Old Man and the Sea (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Ernest Hemingway: Book Cover

    Old Man and the Sea (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Ernest Hemingway

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    (Paperback - Older Edition)

    • Pub. Date: August 2003
    • 64pp

      Reader Rating: (6 ratings)

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      Product Details

      • Pub. Date: August 2003
      • Publisher: Spark Publishing
      • Format: Paperback, 64pp

      Synopsis

      SparkNotes

      Today’s Most Popular Study Guides

      The Old Man and the Sea

      Ernest Hemingway

      Smarter Better Faster

      The Old Man and the Sea

      • Featuring explanations of key Themes, Motifs, and Symbols including:
      Life from Death Honor in Defeat and Death Shovel-Nosed Sharks

      The Marlin Lions on the Beach

      Crucifixion Imagery

      • And detailed analysis of these important characters:
      Santiago

      Manolin

      SparkNotes

      Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes give you just what you need to succeed in school.

      Each SparkNote contains:

      • Complete Plot Summary and Analysis
      • Key Facts about the Work
      • Analysis of Major Characters
      • Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
      • Explanation of Important Quotations
      • Author’s Historical Context
      • Suggested Essay Topics
      • 25-Question Review Quiz
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      Join millions of students at SparkNotes.com where you’ll find over 1000 study guides on history, poetry, philosophy, mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Post questions, get help from other students, and browse the most recent additions to the SparkNotes collection.

      Spark Publishing’s Literature Guides are celebrating their 5th Anniversary! To celebrate this, we’re giving our TOP 50 a revamp by adding some exciting new features.

      There will be sixteen pages devoted to writing a literary essay including:

      • Glossary of literary terms,
      • Step by step tutoring on how to write a literary essay
      • Feature on how not to plagiarized.

      Each book will also include an A+ Essay; an actual literary essay written about the Spark-ed book, to show students how an essay should be written.

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      Biography

      The winner of the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature, Ernest Hemingway is one of the true giants of modern American literature. Hemingway's punchy, pared-down style and ability to zero in on the perfect characterizing detail of a person or scene has influenced every serious novelist of the second half of the 20th century. Everyone reads him at one time or another.

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      Customer Reviews

      in response to 'MM, an English student doing a review'by Anonymous

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      September 24, 2007: i think the skin cancer is benevolent because the dark patches around his eyes reduces the glare from the sun on the water, hence his particularly good eyesight. comments?

      A Fisherman's Snuff Movie, Cloaked In 'Noble Savage' Stereotypes.by Anonymous

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      April 06, 2004: The novel ?The Old Man and the Sea? was written by famous author and machismo poster boy Ernest Hemingway. It is a work of fiction that is widely believed to be based on the author?s fishing experiences with hired hands during his sojourn in pre-Castro Cuba, where he maintained an estate. In particular he claimed to be inspired by one specific news account he wrote for Esquire magazine, about an old man?s traumatic loss of most of his catch due to sharks. The article, which, contrary to the basic conventions of journalism, neglects to supply the name of the ?old man?, sums up most of the events in the book. What a shame Mr. Hemingway wasn?t satisfied with that account. But no, he had to expand the basic story so that he could dwell in loving detail on the death agonies of various sea creatures, and maunder on about the alleged simplicity of the poverty-stricken old man?s life. Yes, death is a part of life, and it?s honest to be aware of how one?s meat is brought to table. Yes, there is dignity in the struggle that people wage against dire circumstances. But must we be subjected to Mr. Hemingway?s suspect romanticization of hunting and subsistence level existence? And why is it that so often the dialogue in these sorts of Tarzan-like yarns is so awkward? We understand that the characters are supposed to be speaking in their own language, and that the author is trying to give some sense of that, but the result is characters who come across as being of subnormal intelligence. ?I go now for the sardines.?, is a typical example. It is stilted. It is demeaning. Worse, in a desire to maintain uniformity of style, the author continues this way throughout the novel. An English-as-a-second-language student would be faulted for writing the following sentence: ?He was rowing steadily and it was no effort for him since he kept well within his speed and the surface of the ocean was flat except for the occasional swirls of the current.? For those who glory in the suffering of others, the book provides many nuggets, such as this gem, spoken by the fisherman?s young apprentice, Manolin: ?I can remember the tail slapping and banging and the thwart breaking and the noise of the clubbing. I can remember you throwing me into the bow where the wet coiled lines were and feeling the whole boat shiver and the noise of you clubbing him like chopping a tree down and the sweet blood smell all over me.? Charming. There are many others, for example, ?Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle?s heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered.? Not only did I not need to read that, but I find the statement illogical. Does the author mean that if turtles? hearts stopped instantly, humans would care about them? The novel is larded with this kind of philosophical gibberish. For instance, on the first page we find, ?The brown blotches of the BENEVOLENT skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks...and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a FISHLESS desert.?--my capitals. I mean really, a fishless desert? Would that be anything like a camel-scarce arctic? The style is belaboured and even a bit precious. Finally, the only recommendation I can make about this novel is that it never again be inflicted, as it has been, on the student...


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