Book Report of THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA.doc

1 Book Report of THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is one of the masterpieces of American writer Hemingway The vision of what I saw is published by China book press and it costs 16 Yuan Ernst Hemingway 1899 1961 one of the most important writers in the 20th century He is famous for his simple style and careful turning of his fiction He uses very short and simple sentence and rarely does he use adjective He often repeats a key phrase or key words to emphasize his theme and the language is seldom emotional In the 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize of literature Like other young intellectuals Hemingway became disappointed and bitter after World War One Eager to create their career but depressed by the war they spent their life doing nothing They were called the lost generation and Hemingway was thought as the spokesman Their literature works embodied great tragedy consciousness The novels of Hemingway express his anti war sentiment and strong spirit He is considered as the spiritual monument of Americans This story is set in Cuba in the 20th century The main character is an old fisher in Santiago For 84 days the old fisher has not caught any fish He was starving but he did not yield to fate Finally in the 85th days he caught a huge salmon which weighted 1500 pounds Although the big fish pulled the small 2 boat away the old fisher still did not give up Under the circumstance of lack of water food and weapon the old man did not feel depressed Two days later the old man killed the big salmon at length and tied it to the boat However lots of sharks flocked to eat the big salmon The old man kept fighting with so many sharks and killed all of them one after another However the bid salmon has already been ate up Exhausted the old man went back home and fell into asleep When I was reading the book imagining that scene I was attracted by the plot and moved by the old man s strong spirit Someone concluded that At one level it is the tale of a man and a fish at another a story of man versus nature at yet another the story of the culture of manhood courage bravery in the face of existence and at yet another a history of what life was like when individuals were more the central actors on the human stage and not groups or organizations This story tells us that a man can be destroyed but not defeated Although the fisher was old and unlucky he still strived for survival on the undefeatable nature We can learn a lot from him Life can sometimes be tough but we should struggle for the better Hemingway like the old man is the representative of steel willed man however he shoot himself to end his life I am wondering why and still cannot figure out the reason I cannot help think of Haizi a famous Chinese poet From tomorrow on I will be a happy person Grooming chopping and traveling all over the world From tomorrow on I will care foodstuff and 3 vegetable I have a house towards the sea with spring flowers blossoming Every time when I read His poem a wave of warm sweeps me over I also cannot understand why a poet who wrote such warm lines became despaired and killed himself Is it because both of them could not tolerate themselves not longer like what they want them to be Hemingway being not longer strong and Haizi being not longer happy Maybe when I have more experience I