Slam! Bam! I'm finally done... It was a tedious sail, just like the old man. It's very funny, because after his long journey, he sank into his bed, just like I am about to! I have several questions that I cannot answer myself (deeper questions about life) and some about the book. I thought I would be able to finish this book rather quickly, because I mean, there are only 120 some pages, but it took me longer than some of the other books! I think it was rather very detailed and since a lot of the same sentences and words repeated, I felt like I was going in circles rather than moving forward with the story. One think I found particularly interesting was the way Ernest Hemingway repeated several vocabulary and sentences. Of course, symbols! Some of the repeating symbols I found was "left hand", phosphorescence, purple stripes, baseball, and more...

Like the last post, I am not quite sure what these recurring symbols mean, but for the left hand, there were constant images of his cramps/cuts in his left hand and how he kept on dipping it in the ocean. At first, it was to cleanse the cut, but then it became almost like a habit. He put it in after he finished his thought, or talked to himself. On page 85, Hemingway wrote, "Why was I not born with two good hands? he thought,," (Hemingway, 85). I thought the hands symbolized the two types of personality human kinds have; kindness and evil. We all possess both sides, where on one hand, we are very sympathetic, kind people, but on the other hand, we all sin and have a slight hint of "bad" within us. Similar to the theme of "holy water" in various books that we have read in class, I thought the old man was rinsing his sins off to lessen the sin of killing the fish, or clear his minds from convoluted thoughts.

Another word that kept on popping up was phosphorescence. I could not think of why this word has such significance, but I think it may have to do with his persistence, where he is following his "light" and passion, and holding on to the hope. You can see the phosphorescent light clearly in the dark, and of course, hope is the brightest in the dark. So I thought that maybe the author was trying to depict this theme of hope throughout the story.

One thing I did not get was the mentioning of the lion. I've been trying to find out why the old man keeps on mentioning the lion; the book even ends with the word lions! He wrote, "The old man was dreaming about the lions," (Hemingway, 127). The only lion I can think of is Aslan... Lions usually symbolize bravery, and authority, but I don't see how that can fit into this story.

Some of the quotes that I really liked was "A man is never lost at sea..." and the whole section on page 105 where the old man wonders if he is sinning when he is killing the fish, as he is not sure if he does this because of necessity, or because of his pride that he is a fisherman. These two quotes have really struck me to think about my life. Yes, it is sometimes hard when you keep on doubting your real intentions, but like the quote that a man is never lost at sea, our life does not betray us wholly; it lets us find our own path eventually.

Despite the fact that it was a slow read, I think I'd recommend this book. But, I think reading it as a class, or with a group of friends would be much more effective, because I think this book has so many amazing quotes and symbols that could be taken in many ways.