor directed another TV version of the cult work. And in 1999, Russia went on a bold experiment by releasing an animated version of The Old Man and the Sea. The short animation won BAFTA and Oscar awards.

The most recent project based on the story was released in 2012. This is the film "The Old Man" from the Kazakh director Ermek Tursunov. He was warmly received by critics and nominated for the national Nika award.

Let's remember the plot of this realistic and magical, cruel and touching, simple and infinitely deep work.

Cuba. Havana. An old fisherman named Santiago is getting ready for his next trip to the sea. This season is not good for Santiago. This is the eighty-fourth time he has returned without a catch. The old man is no longer what he used to be. His hands lost their former strength and dexterity, deep wrinkles dotted his face, neck, nape, from constant physical labor and poverty, he emaciated and dried up. Only the still mighty shoulders and eyes of the color of the sea, "the cheerful eyes of a man who never gives up," remained unchanged.

Santiago really wasn't in the habit of falling into despair. Despite the hardships of life, he "never lost hope or faith in the future." And now, on the eve of the eighty-fifth exit to the sea, Santiago does not intend to retreat. The evening before fishing with him is spent by his faithful friend - the neighbor's boy Manolin. The boy used to be Santiago's partner, but due to the failures that befell the old fisherman, Manolin's parents forbade him to go to sea with the old man and sent him to a more successful boat.

Despite the fact that young Manolo now has a stable income, he misses fishing with old man Santiago. He was his first teacher. It seems that then Manolin was about five years old when he first went with the old man to the sea. Manolo was almost killed by the mighty blow of the fish that Santiago caught. Yes, then the old man was still lucky.

Good friends - the old man and the boy - talked a little about baseball, sports celebrities, fishing and those distant times when Santiago was still as young as Manolin and sailed on a fishing boat to the shores of Africa. Falling asleep on a chair in his poor hut, Santiago sees the African coast and the handsome lions who come out to look at the fishermen.

Saying goodbye to the boy, Santiago goes to sea. This is his element, here he feels free and calm, as if in a well-known house. Young people call the sea el mar (masculine) and treat it as a rival and even an enemy. The old man, on the other hand, always called him la mar (feminine) and never dislikes this sometimes capricious, but always desirable and pliable element. Santiago "constantly thinks of the sea as a woman who bestows great favors or refuses them, and if she allows herself to act rashly or unkindly, what can you do, such is her nature."

The old man talks with marine life - flying fish, sea swallows, huge turtles, colorful physalia. He loves flying fish and considers them his best friends, faithful companions during long swims. He regrets sea swallows for their fragility and defenselessness. Fizaliy hates because their poison killed many sailors. He enjoys watching them being devoured by mighty turtles. The old man ate turtle eggs and drank shark oil all summer to gain strength before the autumn season when the really big fish came.

Santiago is sure that luck will smile on him today. He specifically swims far into the sea to great depths. There is probably a fish waiting for him here.

Soon the fishing line really starts to move - someone pecked at his treat. "Eat, fish. Eat. Well, eat, please, - the old man says, - The sardines are so fresh, and you are so cold in the water, at a depth of six hundred feet ... Don't be shy, fish. Eat, please."

The fish is full of tuna, now it's time to pull the line. Then the hook will plunge into the very heart of the prey, it will float to the surface and be finished off by the harpoon. Such a depth - the fish, for sure, is huge!

But, to the surprise of the old man, the fish did not appear above the sea surface. With a powerful jerk, she pulled the boat behind her and began to drag it into the open sea. The old man clung to the line with force. He won't release this fish. Not so easy.

For four hours the fish had been pulling the boat with the old man like a huge tugboat. Santiago was as weary as his prey. He was thirsty and hungry, the straw hat hit his head, and the hand clutching the fishing line ached treacherously. But the main thing is that the fish did not appear on the surface. “I would like to look at her with at least one eye,” the old man reasoned aloud, “then I would know with whom I am dealing.”

The lights of Havana had long since disappeared from view, the sea area was shrouded in night darkness, and the duel between fish and man continued. Santiago admired his opponent. He had never come across such a strong fish, "she grabbed the bait like a male, and fights me like a male, without any fear."

If only this miracle fish realized its advantage, if only it could see that its opponent is one person, and that old man. She could rush with all her might or rush to the bottom like a stone and kill the old man. Fortunately, fish are not as smart as people, although they are more dexterous and noble.

Now the old man is happy that he had the honor to fight such a worthy opponent. The only pity is that there is no boy nearby, he would certainly want to see this duel with his own eyes. With a boy it would not be so difficult and lonely. A person should not be left alone in old age - Santiago argues aloud - but this, alas, is inevitable.

At dawn, the old man eats the tuna that the boy gave him. He needs to gain strength to continue the fight. “I should have fed the big fish,” Santiago thinks, “because they are my relatives.” But this cannot be done, he will catch her in order to show the boy and prove what a person is capable of and what he can endure. "Fish, I love and respect you very much, but I will kill you before the evening comes."

