山东农业大学
英美文学实践课报
告
题 目A bookreview on the Old Man and the Sea
学 院外国语学院
专业班级 英语2班
届 次2014级
学生姓名任玉姣
学 号20143241
指导教师冯海青
二零一六年六月二十日
A book review on the Old Man and the Sea
Recently, I have finished the novel the Old Man and the Sea,which made me want to share the feelings to you. The Old Man and The Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway who is a distinguished writer of America. The book is a more than
inspirational book, which can bring us a deep feeling, just as the hero of the book says "You can kill him, but you can't beat him."
After finishing the novel, I realized that how brave and strong the old man is! But when coming across some troubles ,the majority of us are tend to retreat and lack courage to overcome them.Now I‟m admired by the hero‟ great spirit and want to try my best to take the challenge something I can‟t face with. As Goethe said, if you lost money, you just lose a little; if you lost the honor, you‟ll lose a lot; if you lost courage , you‟ll lose everything.
The book is mainly about: the old fisherman Santiago has caught nothing for 84
days aloneand faces his own mortality. Santiago is now considered an unlucky man. So Manolin (Santiago‟s fishing partner until recently and the young man Santiago has taught since the age of five) has been constrained by his parents to fish in another,and more productive boat. When Santiago returns empty-handed again and again every evening, Manolin helps him to carrythe old man‟s equipment to the house,keeping him companyand bringing him food.On the morning of the 85th day, Santiago sets out before dawn on a three-day odyssey that takes him far out to sea. In search of an epic catch, he eventually does snag a marlin of epic proportions, enduring tremendous hardship to land the great fish. He straps the marlin along the length of his skiff and heads for home, hardly believing his own victory. Within an hour, a shark attacks the marlin, tearing away a great hunk of its flesh and mutilating Santiago‟s prize. Santiago fights the marlin, enduring great suffering, and eventually kills it with his harpoon, which he loses in the struggle. The great tear in the marlin‟s flesh releases the fish‟s blood and scent into the water, attracting packs of shovel-nosed sharks. With whatever equipment remains on board, Santiago repeatedly fights off the packs of these
scavengers, enduring exhaustion and great physical pain, even tearing something in his
chest. Eventually, the sharks pick the marlin clean. Defeated, Santiago reaches shore and beaches the skiff. Alone in the dark, he looks back at the marlin‟s skeleton in the reflection from a street light and then stumbles home to his shack, falling face down onto his cot in exhaustion.The next morning, Manolin finds Santiago in his hut and cries over the old man‟s injuries. Manolin fetches coffee and hears from the other fisherman what he had already seen—that the marlin‟s skeleton lashed to the skiff is eighteen feet long, the greatest fish the village has known. Manolin sits with Santiago until he awakes and then gives the old man some coffee. The old man tells Manolin that he was beaten. But Manolin reassures him that the great fish didn‟t beat him and that they will fish together again, that luck doesn‟t matter, and that the old man still has much to teach him. That afternoon, some tourists see the marlin‟s skeleton waiting to go out with the tide and ask a waiter what it is. Trying to explain what happened to the marlin, the waiter replies, “Eshark.” But the tourists misunderstand and assume that‟s what the skeleton is.Back in his shack, with Manolin sitting beside him, Santiago
sleeps again and dreams of the young lions he had seen along the coast of Africa when he was a young man.
When reading The Old Man and The Sea,I can feel the blood of my heart rages. What touched me most is the plot: The old man made a dream that h e saw the lions playing on the beach when he was sailing Africa as a sailor i n the 84 days, after that he wakes the boy up, and they choose their own res pective sea after departure taking 2 boats. In the sea, the old man finds a big marlin fish, finally he stabbed into the heart of marlin with his harpoon after a hard struggle. Especially he uses his harpoon and a knife fighting sharks at tack for 5 times in the return on the way. In the end, the marlin is only a pi cture of a big white skeleton when the old man is driving the boat back to th e port. At the end of the novel, the old man lay in bed exhausted, he dreame d of the sea again because of the love of the sea. But I think the author is tr ying to convey, even after such a big hit, the old man will still continue to fi shing out the sea when he had a rest. It make me feel very gratified for the
exist of Manolin in the story. At least he was with the old man.Take care of him, give him strength, know his deeds.
