Gulistan State University Foreign language and literature English Naxaloboyeva Matluba Contents Introduction

Characters: The Old Man and the Sea presents both static as well as dynamic characters. The old man, Santiago, is a dynamic character. He not only sees the marlin as a friend but also as a foe. He goes through a struggle of catching the fish and mental conflict of thinking that he is standing on the higher ground than the marlin, for he can think and is determined to do, while the marlin cannot think. The marlin is also a static character that makes the old man reflect about it, about self, and about nature.
Climax: The climatic takes place when the marlin circles the skiff, making the old man think that as he is already exhausted, he musters up the last iota of his left strength and stabs the fish with his harpoon, leading to the anti-climax of his struggle to save the prize from the sharks.
Foreshadowing: The first example of foreshadowing in the novel occurs when Santiago demonstrates his resolve that he is not going to stop fishing come what may and second that he is sailing out to the parts of the gulf other fishermen never dared to. This foreshadows that he is going to do some unusual and different.
Hyperbole: Hyperbole or exaggeration occurs when Manolin makes the old man feel that he is the greatest fisherman, though, there is no evidence that Santiago is the greatest fisherman in that area, yet he says that “the best fisherman is you.” This is a good use of hyperbole.
Imagery: Imagery means to use of five senses to describe an emotion or situation. For example,
The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.
ii. “I can remember the tail slapping and banging and the thwart breaking and the noise of the clubbing. I can remember you throwing me into the bow where the wet coiled lines were and feeling the whole boat shiver and the noise of you clubbing him like chopping a tree down and the sweet blood smell all over me.”
In the first example, the old man has been shown through the images of sight and touch, while the second paragraph displays the use of the senses of hearing, smell, and touch.
Metaphor: The Old Man and The Sea shows good use of various metaphors. For example,
The Gulf Stream and the sea are the metaphor of natural aspects of man’s life.
The lions that the old man sees on the African beaches are the metaphors of vigor and vitality.
DiMaggio is the metaphor of victory and retirement.
Mood: The novel, The Old Man and the Sea, shows a serious mood in the beginning but it suddenly charges up when the old man catches the marlin and continues to be fast until the old man kills the marlin and fights the invading sharks. When the last shark is killed and the old man reaches the seashore, the mood shifts to calm and peace.
Motif: Most important motifs of the novel, The Old Man and The Sea, are life and death and the religious allegorical symbols such as the crucifixion imagery.
Narrator: The novel, The Old Man and The Sea, is narrated by a third-person narrator. It is also called an omniscient narrator who happens to be the author himself as he can see things from all perspectives. Here, Hemingway is the narrator.
Personification: Personification means to attribute human acts and emotions to non-living objects such as Santiago talks about the Sargasso island where there is weed “that heaved and swung in ‎the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket.” It shows that the sea and the weed have human emotions.
Protagonist: Santiago is the protagonist of the novel. He starts the novel and captures the interest of the readers until the last page. Santiago heads to a life-challenging quest after 84 days of no success. He catches a marlin in a great battle and for 3 days, he struggles to get the great fish to the shore. Sadly, the sharks eat marlin’s flesh. He returns with the skeleton but earns the respect, he thought he lost, in his community.
Paradox: The Old Man and the Sea shows the use of paradox in its most famous sentence of the old man when he says, “Fishing kills as if keeps me alive.” The statement shows that keeping alive and killing are two contradictory ideas put into the same statement. Fishing is going to kill him as it is quite hard at this age and it is going to keep him alive as he has no other means of livelihood.
Rhetorical Questions: The novel shows good examples of rhetorical questions in several places. Such as,
Where did you wash? the boy thought. The village water supply was two streets down the road. I must have water here for him, the boy thought, and soap and a good towel. Why am I so thoughtless?
This example shows the use of two rhetorical questions posed by Manolin. He himself is supposed to answer these questions.
Theme: A theme is a central idea that the novelist or the writer wants to stress upon. The novel, The Old Man and The Sea, not only shows man’s love for nature, but also his endurance, his perseverance and his steadfastness against odds.
Setting: The setting of the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is the sea and the coastal area along with the Terrace where all the fishermen of the area have their coffees and meals.
Simile: The novel shows good use of various similes. For example,
The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.
The old man “had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.”
The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray blue hills behind it.
The first simile compares the sail to a patchwork, the second man’s creases to a desert, and the third is the clouds to mountains.
Symbol: The Old Man and The Sean shows that the marlin is the symbol of one’s passion for achieving a goal, while lions are the symbol of strength. On the other hand, sharks demonstrate the destructive laws of nature.
Irony: The novel shows the irony of the situation that Santiago, the greatest fisherman, does not catch even a single fish despite having spent 84 days in the sea. Another irony is given in the lines below.
“What’s that?” she asked a waiter and pointed to the long backbone of the great fish that was now just garbage waiting to go out with the tide.
“Tiburon,” the waiter said. “Shark.” He was meaning to explain what had happened.
The passage shows the irony that what others are thinking the great feat is actually nothing as Santiago has to go fishing the next day, the same ordinary routine of fishing every day for livelihood.