On Reading The Old Man and the Sea

There are only a handful of books that I enjoyed before college. Most of what I was offered growing up was rather boring. Perhaps it was best that I spent my time playing instruments or roaming the woods with a pocket knife, climbing trees, and building forts; since I now have the appreciation and desire to dive into these great books. Of the literal handful of books I actually enjoyed back then, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway immediately captivated my heart with its beauty, its solitude, its simple language, and its struggle.

I’ve read this book every year for the past decade. The way the old man shares his thoughts and converses with his caught Marlin speaks volumes of both his simplicity and his uneducated philosophical wisdom. “The fish is my friend too… I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars. 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.” The micro struggle endured with this fish is contrasted with the cosmic struggle of man in his littleness before the celestial realm beyond our atmosphere. 

Hemingway’s novella is worth reading and rereading often. The more life experience I gain, (and much more I have to go!) the more I can resonate with old man’s noble struggle of trying to catch his lucky fish.