If there are any similarities between the old man and me, it is that both of us are subject to other people‟s views. People in the town believe that the old man is so old that he is not capable of catching anything worthwhile. I have been in several
situations where my abilities have been questioned. Just like the old man, I have been eager to prove to others my capabilities and identity, sometimes I get lost trying to define myself through other people‟s lenses, and this is one of the old man‟s internal conflicts,too.This similar experience really connected me to Ernest Hemingway,through the character of the old man. In Cuba, Hemingway struggled with the negative reviews of his work, across the River and into the trees. In response, he wrote The Old Man and the Sea to defend his pride and honor, just as the old man defends his as a fisherman. We can easily know that the main hero of the story is Santiago. If readers judge Santiago only in terms of his material success, then he is indeed a failure in a pointless story. But Hemingway prevents readers from accepting that position by taking them through every moment of Santiago‟s three days and nights at sea and forcing them to assess the worth of Santiago‟s actions and the eventual outcome of his efforts by other than exclusively material standards. Readers come to respect Santiago for his indomitable will, self—discipline, and focus. These characteristics cause readers to question with Santiago the meaning of both his achievement and his loss. And his little friend, is extraordinary mature over readers‟ imagination. However, we still have to accept the truth that the child really plays an important role in Santiago‟s both life and being a fisherman.
As time goes, The Old Man and the Sea has changed from being a book that I hated to a book that I love. I totally understand that reading The Old Man and the Sea can be depressing and sometimes really boring. Although the story is simple and short, the idea it is trying to convey id very sophisticated. Thus, I believe that everyone should read The Old Man and the Sea at least on their life. The book has many levels of understanding, and I cannot say I have completely understood every aspect of
it. So it is a book that can be read over and over again. The Old Man and the Sea is a
constant reminder to us that “There are many good fisherman and some great ones. But there is only you.” Instead of following the common societal views on
accomplishment, the author believes that true success is defining oneself.
Hemingway‟s novel won the Novel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize. The bones in hundreds of pieces of shrapnel left the tough guy writer, the proper strength to write his life, tell us how wide the heart, such as the sea in general. The elderly are lonely, he was approached in an ideal road trip travelers, but he is not lonely, because his will is so strong.
It‟s a tragic novel, but it‟s also a heroic symphony. The poor old fisherman was regarded as a failure by other fishers as he had captured nothing during the past 84 days. When he fished that 1500-pound salmon, he determined to fight to death even though he knew clearly that the big fish was much stronger than him, and finally he succeeded. But the ordeal was not to the end even he had succeeded in capturing the big fish. The salmon was bigger than his fishing boat, he had no choices but binding the fish to one sides of his boat. During his way home, the dead salmon was attracted again and again by shakes followed after the smell of blood. He had to do everything he could do to protect his victory. God seems to have no pity toward such a great old man, he dropped misfortunes on this poor old man time and time again. But the old man‟s story is not only a symbol of the relationship between human and nature, but also a symbol of the indestructible spirit of human. In reality, the old man was
defeated, but in spirit, he was a winner.The spirit of tenacious fight of him suggested the dignity and perseverance of human people. Even a great successful person has some experience of frustration. There are various reasons of being failed, but even an insignificant failure is an unbearable strike. Going to sea, he would gain another hope of being successful. Maybe the sinister life environment and the tenacity of life
attitude is the reason that the composition is more and more attractive. Life itself is a kind endless persuit, just like the old man‟s saying „human is not born to be failure, one could be ruined, but he could not be defeated.” These words remind me of the destiny symphony, in which Beethoven says that “ I could be destroyed, but I couldn‟t be conquered”. They indicate the meaning of a hero, the meaning of life. Also, It‟s
what this story wants to tell people: human are supposed to face the failure
bravely.From this respect, this book is not an allegory or a fairy tale, but a realistic works. What‟s important in this story is not win but the value of a life. The old man dares to challenge the extremity and over the limit time and time again.What he brought to human is not only an attitude of confidence,but also a powerful strength spirit.
