The old man and the sea
These days I have studied the novel "The old man and the sea" of Hemingway, a very distinguished writer of USA. What impressed me most in the novel is that the old fisherman's firm will and spirit facing the difficulty .In addition ,I admire the old man's precious quality or virtue,such as his confidence ,persistence ,and his optimistic attitudes,and so on .The old fisherman who made a living by fishing had got no fish in the sea for 84 days constantly. He was eager to a big fish ,but could not draw. But he never gave up.Eventually ,he found a big Malin fish which exceeded several times of his own fishing boat .Though he knew that it was very difficult to win,he never yielded to anyhing In the final ,he was succeded to catch and tie the big fish ,tired very much .But unfortunately ,the big malin's smell attracted a large number of dangerous sharks .The huge and fierce sharks attacked it badly .Knowing that it's difficult to fight against those sharks ,but the old man was still unwilling to yield to it,struggling against them with gaffs , harpoons ,and oars. Finally ,he took the large fish back to the fishing port ,without flesh of the fish ,only the bone and the head of it .To some degree ,he won for his strong spirit ."but man not for defeat "he said ,"man can be destroyed ,but not defeated ."After finishing the novel , I realized that how great the man's power was . We as human being ,the strongest creature can be destroyed but never defeated,which made me feel quite proud of ourselves.I was really inspired by the strong strength and power of "tough man". But when we come across some troubles ,the majority of us are inclined to retreat and lack courage to overcome them. We often complain about the unfair fate. Besides , we are also used to blaming the failure or faults on others rather than ourselves. To some degree ,it is the embodiment of unconfidence and timidity. Thinking of the fight between big marlin and the old man ,with only right hand ,his left hand cramped ,we really have no reasons to be afraid of those challenges in our life . Compared with the difficulties that the old man
meet with ,the obstacles we meet are really tiny .As a college student ,we necessarily follow the example of the old man .Only that can we master our fate and win the victory of our future .
I'm subdued by the old man's optimistic spirit and confidence . In our daily life ,some losses are unavoidable ,we should treat them with the positive attitudes.We needn't pay particular attention to the final success. Instead, the process of fighting against the obstacles plays a significant role in our life. As for this point , I remember our study. As a student ,it's normal to meet some troubles in our learning process. Sometimes , we may get a poor score or even fail to achieve our aims that we are great expected . We may feel depressed and frustrated . In reality ,we should be confident with ourselves when facing failure . As the saying goes "where there is a will ,there is a way.",only we insist on this way ,can we win the victory sooner or later .
Apart from those above ,I find the old man was a brand-minded and merciful man. In th face of of being laughed at by other fishermen ,he was not irritated.Instead ,he treats everyone kind as usual without any complaint. When I read those ,I was completely touched by the man's kindness. Comparing him with many people in our daily life, I can easily find how mean and how sour plenty of people are. Nowadays many people are furious once they are teased by others .They likely to quarrel each other, even some tend to fight against others.In many cases ,they are apt to curse others with mean and cruel words .Some will revenge others once they have opportunities ,instead of forgiving others .As for me ,although I'm not so mean to attack others, I also feel uncomfortable in my mind.I often feel awkward and unfriendly to those who ever made me embarrassed or angry to some degree. I acknowledge that sometimes I'm a narrow-minded gril. When I read the encounter the man come across,I felt so disappointed and raged to those who were unfriendly to the poor man.But when I found the reaction the old man made to those persons ,I felt that the old man was so brand-minded and tolerant while I was so narrow-minded . From now on ,I will learn to the merciful man to become a
benevolent one.
第二篇：老人与海读后感 英文版(The Old Man and the Sea)
Impression of “The Old Man and the Sea”
When I was a middle school student, I’ve finished this book in Chinese.But when I read it in English,I really gain something new both in the way of expression and the spirit it shows to us.May be different ages to read the same book we will learn different things from it.At least, for my part, that is true.
Firstly,I would like to review some information about this book.Such as the background,major characters and the topic of it.
The Old Man and the Sea is a story by Ernest Hemingway, written in Cuba in 1951 and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.[1]
The Old Man and the Sea served to reinvigorate Hemingway's literary reputation and prompted a reexamination of his entire body of work. The novella was initially received with much popularity; it restored many readers' confidence in Hemingway's capability as an author. Its publisher, Scribner's, on an early dust jacket, called the novella a "new classic," and many critics favorably compared it with such works as William Faulkner's "The Bear" and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.
This book gives me a deep impression especially the description about the man’s braveness and persistence.
In this book, in order to suggest the profundity of the old man’s sacrifice and the glory that derives from it, Hemingway purposefully likens Santiago to Christ, who, according to Christian theology, gave his life for the greater glory of humankind. Crucifixion imagery is the most noticeable way in which Hemingway creates the symbolic parallel between Santiago and Christ. When Santiago’s palms are first cut by his fishing line, the reader cannot help but think of Christ suffering his stigmata. Later, when the sharks arrive, Hemingway portrays the old man as a crucified martyr, saying that he makes a noise similar to that of a man having nails driven through his hands. Furthermore, the image of the old man struggling up the hill with his mast across his shoulders recalls Christ’s march toward Calvary. Even the position in which 1
Santiago collapses on his bed—face down with his arms out straight and the palms of his hands up—brings to mind the image of Christ suffering on the cross. Hemingway employs these images in the final pages of the novella in order to link Santiago to Christ, who exemplified transcendence by turning loss into gain, defeat into triumph, and even death into renewed life.
