Book Review

The Old Man and the Sea is set in Cuba in the mid-20th century and written by Ernest Hemingway. The main character is an old fisherman named Santiago, the supporting role is a child named Manolin. The ailing old fisherman did not catch a fish for eighty-four days in a row, but he refused to give up, but full of fighting spirit, finally in eighty-five days caught a eighteen feet long, weight fifteen hundred pounds of large marlin. The fish dragged the boat out to sea, but the old man held on, even though he had no water, no food, no weapon, no helper, and a cramp in his left hand. At last, after two days and two nights, he killed the fish and tied it to the side of the boat. But many sharks immediately came to grab his prize. He killed them one by one, until at last only a broken tiller was left as a weapon. As a result, the fish could not escape being eaten up, and at last, exhausted, the old man hauled back a pair of fish bones. Some people think that the old man in the book only filled in the empty skeleton, and did not gain anything valuable, I do not think so.There's a line in The Old Man and the Sea,"Anyway, the wind is my friend. And the sea, which has our friends and enemies." This quote comes from the old man. Read "the old man and the sea", I not only realized a tenacious old man, but also can realize that the old man has a grateful heart. Whether living in a small fishing village, or fighting in the ocean, the old man's grateful heart has been warm beating, with him happy experience of life. “The old man was thin, with deep wrinkles on the back of his neck and brown spots on his cheeks from the benign skin cancer he had developed from years of sun and reflection on the tropical seas. Brown spots ran down the sides of his cheeks, and his hands were scarred from the trenches he had pulled on the rope when he had caught big fish, each of them deep. But none of these scars are new, as old as a wind-eroded mushroom in a fishless desert.”“Almost every part of him looked old, except his eyes, which were the color of the sea and always bright and energetic.”These are the descriptions of the old man in the book.The plain and direct narration and vivid metaphor vividly depict the image of a weather-beaten old man who has been working for years. It can also be seen that Hemingway's style of writing is simple and smooth. Even though it seems too plain, it still contains great power behind it. The description of the eyes implies the old man's determination that he is brave, which is easy to see but not lose literary flair, and echoes the fight between the old man and the shark. Wear tattered, ragged clothes, but he never gave up life, love life is a good spiritual quality. The book says that "people can be destroyed, but not defeated", which perfectly shows the brave and persistent qualities of the old man. Although he only brought back an empty skeleton in the end, many things he experienced in the process of fishing can make us feel more deeply that the old man will never give up his confidence. Santiago in the book is a poor and lonely old man, but he is optimistic, confident and indomitable, "his hope and confidence never disappeared", "always full of vigor and vitality" Wendong, Santiago tried his best to drag back the huge fish skeleton, I think, is the embodiment of Santiago's magnificent life, is the medal of the old man's spirit, is brought to Santiago The great spiritual power of me. Therefore, through this kind of performance and the profound description of the old man, although the old man only caught an empty skeleton, the loneliness and frustration he experienced in the fishing failed to defeat him, but made him brave and brave. This image of the old man is worth us to learn.