Book Club Friday: The Old Man and the Sea

This week I'm Sharing...

From GoodReads: "The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway’s most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal—a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. "

My thoughts:
I read this book on recommendation from C, and because we had it on our bookshelf for quite some time. I will say that he absolutely LOVES this book. He says "[I love it] because the old man overcomes. He overcomes his age, he overcomes all the people that doubt him, he overcomes the fish, he overcomes his body. He overcomes the sharks for a while. He proves he can still do it; he proves he's just as good as he needs to be."

I did not love this book, but I didn't hate it. I can see his point, but I don't agree. Yes, he does succeed, but by the time he gets back, no one knows. It's like, "If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound?" If they don't see it, did it really happen? Also, I found it to be really boring.

I felt sorry for him and pitied him the entire time. He was so old, and once a grand fisherman, but since he hadn't caught anything in such a long time, others thought he was unlucky and would make fun of him or pity him. He was frail and a loner, with his only friend a young boy whose parents wouldn't let him fish with Santiago anymore.  I felt bad for him when we learned of how poor he was, that he didn't have even rice, and that he slept on his coat in his hut. 

So, at the end of the book, I was sad. Really sad. He was a poor old man who many thought was a has-been, catches this super-fish, and then still comes home empty-handed because he couldn't get it on board and so sharks ate it up before he reached the shore. I think even if it looked like this in the end, I would have been happier:



But it seemed all he brought on shore was a skeleton, if that. And then he goes home to sleep because he's exhausted. I can't even tel if he's proud of himself for what he accomplished or not!

I did enjoy Hemingway's writing style- it was simple, but well written and to the point. I could easily picture the scenes and the people in my head. 

Have you read this? What did you think?