For my last independent reading
assignment, I am reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The Old Man and the Sea is a story of an
old man that comes to terms with nature and his old age as he accepts his place
within nature’s vast power that it holds over his life. Santiago is a fisherman
who had and eighty-four days without catching a fish. On the eighty-fifth day
Santiago baits a large marlin that drags his boat far out to sea to the point
that he can no longer see land. Santiago fights for three day with the marlin
all while struggling with his stubborn will that does not match his aged body.
On the third day, the old man is able to kill the massive fish, but as he sails
back to land, sharks gradually eat away the marlin as he futilely tries to
fight them off. When he returns to
land, all that is left of the huge fish nothing more than a skeleton
skeleton. Santiago curses himself
for allowing himself to stray so far out to sea but he is content with the
notion of his magnificent catch and admires nature for its penchant for
mysteries and marvels.
Since the book has a large emphasis
on fishing and its cohesiveness with nature, for the research part of my
independent reading, I was thinking of researching modern fishing throughout
the world. I know that there is a problem with over fishing and I thought this
might be an interesting tie in as a lot of the book is Santiago and his
Cohesiveness and balance that he is able to find with nature while he is
fishing. He spends a lot of time observing its tranquility. I think this might
be an interesting difference as we now use fishing as a form of destruction to
nature when it could and should be a way for us to get closer to nature.
I was also thinking of researching the
history and culture of Cuba as the book takes place in Havana. It would help my
understanding of the setting and the book more or I was going to research
Hemingway’s motive and processes for writing his stories, how he thought of the
stories and how he chose the setting; if Havana had any affect on him that
caused him to write the old man and the Sea and set it in Cuba and how he chose
his imagery and symbolism.
So, we talked today in class, and I believe you have a direction. Now that I read your blog post -- that sounded too much like a summary for my tastes -- I am wondering if in your research of overfishing, you might want that bent of the symbiotic relationship with nature (like Santiago's awe of the mysteries of the natural world) that I was talking about with the lobster fishermen.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea of fishing being a door to being closer to nature. Last year for my junior research paper I looked into conservation of the environment, and a big part of what I talked about is the issue of overfishing. The main example was the atlantic codfish, which has been fished so much that the entire species is facing collapse. Five hundred years ago, you used to be able to simply drop a basket in the ocean and pick up a bunch of cod. For modern society, fishing is one of the most destructive things that people do.
ReplyDeleteFrom what you say about your book, it seems like the book offers a different view on fishing. You say that Santiago observes the tranquility of fishing a lot. The view of fishing that your book presents is the classic idea of fishing I think, where you just cast out a line and sit and wait for a while, surrounded by nature, basking in solitude and peacefulness and exercising patience. Modern society has distorted what fishing is into a capitalist, goal-oriented way to make a living. Patience is a foreign concept to large fishing trawlers whose nets are designed to allow the fewest fish possible to escape with their lives. I think that an interesting topic of research would be looking into what happened that made fishing so destructive, and unpacking the juxtaposition between two ways of doing the same thing and explaining how it is possible fishing can be so peaceful and also so destructive.
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ReplyDeleteThe over fishing topic is definitely one that has a lot to explore, there is so much information you can pull up because of all the research that has been done in recent years. There are also many organizations and campaigns that have been protesting the over fishing of industries, and I'm sure you've seen the ads about it on TV at one point. The only thing I didn't agree with was your statement that we now use fishing as a form of destruction to nature. The destruction is more of a result of our large and ever increasing demand for fish. I love the tranquillity you mentioned that comes with fishing. You say that it has transformed into todays massive, nature destroying practice when it used to just be a way to appreciate the nature. The only thing I would keep in mind here is that fishing for the population's purposes has been going on longer than fishing for recreational purposes has, but there you could talk about how the former way has escalated.
ReplyDeleteThe idea you had about Hemingway's motives and writing processes is really interesting. That may be harder to research. You would have to look into his past and find out what points in his life had the most influence on his writing. I think the information you find on that topic would be very rewarding. It would also give you a different perspective on your book and help you to understand certain aspects of the story. That topic has more of a place in this project because it would help your reading as well as spark your interest.