The Old Man and the Sea #8

In Ernest Hemingway's short novel, The Old Man and the Sea, he uses some good imagery. The first good part of imagery that Hemingway uses is the image on the Old Man, Santiago. Santiago is described as an old man who has been fishing for most of his life. With this, it means that he has scarred hands, a deep tan, spots on his skin from being in the sun, which is skin cancer, he is small with a lot of muscle, and his eyes. Ernest described his eyes as "cheerful and undefeated." This is a good source of imagery because this shows that the Old Man is young at heart and he will not be beat.

Imagery is also in the boy. The boy stands for the promise of friendship and loyalty. This imagery is needed because without it, Santiago probably would not be able to live with himself because he would always be lonely. This forms the picture of a man living trough a boy to be young and to be able to do the things that he use to be able to do when he was young.

The image of the sea is a peaceful thing. Though the sea can be rough at times, it can also be calm and welcoming. I think this is what brings the Old Man back to the sea to fish so much.

Then there is the image of the marlin fish. This is a huge, beautiful fish that the Old Man has caught. He went out far away from the other fishermen to catch this big fish and he did. How Ernest describes the fish and how the Old Man sees the fish is both wonderful. Hemingway states that the fish is beautiful and majestic. THe fish to the Old Man is a source of new food and money. The Old Man loves the fish like a brother and knows that this beautiful fish can help him change his life. The image of the sharks eating the fish is sad. The sharks eating the fish slowly and little by little is daunting to the readers. We know that Santiago can not do a thing about it and it hurts to read that the marlin is being eaten.

Ernest did a great job with the imagery in this novel and he described the things well.