Questions...is he okay?

Now I get why people were telling me that it was a very slow read, despite its short, deceptive appearances. It is basically about this old man and his struggle with a giant marlin in the Gulf Stream. I think this whole book is an analogy to life.

I have no idea if my analysis is going to be right, but here is how I perceived the story. I took the big marlin that the old man is trying to catch as the future, or the biggest fear one has in his or her life. The reason why I thought that is because as Hemingway wrote, “I wish I could see him only once to know what I have against me,” (Hemingway, 46). As soon as I read this phrase, I knew immediately that Ernest Hemingway was referring to that fear, or that apprehensive feeling towards the future, because I’ve heard it from various people that they’d rather know what they were facing rather than not knowing about it. When you don’t know what you are up to, or what you are facing, it comes off as much more threatening and violent. Your imagination builds on to create a monster that may not even be real. That way, I thought that the fish was a reference to that fear, or the struggle that one has. Just like the struggles that we are going to face in the future, the fish doesn’t reveal its appearance and continues to swim without jumping up or pulling away. That is what tugs at the old man’s heart, I think, because he is eager to catch it, but more than catching it, I think he is more eager to know what he had caught.

Another reason why I believed that the fish is a reference to the fear is because the old man continues to say, “’I wish the boy was here,’” (Hemingway, 50). Whenever we face our biggest fears, or we are unsure about the future, we often turn to our family, friends, and others for support and help, yet it is often the case that the situation cannot be fixed by anyone but themselves. Only the person facing the darkness can find the light, and that is how one learns lessons in their lives. The old man knows that it is quite foolish to want the boy, but then he still wishes that he was not alone when fighting a lonely battle.

Lastly, the bird that later accompanies the old man for a brief time symbolizes, in my opinion, the goodness in life, or opportunities in life that we often neglect. When the bird was there, the old man felt a sudden attachment, because he was too lonely. However, at that moment, the fish had pulled on the string, and distracted the old man from the bird. The bird flies away and the old man doesn’t even realize this until later. I thought again that this was an analogy to life, because sometimes if we are too caught up with our “work” and what we “must” do, that we often forget or simply misses the goodness in life and what is actually important (usually what you need). That was my brief take on from this book, halfway through. Now, I may be completely off track, but I think it was interesting to see the parallel.

One thing though that I’m confused about is that this old man is talking too his own hand… He got a cut and he is saying things like, “Is this fish good for you?” and offering to eat fish for his cut hand. I just found that mind-blowing and wondered if that had any deeper meaning to it…Well, we'll see!