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(our computer died and I lost my yarn clipart and can't find it again, so until I do, this will have to do-actually I kind of like this, maybe I'll keep it.)
I’ve never read a book by Hemingway and so I was a little nervous to read this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was an enjoyable book and not because it is short, (it is only 127 pages) but because the main character is easy to like and is inspiring.
It’s about a fisherman named Santiago from Cuba. He is a lonely and very humble man. He has one friend, a young boy named Manolin. Manolin cares for the old man very much. Santiago taught Manolin to fish but was unsuccessful for a time and so his parents decided that Manolin needed to fish with a someone who could bring him more fortune. Manolin still comes and visits the old man every night where they talk about American baseball and Joe DiMaggio, their favorite player.
One day Santiago goes out to do his regular daily fishing trip and gets a giant marlin on his line. He cannot pull the fish in so he lets the marlin pull him out to the sea for two days and two nights when he finally tires the fish out and is able to kill him with his harpoon. During those two days and two nights you learn of the man’s respect for the great fish. He also displays great determination and patience. I know if it had been me I would have cut the line and gone home, but Santiago stays with the fish.
After he kills the marlin he attaches it to the boat and starts to go home. He has no idea how far away from home he is but is able to know the right direction to go. As he’s going home the fish is attacked by sharks. He is able to fight off the first shark with his harpoon but he loses his harpoon. He makes a new harpoon with the oar and his knife and uses that to kill more sharks. He kills five sharks, but it’s not enough. There are so many sharks coming to attack the marlin that he can no longer fight them off and the sharks eat the marlin leaving only a skeleton.
When Santiago finally makes it to shore he leaves his skiff and goes home to sleep. Many fisherman gather around the skeleton and measure the backbone to be 18 feet long. Manolin is so worried about his old friend and is so happy when he finds him asleep in his hut. He cares for him when he wakes up and they talk about fishing together again. There are some tourists who are eating at a local restaurant who see the skeleton of the fish and think it’s a shark. The book pretty much ends there. I usually like an ending that wraps things up nicely but it didn’t bother me so much in this book. I like thinking that the tourists buy the large skeleton and helps Santiago to live comfortably through the remainder of his life.
I highly recommend this book, especially if you want to read a classic novel but are intimidated by the length.
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