The Old Man and the Sea

CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | THE MOVIES

Notable lines

First line

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

Passages

"Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?"

Every day above earth is a good day.

“Fish," the old man said. "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?”

"Ay," he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.

The next shark that came was a single shovelnose. He came like a pig to the trough if a pig had a mouth so wide that you could put your head in it.

Last lines

Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.

 

CRITIQUE | THE TEXT | THE MOVIES

See also:

Novel
The Catcher in the Rye

Novel
On the Beach

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The Old Man and the Sea

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