Everybody should be and that is life distress compared to the old fisherman, those who escape is really don not know what is the setback. We may be because the failure of the exam, and lose confidence in myself, or because the criticism of others. At the time, you can think that how the old man to face his life and his heart release his power,however, now we just face some study difficult works in life.Compared with the old fisherman,we are so stupid at the difficulties. Luxun once said:“the great breadth of view, should show such spirit---- with smiling face to meet the fate of the tragic with confidence in the courage to cope with his own misfortune.”Of
course,when we encounter bad luck and misfortune, rather than complain fate of
injustice, we prefer to summon up our courage and great spirits to resolve the attitude of the struggle against the bad luck. We will be the motherland future, will be supposed to like this old person same mind lofty aspiration ,and will even better pursue even better, the bigger goal.
People alive, the only way to determine the necessity, that is, to death. In addition, there is no bound to what can rely on. Since the person is alive by chance, then the courage to support human life with the only confidence. If we lose
self-confidence , in the continuing unlucky so many days after the Santiago there is the courage and perseverance on fishing expeditions do? Therefore people live to be confident, not self-confidence is for human consumption can not afford luxury.It‟s precisely because Santiago had an absolute self-confidence, he was called away to the children to express a complete tolerance and understanding. In this book, Hemingway has demonstrated the link between self-confidence and tolerance. By Hemingway‟s fullest description , we felt the Santiago desperate struggle with the fate of the
heroic and noble. Last drag home for the elderly only a 18 feet-long fish skeleton, the
only complete skeleton is the head and the beautiful fish tail, which made us surprising and strange. It highlights the theme that man can be destroyed but not defeated. It is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable forces in which only a partial victory is possible. The old man‟s indomitable spirit remains inspiring all the time.
After all, the true victory can only be a triumph of the spirit. No matter who made much material success , they can not win our respect and thanks. Only the spirit and the spirit of the victory, it moves us that we have o follow the elderly and children, for his tragic tears. I believe all the readers will share the opinion that the hero of the book touched our heart.
山东农业大学
英美文学实践课报
告
题 目A bookreview on the Old Man and the Sea
学 院外国语学院
专业班级 英语2班
届 次2014级
学生姓名任玉姣
学 号20143241
指导教师冯海青
二零一六年六月二十日
A book review on the Old Man and the Sea
Recently, I have finished the novel the Old Man and the Sea,which made me want to share the feelings to you. The Old Man and The Sea was written by Ernest Hemingway who is a distinguished writer of America. The book is a more than
inspirational book, which can bring us a deep feeling, just as the hero of the book says "You can kill him, but you can't beat him."
After finishing the novel, I realized that how brave and strong the old man is! But when coming across some troubles ,the majority of us are tend to retreat and lack courage to overcome them.Now I‟m admired by the hero‟ great spirit and want to try my best to take the challenge something I can‟t face with. As Goethe said, if you lost money, you just lose a little; if you lost the honor, you‟ll lose a lot; if you lost courage , you‟ll lose everything.
