Autumn’s flame dances in my eyes

Hello Ernest Hemingway,

             You haven’t been dead that long, but lots of things changed in the past 46 years. I don’t know how famous you were back in your day, but you are still famous now. In fact, you are the standard of American Literature. Our class had to read your book “The Old Man and the Sea.” Most people don’t understand you, they think your writing is boring or the old man is crazy. I get you, but I feel you could’ve worked harder on that particular book before releasing it to the public, you know? The last part seemed a bit rushed. Good plot though, (please excuse that fragment). Society really respects you now, possibly even more than they did back then. Were you a well respected man? Well, I’m sure many english classes across the united states have read one or more of your books. I can’t say that this generation is quite ready for your writing, what with the short attention spans and whatnot. One day people will get there, but not yet.
          So here’s a question for you. Why did you kill yourself? You were a well-known writer who fell in love many times and got paid quite a bit of money to do what you do best. It seems as though you had everything going for you, but that’s not always the case I suppose. Well, whatever it was I bet you had a good reason. I wonder if you would still be alive today, had it not been for your decision, (I don’t feel like doing the math at this point).  Well anyway, it’s been nice talking to you. Just thought you should know that people know you still, you haven’t been forgotten and you probably never will.

                                                         Have fun down there,

-Em.

The typical American man. I find this blog assignment to be especially difficult. I suppose there are many stereotypical ideas of the “American man”, but there is one that stands out to me most. The man in the business suit and breifcase who comes home to the smell of pie in the kitchen shouting, “Honey, I’m home!!” Haha, I know this is very…er…..Flawed? I don’t know. But that’s just what I think of when I hear that. I know that this is not the real “American Man.” There really is no such thing. If anything, the american man is an artist, a poet, a laborer, a family man, a relative, a neighbor. Anyone can be the american man, it’s all up to you.

I’m glad that our sad story is over, for hopefully the future brings better findings. I didn’t hate this story, but I didn’t particularly like it all that much either. To me, it seemed like the rising action took up most of the story. First he was hanging on to the fish, then he caught it and fought off sharks, then all of a sudden he was at home face-first on his mattress. It all ended too fast, but not fast enough (if that makes any sense whatsoever.) It’s kind of funny how we were all wondering whether the boy would believe him or not, or even how long it would take him to believe, but then he believed the old man right away. So much for that in-depth question. Anyway, Overall the book had a decent scheme of rising action and a few good plot twists, but the author could’ve worked on the plot a bit more before sending it out into the world.
      I’m wondering how the boy is paying for all this coffee….? And also, where are his parents in all of this? Doesn’t the boy go to school? I mean really, there are only so many things he can learn while he is fishing compared to sitting at school for 7 hours sucking in information, right? I’m not sure about this actually. When did this book take place? Are boys just allowed to skip school on account of fishing, just like around here they are allowed to miss days due to ranching? That’s a tad rediculous.

I’m not so sure that the Old Man will make it back to land with the fish. The shark took his harpoon and quite a bit of rope, so if he does make it back it will be on willpower and motivation alone. *  The boy means so much to the old man, he is his lifeline. I wonder what the boy is thinking right now. How worried is he about the old man? The old man has been gone for, what, three days now? Does the boy think he is dead? I’d be worried if I was him. I don’t think that the boy will ever see him again. I don’t know why, but I just have this feeling that he won’t be coming back. But I could be wrong….

After reading other people’s blog articles about what we’ve read recently, it appears that quite a few people believe the old man is going mad. On the contrary, I think he’s just as sane as he was when he left, if not more sane! Usually when people go insane, they don’t think about intricate things or think logically about anything. I found a short paragraph that proves him sane;

“Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky,” he thought.

This is one of the most thought provoking sentences in the whole book so far. I’m sure if the students in the class that said he was insane heard that sentence come out of a philosophers mouth, they would think it was brilliant. But since it escapes the lips of a tired old fisherman, they pass it off as mental? I guess that just answers a few questions, but that’s just my opinion.

Anyway, I have a question. What happens when a fisherman catches the biggest fish he could ever catch? He’s spent his whole life catching (and possibly releasing) fish, in  hopes for the biggest fish ever, and then he catches it. What then?