Finally, Santiago's mighty adversary surrenders. The fish jumps to the surface and appears before the old man in all its dazzling splendor. Her smooth body shimmered in the sun, with dark purple stripes running down her sides, and for a nose she had a sword as big as a baseball stick and sharp as a rapier.

Gathering the rest of his strength, the old man enters the final battle. The fish is circling around the boat, in its death throes trying to turn over the flimsy boat. Having contrived, Santiago plunges the harpoon into the body of the fish. This is victory!

Tying the fish to the boat, it seems to the old man that he has clung to the side of a huge ship. You can get a lot of money for such fish. Now it's time to hurry home to the lights of Havana.

Trouble appeared very soon in the guise of a shark. She was drawn to the blood that flowed from the wound on the side of the fish. Armed with a harpoon, the old man killed the predator. She dragged to the bottom a piece of fish that she managed to grab, a harpoon and the whole rope. This fight was won, but the old man knew full well that others would follow the shark. First they will eat the fish, and then they will take him.

Another masterpiece from Ernest Hemingway is a novel about an American who came to Spain during the civil war in 1937.

In anticipation of predators, the old man's thoughts were confused. He thought aloud about sin, the definition of which he did not understand and in which he did not believe, he thought about the strength of the spirit, the limits of human endurance, the saving elixir of hope, and about the fish that he killed this afternoon.

Maybe in vain he killed this strong noble fish? He got the better of her thanks to cunning, but she fought honestly, without preparing any evil for him. Not! He did not kill the fish out of petty desire for profit, he killed it out of pride, because he is a fisherman and she is a fish. But he loves her and now they swim side by side like brothers.

The next flock of sharks began to attack the boat even more rapidly. Predators pounced on the fish, snatching off pieces of its flesh with their powerful jaws. The old man tied a knife to the oar and thus tried to fight off the sharks. He killed a few of them, maimed others, but it was beyond his strength to cope with a whole flock. Now he is too weak for such a duel.

When old Santiago landed on the coast of Havana, there was a huge skeleton at the side of his boat - sharks gnawed it whole. No one dared to speak to Santiago. What a fish! She must have been a real beauty! Only the boy came to visit his friend. Now he will again go to sea with the old man. Santiago has no more luck? Nonsense! The boy will bring it again! Do not dare to despair, because you, old man, never lose heart. You will still be useful. And even if your hands are no longer as strong as before, you can teach the boy, because you know everything in the world.

The sun shone serenely over the coast of Havana. A group of tourists with curiosity examined someone's huge skeleton. The big fish is probably a shark. They never thought they had such graceful tails. Meanwhile, the boy guarded the sleeping old man. The old man dreamed of lions.

The writing

At the lesson of foreign literature, we studied the work of E. Hemingway "The Old Man and the Sea." Literary critics define the genre of this work as a story-parable, i.e. a work that tells about the fate and certain events of the hero's life, but this story has an allegorical character, deep moral and philosophical content. The story is closely connected with all the previous works of the writer and looks like the pinnacle of his thoughts about the meaning of life. The story can be told in a few sentences. There lived a lonely old fisherman. Recently, fishing fate, like people, has left him, but the old man did not give up. He goes out to sea again and again, and in the end he is happy: a huge fish is caught on the bait, the struggle between the old man and the fish lasts for several days, and the man wins, and the gluttonous sharks attack the fisherman's prey and destroy it. When the old man's boat comes ashore, only the skeleton remains of the beautiful fish. The exhausted old man returns to his poor hut.

However, the content of the story is much broader and richer. Hemingway likened his works to an iceberg, which is only a small part visible from the water, and the rest is hidden in the ocean space. A literary text is that part of the iceberg that is visible on the surface, and the reader can only guess what the author left unspoken, left it for the reader to interpret. Therefore, the story has a deep symbolic content.

The title of the work evokes certain associations, hints at the main problems: man and nature, mortal and eternal, ugly and beautiful, etc. The union "and" ("The Old Man and the Sea") unites and at the same time opposes these concepts. The characters and events of the story concretize these associations, deepen and sharpen the problems stated in the title. The old man symbolizes human experience and at the same time its limitations. Next to the old fisherman, the author depicts a little boy who is learning and learning from the old man. And when the old fisherman is not happy, the parents forbid the boy to go to sea with him. In a fight with a fish, the old man really needs help, and he regrets that there is no boy nearby, and understands that this is natural. Old age, he thinks, should not be lonely, and this is inevitable.

The theme of human loneliness is revealed by the author in the symbolic paintings of a fragile boat against the backdrop of a boundless ocean. The ocean symbolizes eternity and irresistible natural force. Hemingway is sure that a person can be destroyed, but not defeated. The old man brought his ability to resist nature, he withstood the hardest test in his life, because, despite his loneliness, he thought about people (memories of the boy, their conversations about an outstanding baseball player, about sports news support him at a moment when his strength almost left).

At the end of the story, Hemingway also touches on the topic of misunderstanding between people. He depicts a group of tourists who are amazed only by the size of the skeleton of the fish and do not understand at all the tragedy of the old man, about which one of the heroes is trying to tell them. The symbolism of the story is complex, and each reader perceives this work according to his experience.

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