The book is mainly about: the old fisherman Santiago has caught nothing for 84
days aloneand faces his own mortality. Santiago is now considered an unlucky man. So Manolin (Santiago‟s fishing partner until recently and the young man Santiago has taught since the age of five) has been constrained by his parents to fish in another,and more productive boat. When Santiago returns empty-handed again and again every evening, Manolin helps him to carrythe old man‟s equipment to the house,keeping him companyand bringing him food.On the morning of the 85th day, Santiago sets out before dawn on a three-day odyssey that takes him far out to sea. In search of an epic catch, he eventually does snag a marlin of epic proportions, enduring tremendous hardship to land the great fish. He straps the marlin along the length of his skiff and heads for home, hardly believing his own victory. Within an hour, a shark attacks the marlin, tearing away a great hunk of its flesh and mutilating Santiago‟s prize. Santiago fights the marlin, enduring great suffering, and eventually kills it with his harpoon, which he loses in the struggle. The great tear in the marlin‟s flesh releases the fish‟s blood and scent into the water, attracting packs of shovel-nosed sharks. With whatever equipment remains on board, Santiago repeatedly fights off the packs of these
scavengers, enduring exhaustion and great physical pain, even tearing something in his
chest. Eventually, the sharks pick the marlin clean. Defeated, Santiago reaches shore and beaches the skiff. Alone in the dark, he looks back at the marlin‟s skeleton in the reflection from a street light and then stumbles home to his shack, falling face down onto his cot in exhaustion.The next morning, Manolin finds Santiago in his hut and cries over the old man‟s injuries. Manolin fetches coffee and hears from the other fisherman what he had already seen—that the marlin‟s skeleton lashed to the skiff is eighteen feet long, the greatest fish the village has known. Manolin sits with Santiago until he awakes and then gives the old man some coffee. The old man tells Manolin that he was beaten. But Manolin reassures him that the great fish didn‟t beat him and that they will fish together again, that luck doesn‟t matter, and that the old man still has much to teach him. That afternoon, some tourists see the marlin‟s skeleton waiting to go out with the tide and ask a waiter what it is. Trying to explain what happened to the marlin, the waiter replies, “Eshark.” But the tourists misunderstand and assume that‟s what the skeleton is.Back in his shack, with Manolin sitting beside him, Santiago
sleeps again and dreams of the young lions he had seen along the coast of Africa when he was a young man.
When reading The Old Man and The Sea,I can feel the blood of my heart rages. What touched me most is the plot: The old man made a dream that h e saw the lions playing on the beach when he was sailing Africa as a sailor i n the 84 days, after that he wakes the boy up, and they choose their own res pective sea after departure taking 2 boats. In the sea, the old man finds a big marlin fish, finally he stabbed into the heart of marlin with his harpoon after a hard struggle. Especially he uses his harpoon and a knife fighting sharks at tack for 5 times in the return on the way. In the end, the marlin is only a pi cture of a big white skeleton when the old man is driving the boat back to th e port. At the end of the novel, the old man lay in bed exhausted, he dreame d of the sea again because of the love of the sea. But I think the author is tr ying to convey, even after such a big hit, the old man will still continue to fi shing out the sea when he had a rest. It make me feel very gratified for the
exist of Manolin in the story. At least he was with the old man.Take care of him, give him strength, know his deeds.
If there are any similarities between the old man and me, it is that both of us are subject to other people‟s views. People in the town believe that the old man is so old that he is not capable of catching anything worthwhile. I have been in several
situations where my abilities have been questioned. Just like the old man, I have been eager to prove to others my capabilities and identity, sometimes I get lost trying to define myself through other people‟s lenses, and this is one of the old man‟s internal conflicts,too.This similar experience really connected me to Ernest Hemingway,through the character of the old man. In Cuba, Hemingway struggled with the negative reviews of his work, across the River and into the trees. In response, he wrote The Old Man and the Sea to defend his pride and honor, just as the old man defends his as a fisherman. We can easily know that the main hero of the story is Santiago. If readers judge Santiago only in terms of his material success, then he is indeed a failure in a pointless story. But Hemingway prevents readers from accepting that position by taking them through every moment of Santiago‟s three days and nights at sea and forcing them to assess the worth of Santiago‟s actions and the eventual outcome of his efforts by other than exclusively material standards. Readers come to respect Santiago for his indomitable will, self—discipline, and focus. These characteristics cause readers to question with Santiago the meaning of both his achievement and his loss. And his little friend, is extraordinary mature over readers‟ imagination. However, we still have to accept the truth that the child really plays an important role in Santiago‟s both life and being a fisherman.
As time goes, The Old Man and the Sea has changed from being a book that I hated to a book that I love. I totally understand that reading The Old Man and the Sea can be depressing and sometimes really boring. Although the story is simple and short, the idea it is trying to convey id very sophisticated. Thus, I believe that everyone should read The Old Man and the Sea at least on their life. The book has many levels of understanding, and I cannot say I have completely understood every aspect of
it. So it is a book that can be read over and over again. The Old Man and the Sea is a
constant reminder to us that “There are many good fisherman and some great ones. But there is only you.” Instead of following the common societal views on
accomplishment, the author believes that true success is defining oneself.
