Study 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 1. Does The Old Man and the Sea have a set stance on the concept of luck? How might you describe the way that the novel—not Santiago—presents luck? 2. A tragedy is a story in which the protagonist is worse off at the end than he or she was at the beginning 1. Discuss Hemingway’s “iceberg” principle of writing in relation to The Old Man and the Sea. 2. What significance do the lions on the beach have for the old man? 3. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” says the old man after the first shark
Essay Questions
Hemingway focuses on the connections between Santiago and his natural environment: the fish, birds, and stars are all his brothers or friends; he has the heart of a turtle, eats turtle eggs for strength; anddrinks shark liver oil for health.
This connection with the sea and its creatures helps Santiago in the midst of his great tragedy, old man and the sea essay questions. For Santiago, old man and the sea essay questions, success and failure are two equal facets of the same existence.
They are transitory forms which capriciously arrive and depart without affecting the underlying unity between himself and nature. As long as he focuses on this unity and sees himself as part of nature rather than as an external antagonist competing with it, he cannot be defeated by whatever misfortunes befall him.
Hemingway's treatment of pride in The Old Man and the Sea is ambivalent. A heroic old man and the sea essay questions like Santiago should have pride in his actions, and as Santiago shows us, "humility was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride" At the same time, though, it is apparently Santiago's pride which presses him to travel dangerously far out into the sea, "beyond all people in the world," to catch the marlin While he loved the marlin and called him brother, Santiago admits to killing it for pride, his blood stirred by battle with such a noble and worthy antagonist.
Some have interpreted the loss of the marlin as the price Santiago had to pay for his pride in traveling out so far in search of such a catch. Contrarily, old man and the sea essay questions, one could argue that this pride was beneficial as it allowed Santiago an edifying challenge worthy of his heroism.
In the end, Hemingway suggests that pride in a job well done, even if pride drew one unnecessarily into the situation, is a positive trait. Hemingway's ideal of manhood is nearly inseparable from the ideal of heroism. To be a man is to behave with honor and dignity: to not succumb to suffering, to accept one's duty without complaint and, most importantly, to display a maximum of self-control.
The representation of femininity, the sea, is characterized expressly by its caprice and lack of self-control; "if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them" The representation of masculinity, the marlin, is described as 'great,' 'beautiful,' 'calm,' and 'noble,' and Santiago steels him against his pain by telling himself, "suffer old man and the sea essay questions a man, old man and the sea essay questions. Or a fish," referring to the marlin In Hemingway's ethical universe, Santiago shows us not only how to live life heroically but in a way befitting a man.
Hemingway draws a distinction between two different types of success: outer, material success and inner, spiritual success. While Santiago clearly lacks the old man and the sea essay questions, the import of this lack is eclipsed by his possession of the later. One way to describe Santiago's story is as a triumph of indefatigable spirit over exhaustible material resources. As noted above, the characteristics of such a spirit are those of heroism and manhood.
That Santiago can end the novella undefeated after steadily losing his hard-earned, most valuable possession is a testament to the privileging of inner success over outer success.
Being heroic and manly are not merely qualities of character which one possesses or does not. One must constantly demonstrate one's heroism and manliness through actions conducted with dignity. Interestingly, worthiness cannot be conferred upon oneself.
Santiago is obsessed with proving his worthiness to those old man and the sea essay questions him. He had to prove himself to the boy: "the thousand times he had proved it mean nothing, old man and the sea essay questions.
Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it" And he had to prove himself to the marlin: "I'll kill him in all his greatness and glory. Although it is unjust. But I will show him what a man can do and what a man endures" A heroic and manly life is not, then, one of inner peace and self-sufficiency; it requires constant demonstration of one's worthiness through noble action.
Manolin has an almost religious devotion to Santiago, underscored when Manolin begs Santiago's pardon for his not fishing with the old man anymore. Manolin says, "It was Papa made me leave.
I am a boy and Old man and the sea essay questions must obey him," to which Santiago replies, "I know It is quite normal, old man and the sea essay questions.
He hasn't much faith" Manolin's father forced his son to switch to a more successful boat after 40 days had passed without a catch for Santiago; this is the amount of time Jesus wandered in the desert, tempted by Satan. Just as Christ resisted the temptation of the devil, Santiago resists old man and the sea essay questions temptation of giving in to his exhaustion as he battles the marlin.
You have to last. Don't even speak of it. Throughout this final section, Santiago repeatedly apologizes to the marlin in a way that provides another way to read Santiago's sin.
He says, "Half fish Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went out so far. I ruined us both" Santiago's transgression is no longer his killing of the fish, but going out too far in the ocean, "beyond all people in the world" While the former sin helped account for the inescapable misery of the human condition, the latter focuses instead on avoidable misery brought about by intentional action. Santiago chose to go out so far; he did not need to do so, but in doing so he must surrender his prize, the marlin, to the jealous sea.
