The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

As you might guess, this story starts with an old fisherman. He had been in his fishing boat for eighty four days and returned empty-handed. In the first forty days, a young boy called Manolin went fishing with him but his parents forced to leave the old man for a more prosperous fishing boat. However, the old man and the boy were still close friends.

On the next day, he continued to get on his boat and headed out for fish. Soon, he hooked a really big marlin. On his own, he wrestled with the big fish and also suffered with pains and hunger. Although he was trying to kill the marlin, he always considered it as his “brother”.

After the long battle, the old man won and headed to the sore. On the way, the sharks attacked his boat to eat the marlin. The old man fought against them. Sadly, when he reached the shore, there was nothing left but the skeleton of the fish.

In this book, Hemmingway describes the loneliness of the man and his courage in the struggle with the nature vividly. The battle between the old man and the fish is not just the battle of strength but also the battle of dignity and wills. The fish’s skeleton symbolized human achievements from adversities. Overall, this is an excellent short story and that’s why it received the Pulitzer Prize in 1952.