Blog #12: The Old Man and the Sea

As I was reading The Old Man and the Sea, I kept wondering what the big marlin was thinking. I was aware of what the old man was thinking during their whole adventure, but the author never really told us about that the fish was thinking. I would have liked to know at least a few thoughts of the fish. I have always wondered what all animals were thinking about. My dog Chloe, always like cocks her head to the side when my dad talks to her, and sometimes I really would like to know what was going through her head.

I realize that the fish did not play as big of a part as the old man, but I still do think that it would have made the book a little but more interesting if I had know about the marlin's though process throughout the journey on the Gulf of Mexico. Because the marlin had pulled the old man for miles and miles, I would think that he has to be tired towards the end, but the book makes it sound like he is just going to keep swimming until the group of sharks completely devour it. I think that this makes the fish very courageous. He has absolutely no idea what he is dragging through the water, he knows that whatever it is is not going to slow him down.

I feel bad knowing that the fish had to die because the sharks ate the meat right off of his bones, but then again all the fish in the ocean are part of the food chain and some type of fish always has to be the prey. I kind of hoped that the fish could somehow get away from the old man, but it sounds like he was hooked pretty tightly (Hemingway 44). I have sympathy for the fish because if I was in his situation I probably would not have been as strong as he was and I would have been killed by the old man.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.