This understanding of Santiago's sin is strange because it seems to separate man from nature in a way which contradicts the rest of the novella. Going out too far is an affront against nature similar to the hubristic folly of Greek tragedy; he has courted disaster through his own pride.
Nowhere previously in the novel was this apparent, though. The sea seemed to welcome him, providing him company and food for his expedition. There was no resistance from nature to his activities, except perhaps the sharks, but these were never made to be nature's avengers. This reading of Santiago's sin thus seems very problematic. The relationship between Santiago and Manolin can be summed up in old man and the sea essay questions sentence: "The old man had taught the boy to fish and the boy loved him" Manolin is Santiago's apprentice, but their relationship is not restricted to business alone.
Manolin idolizes Santiago but the object of this idolization is not only the once great though presently failed old man and the sea essay questions it is an idolization of ideals. This helps explain Manolin's unique, almost religious, devotion to the old man, underscored when Manolin begs Santiago's pardon for his not fishing with the old man anymore. When Manolin asks to buy the old man a beer, Santiago replies, "Why not?
Between fisherman" And when Manolin asks to help Santiago with his fishing, Santiago replies, "You are already a man" By demonstrating that Santiago has little more to teach the boy, this equality foreshadows the impending separation of the two friends, and also indicates that this will not be a story about a young boy learning from an old man, but a story of an old man learning the unique lessons of the autumn of life. Hemingway peppers the novella with numerous references to sight.
We are told, for instance, that Santiago has uncannily good eyesight for a man of his age and experience, while Manolin's new employer is nearly blind. When Manolin notices this, Santiago replies simply, "I am a strange old man" Given the analogy between Santiago's eyes and the sea, one suspects that his strangeness in this regard has something to do with his relationship to the sea.
This connection, though, old man and the sea essay questions, is somewhat problematic as it might suggest that Santiago would have success as a fisherman. Santiago's statement that his eyes adjust to the sun during different parts of the day furnishes another example of the importance of sight and visual imagery in the novella.
Santiago says, "All my life the early sun has hurt my eyes, he thought. Yet they are still good. In the evening I can look straight into it without getting the blackness. It has more force in the evening too. But in the morning it is just painful" Given the likening of natural time cycles to human age, e. September as the autumn of life, it is plausible to read this passage as a statement of the edifying power of age.
While it is difficult to find one's way in the morning of youth, this task becomes easier when done by those who have lived through the day into the evening of life. How is the figure of Joe DiMaggio used to emphasize Santiago's respect for nature? As he struggles against the marlin despite the pain he suffers, Santiago recalls the figure of Joe DiMaggio, identified at the beginning of the novella as a heroic paragon. It is strange, though, that immediately after valorizing DiMaggio, Santiago immediately diminishes the baseball player's greatness by thinking that the pain of a bone spur could not be as bad as the pain of the spur of a fighting cock.
He even concludes that "man is not much beside the great birds and beasts. Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea" Nature, and the marlin especially, is privileged above even the greatest exemplars of human endurance.
The Question and Answer section for The Old Man and the Sea is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The story of The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway. To be a man is to behave with honor and dignity: to not succumb to suffering, to accept one's duty without complaint and, most importantly, to display a maximum of In what way is Santiago technically superior to other fishermen? For lack of a better phrase, Santiago is "old school". In this sense we can call him "better".
He does not have the new motorboats and buoys or radios that the younger fishermen have. Santiago also fishes out of passion for the sea. He sees the Comment on the title of the novel "THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA".
The title, The Old Man and the Sea, is simple, and yet it encapsulates the essence of the book. Santiago is defined by his age. This isn't a bad thing rather it gives the reader context into his life and his struggles.
Best Quotes from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.
, time: 1:53The Old Man and the Sea: Study Questions | SparkNotes
1. Discuss Hemingway’s “iceberg” principle of writing in relation to The Old Man and the Sea. 2. What significance do the lions on the beach have for the old man? 3. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated,” says the old man after the first shark The Old Man and the Sea Essay Questions 1 Describe Hemingway's portrayal of Santiago's relationship with the sea. Hemingway focuses on the connections between 2 Is Santiago a prideful man? Why or why not? Hemingway's treatment of pride in The Old Man and the Sea is ambivalent. A 3 How does Estimated Reading Time: 7 mins 1. Does The Old Man and the Sea have a set stance on the concept of luck? How might you describe the way that the novel—not Santiago—presents luck? 2. A tragedy is a story in which the protagonist is worse off at the end than he or she was at the beginning
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