Minggu, Juni 16, 2013
The Old Man and The Sea is a novel written by American Author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba and published in 1952.The Old man and The Sea is the story of a battle between an old, experienced Cuban fisherman and a large marlin.
The novel opens with the explanation that the fisherman, who is named
Santiago, has gone 84 days without catching a fish. Santiago is
considered "salao", the worst form of unlucky. In fact, he is so unlucky
that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents
to sail with the old man and been ordered to fish with more successful
fishermen. Still dedicated to the old man, however, the boy visits
Santiago's shack each night, hauling back his fishing gear, getting him
food and discussing American baseball and his favorite player Joe DiMaggio.
Santiago tells Manolin that on the next day, he will venture far out
into the Gulf Stream, north of Cuba in the Straits of Florida to fish,
confident that his unlucky streak is near its end.
Thus on the eighty-fifth day, Santiago sets out alone, taking his skiff far onto the Gulf Stream. He sets his lines and, by noon of the first day, a big fish that he is sure is a marlin
takes his bait. Unable to pull in the great marlin, Santiago instead
finds the fish pulling his skiff. Two days and two nights pass in this
manner, during which the old man bears the tension of the line with his
body. Though he is wounded by the struggle and in pain, Santiago
expresses a compassionate appreciation for his adversary, often
referring to him as a brother. He also determines that because of the
fish's great dignity, no one will be worthy of eating the marlin.
On the third day of the ordeal, the fish begins to circle the skiff,
indicating his tiredness to the old man. Santiago, now completely worn
out and almost in delirium, uses all the strength he has left in him to
pull the fish onto its side and stab the marlin with a harpoon,
ending the long battle between the old man and the tenacious fish.
Santiago straps the marlin to the side of his skiff and heads home,
thinking about the high price the fish will bring him at the market and
how many people he will feed.
While Santiago continues his journey back to the shore, sharks are attracted to the trail of blood left by the marlin in the water. The first, a great mako shark,
Santiago kills with his harpoon, losing that weapon in the process. He
makes a new harpoon by strapping his knife to the end of an oar
to help ward off the next line of sharks; in total, five sharks are
slain and many others are driven away. But the sharks kept coming, and
by nightfall the sharks have almost devoured the marlin's entire
carcass, leaving a skeleton consisting mostly of its backbone, its tail
and its head. Finally reaching the shore before dawn on the next day,
Santiago struggles on the way to his shack, carrying the heavy mast on
his shoulder. Once home, he slumps onto his bed and falls into a deep
sleep.
A group of fishermen gather the next day around the boat where the
fish's skeleton is still attached. One of the fishermen measures it to
be 18 feet (5.5 m) from nose to tail. Tourists at the nearby cafe
mistakenly take it for a shark. Manolin, worried during the old man's
endeavor, cries upon finding him safe asleep. The boy brings him
newspapers and coffee. When the old man wakes, they promise to fish
together once again. Upon his return to sleep, Santiago dreams of his
youth—of lions on an African beach.
Sumber : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea
By : Admin-ST-Rex