Hemingway‟s novel won the Novel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize. The bones in hundreds of pieces of shrapnel left the tough guy writer, the proper strength to write his life, tell us how wide the heart, such as the sea in general. The elderly are lonely, he was approached in an ideal road trip travelers, but he is not lonely, because his will is so strong.
It‟s a tragic novel, but it‟s also a heroic symphony. The poor old fisherman was regarded as a failure by other fishers as he had captured nothing during the past 84 days. When he fished that 1500-pound salmon, he determined to fight to death even though he knew clearly that the big fish was much stronger than him, and finally he succeeded. But the ordeal was not to the end even he had succeeded in capturing the big fish. The salmon was bigger than his fishing boat, he had no choices but binding the fish to one sides of his boat. During his way home, the dead salmon was attracted again and again by shakes followed after the smell of blood. He had to do everything he could do to protect his victory. God seems to have no pity toward such a great old man, he dropped misfortunes on this poor old man time and time again. But the old man‟s story is not only a symbol of the relationship between human and nature, but also a symbol of the indestructible spirit of human. In reality, the old man was
defeated, but in spirit, he was a winner.The spirit of tenacious fight of him suggested the dignity and perseverance of human people. Even a great successful person has some experience of frustration. There are various reasons of being failed, but even an insignificant failure is an unbearable strike. Going to sea, he would gain another hope of being successful. Maybe the sinister life environment and the tenacity of life
attitude is the reason that the composition is more and more attractive. Life itself is a kind endless persuit, just like the old man‟s saying „human is not born to be failure, one could be ruined, but he could not be defeated.” These words remind me of the destiny symphony, in which Beethoven says that “ I could be destroyed, but I couldn‟t be conquered”. They indicate the meaning of a hero, the meaning of life. Also, It‟s
what this story wants to tell people: human are supposed to face the failure
bravely.From this respect, this book is not an allegory or a fairy tale, but a realistic works. What‟s important in this story is not win but the value of a life. The old man dares to challenge the extremity and over the limit time and time again.What he brought to human is not only an attitude of confidence,but also a powerful strength spirit.
Everybody should be and that is life distress compared to the old fisherman, those who escape is really don not know what is the setback. We may be because the failure of the exam, and lose confidence in myself, or because the criticism of others. At the time, you can think that how the old man to face his life and his heart release his power,however, now we just face some study difficult works in life.Compared with the old fisherman,we are so stupid at the difficulties. Luxun once said:“the great breadth of view, should show such spirit---- with smiling face to meet the fate of the tragic with confidence in the courage to cope with his own misfortune.”Of
course,when we encounter bad luck and misfortune, rather than complain fate of
injustice, we prefer to summon up our courage and great spirits to resolve the attitude of the struggle against the bad luck. We will be the motherland future, will be supposed to like this old person same mind lofty aspiration ,and will even better pursue even better, the bigger goal.
People alive, the only way to determine the necessity, that is, to death. In addition, there is no bound to what can rely on. Since the person is alive by chance, then the courage to support human life with the only confidence. If we lose
self-confidence , in the continuing unlucky so many days after the Santiago there is the courage and perseverance on fishing expeditions do? Therefore people live to be confident, not self-confidence is for human consumption can not afford luxury.It‟s precisely because Santiago had an absolute self-confidence, he was called away to the children to express a complete tolerance and understanding. In this book, Hemingway has demonstrated the link between self-confidence and tolerance. By Hemingway‟s fullest description , we felt the Santiago desperate struggle with the fate of the
heroic and noble. Last drag home for the elderly only a 18 feet-long fish skeleton, the
only complete skeleton is the head and the beautiful fish tail, which made us surprising and strange. It highlights the theme that man can be destroyed but not defeated. It is a representation of life as a struggle against unconquerable forces in which only a partial victory is possible. The old man‟s indomitable spirit remains inspiring all the time.
After all, the true victory can only be a triumph of the spirit. No matter who made much material success , they can not win our respect and thanks. Only the spirit and the spirit of the victory, it moves us that we have o follow the elderly and children, for his tragic tears. I believe all the readers will share the opinion that the hero of the book touched our heart.