The major characters in this book are also vivid and lively.
Santiago ,the old man of the novella’s title, Santiago is a Cuban fisherman who has had an extended run of bad luck. Despite his expertise, he has been unable to catch a fish for eighty-four days. He is humble, yet exhibits a justified pride in his abilities. His knowledge of the sea and its creatures, and of his craft, is unparalleled and helps him preserve a sense of hope regardless of circumstance. The marlin ,Santiago hooks the marlin, which we learn at the end of the novella measures eighteen feet, on the first afternoon of his fishing expedition. Manolin ,a boy presumably in his adolescence, Manolin is Santiago’s apprentice and devoted attendant. The old man first took him out on a boat when he was merely five years old. Due to Santiago’s recent bad luck, Manolin’s parents have forced the boy to go out on a different fishing boat. Manolin, however, still cares deeply for the old man, to whom he continues to look as a mentor.
Joe DiMaggio, although DiMaggio never appears in the novel, he plays a significant role nonetheless. Santiago worships him as a model of strength and commitment, and his thoughts turn toward DiMaggio whenever he needs to reassure himself of his own strength. Perico ,Perico, the reader assumes, owns the bodega in Santiago’s village. He never appears in the novel, but he serves an important role in the fisherman’s life by providing him with newspapers that report the baseball scores. This act establishes him as a kind man who helps the aging Santiago.
Martin,like Perico, Martin, a café owner in Santiago’s village, does not appear in the story. The reader learns of him through Manolin, who often goes to Martin for Santiago’s supper. As the old man says, Martin is a man of frequent kindness who deserves to be repaid.
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From the very first paragraph, Santiago is characterized as someone struggling against defeat. He has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish—he will soon pass his own record of eighty-seven days. Almost as a reminder of Santiago’s struggle, the sail of his skiff resembles “the flag of permanent defeat.” But the old man refuses defeat at every turn: he resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish promise to be. He lands the marlin, tying his record of eighty-seven days after a brutal three-day fight, and he continues to ward off sharks from stealing his prey, even though he knows the battle is useless.
Because Santiago is pitted against the creatures of the sea, some readers choose to view the tale as a chronicle of man’s battle against the natural world, but the novella is, more accurately, the story of man’s place within nature. Both Santiago and the marlin display qualities of pride, honor, and bravery, and both are subject to the same eternal law: they must kill or be killed. As Santiago reflects when he watches the weary warbler fly toward shore, where it will inevitably meet the hawk, the world is filled with predators, and no living thing can escape the inevitable struggle that will lead to its death. Santiago lives according to his own observation: “man is not made for defeat . . . [a] man can be destroyed but not defeated.” In Hemingway’s portrait of the world, death is inevitable, but the best men (and animals) will nonetheless refuse to give in to its power. Accordingly, man and fish will struggle to the death, just as hungry sharks will lay waste to an old man’s trophy catch.
The novel suggests that it is possible to transcend this natural law. In fact, the very inevitability of destruction creates the terms that allow a worthy man or beast to transcend it. It is precisely through the effort to battle the inevitable that a man can prove himself. Indeed, a man can prove this determination over and over through the worthiness of the opponents he chooses to face. Santiago finds the marlin worthy of a fight, just as he once found “the great negro of Cienfuegos” worthy. HSantiago, though destroyed at the end of the novella, is never defeated. Instead, he emerges as a hero. Santiago’s struggle does not enable him to change man’s place in the world. Rather, it enables him to meet his most dignified destiny. 3
While it is certainly true that Santiago’s eighty-four-day run of bad luck is an affront to his pride as a masterful fisherman, and that his attempt to bear out his skills by sailing far into the gulf waters leads to disaster, Hemingway does not condemn his protagonist for being full of pride. On the contrary, Santiago stands as proof that pride motivates men to greatness. Because the old man acknowledges that he killed the mighty marlin largely out of pride, and because his capture of the marlin leads in turn to his heroic transcendence of defeat, pride becomes the source of Santiago’s greatest strength. Without a ferocious sense of pride, that battle would never have been fought, or more likely, it would have been abandoned before the end.
Santiago’s pride also motivates his desire to transcend the destructive forces of nature. Throughout the novel, no matter how baleful his circumstances become, the old man exhibits an unflagging determination to catch the marlin and bring it to shore. When the first shark arrives, Santiago’s resolve is mentioned twice in the space of just a few paragraphs. Even if the old man had returned with the marlin intact, his moment of glory, like the marlin’s meat, would have been short-lived. The glory and honor Santiago accrues comes not from his battle itself but from his pride and determination to fight.
Santiago dreams his pleasant dream of the lions at play on the beaches of Africa three times. The first time is the night before he departs on his three-day fishing expedition, the second occurs when he sleeps on the boat for a few hours in the middle of his struggle with the marlin, and the third takes place at the very end of the book. In fact, the sober promise of the triumph and regeneration with which the novella closes is supported by the final image of the lions. Because Santiago associates the lions with his youth, the dream suggests the circular nature of life. Additionally, because Santiago imagines the lions, fierce predators, playing, his dream suggests a harmony between the opposing forces—life and death, love and hate, destruction and regeneration—of nature.
This book gives me courage of conquering all kinds of difficulties .And I have the belief that the most beautiful thing is the process that we make our best to achieve our dream,and never say give up .
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