Question

An old and experienced Cuban fisherman has a run of terrible bad

luck and is unable to catch any fish for eighty-four days. His young and

devoted apprentice, Manolin, has been forced by his parents to start

working with another fisherman. The old man resolves to sail out

farther than all the other fishermen and attempt to catch the really

big fish. On the eighty-fifth day he succeeds in hooking a marlin with his

bait but the marlin is too strong for him and starts pulling the boat. The

Old Man and the Sea is the story of the old man’s struggle with the marlin

and his later battle against sharks.


Social/Historical context :


Hemingway’s novel is based on real events and it also draws heavily

from his own life. He had experience of fishing in the Cuban waters

and like the old man he was also a fan of baseball. He worked for the

Red Cross during the First World War and was injured by a shrapnel

when he was in Italy. Hemingway always talks about the need to struggle

against defeat or death and how determination and endurance can help

one to win in this struggle. The old man is, at the end of the novel, very

near death, but we know that the story of his suffering and loss will live

on in the memories of the people of his village. Ultimately his story becomes

one of triumph because the tales of his life will live on even after his

death. The novel was published in 1952, when people were trying to

recover from the mass destruction wrought by the two world wars, and

this tale of endurance and ultimate triumph immediately struck a chord

with the readers.


(B2) List two similarities between Hemingway and the Cuban fisherman.


​

Answer 1

Answer:

he was a man

because

he is a man