Gihyun Kim

Title: The Old Man And The Sea

Summary:
This book, written by Earnest Hemingway, describes a great fight between an old fisherman and his life’s biggest, most incredible, and most significant catch. He has gone without a successful catch for 84 days and has lost his valued apprentice to another crew. Desperate for a catch, he once again sets off to sea and this time decides to go further than he normally does. In doing so, he is able to catch a gigantic marlin which was big enough to be the biggest catch of his life. He tries endlessly until he is finally able to catch the fish and lash it onto his boat.
This immense fight between the two leads the marlin to bleed and the blood would go straight to the sea and attract the sharks lurking around the shores. The fisherman then has to endure another fight, but this time with the sharks. He again fights for his life to get the sharks away from the boat but the fight continues on and on until he is finally able to get rid of the sharks. Unfortunately, his defense wasn’t enough to prevent the sharks from taking a few bites of the fish and eventually leaving only its bones. Santiago, the name of the fisherman, is not only tired but also heartbroken and left in despair of loss.
As it turns out, his efforts haven’t gone unnoticed and the next day, people gathered around his boat to see the remains of the gigantic creature. He is also able to regain his apprentice who agrees to go fishing with the fisher once again.

Analysis:
This book illustrates a story of a fisherman who made the greatest catch of his life which had unexpected consequences. The fight between the fisherman and the fish shows the main theme and the authors message, in my opinion, of this book: opportunism. Opportunism means to take the given opportunity at all costs which is what the fisherman did. He saw a great opportunity to turn his bad fortunes around and held it with both arms. By illustrating this story, the author was able to convey the message to all the readers. One should take a given opportunity at all costs and do whatever it takes to make the best of it. It is imperative in our lives to make the best of those opportunities as they are rare and impactful to our lives. This, I believe, was the main purpose of the book and the main message the author wanted to convey to the readers.