The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway Response

Reading Old Man and the Sea was a meditative and interesting experience in a truly tranquil manner. Probably a large part of the reason that it was so unique is Hemingway’s focus not on breadth but depth, which you can see by the the incredible amount of detail that he dives into in Santiago’s (the main character of the Cuban fisherman) actions in catching the marlin. He makes the trivial and minute details of his fishing trip take on the utmost symbolic importance by painstakingly describing every detail with specifically chosen words to do the task. What it ends up being essentially is a symbolic meditation on a few different subjects and themes (one of them being Hemingway himself, specifically with the emphasis on the machismo spirit emphasized in the novella). I wouldn’t necessarily pick up these themes by myself, but with a little help from the great site Sparknotes I could look to some extent into Hemingway’s intentions for and thoughts on the piece. Because of all these things, reading the novella evoked a sense of patient wonderment in me.

Santiago is an enigmatic character that can be interpreted in a profusion of ways. There are some aspects of him that stick out. In many ways he is like a philosopher. His thoughts were often quite different and interesting and thus neat to listen in on. For an example of his different sort of thoughts, (the kind that shift paradigms to some extent) was when he was thinking about his morality in the sense of killing the fish (who he considered as kin) even though as a creature it was quite amazing. In response to this thought of his, he was considering himself lucky that life does not involve hunting anything so great as the stars or the moon. The writers at Sparknotes analyzes Santiago’s character quite well when they write

“Hemingway, feel that since death must come in the world, it is preferable that it come at the hands of a worthy opponent. The old man’s magnificence—the honor and humility with which he executes his task—elevates his struggle to a rarified, even transcendent level.”

Santiago is quite a weathered character and also is in some ways like a Roman Stoic philosopher. The reason I am saying this is because he seems to regard parts of his life such as his health, the need for his hunger to be satiated, whether he catches the marlin or not as indifferents. He is able to endure and find hope despite his less-than ideal circumstances being pulled around in the ocean by the fish. This is just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, Santiago’s character can be looked at in many different ways. Hemingway makes some very clear connections with Santiago’s (and the marlin’s) sufferings at sea to the suffering of Christ. The ability of Santiago to find hope and endurance despite the pain he experiences also relate to the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche in how he emphasized how responding to suffering in a certain way can produce good things.

The way Hemingway writes the novella made me feel like I was next to Santiago in his skiff breathing the ocean air and participating in his various profound thoughts including his compassion for the marlin he was intending to hook and sell. His thoughts tend to be very paradoxical. Hemingway’s poetic style of prose is quite engaging.

Overall I enjoyed reading Old Man and the Sea. It was refreshing in numerous ways.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Response

Reading To Kill a Mockingbird was in many ways like a breath of fresh air. The amount of content that it covers is your remarkable; including the themes that it includes as well as the historical accuracy of this is piece as historical fiction. 

It isn’t easy to explain what the book is about. Not so simply put, To Kill a Mockingbird is many things. First of all it is simply a record of how life was and probably still is to some extent in the American deep south (and everywhere else that prejudice exists, including within ourselves). Second of all it elegantly documents the effects of racism both to the persecuted and the persecutor. And thirdly it all is also a remarkable loss of innocence story of how Jean Louise Finch and Jeremy Atticus Finch grow up, (a good example of this is how at the beginning of the book Boo Radley is seen by the children as sort of a mythological figure and towards the end towards the end he takes on the the character of a Mockingbird in the eyes of Jem and Jean in how he saves them from Bob Ewell). 
To Kill a Mockingbird can also be seen as a commentary on how rule abiding and rigid educational system that we so often see and experience today so often miss the point. This is evident when Jean begins her education and her teacher is angry at her because Atticus has already taught her how to read.

Thematically the book represents much more. In an absorbing manner it tells us or unconscious prejudices can affect life in very real ways. To Kill a Mockingbird also talks about the coexistence of good and evil. Going alongside the loss of innocence theme, Atticus talks about the two extremes that can be gained in responding to the evil in the world. The one extreme is that when the children lose their innocence they can become jaded with the evil that is in the world (like Mr. Dolphus Raymond) and the other extreme is that the children can be ignorant of the evil in the world. Atticus achieves a healthy balance between these two extremes by being hopeful in the midst of living in a corrupt world.

So to say the least, Harper Lee’s book is very enjoyable in a large part because of its multifaceted nature.

Out of the many things that I enjoyed in the book, one thing that stood out is the admirability of Atticus’s character and values. He is a remarkable person in many ways although it is evident that he is fairly idealistic with his enthusiastic belief in humanity. This shows its good side when he can believe in the hidden goodness of each individual person so much that when Mr. Walter Cunningham comes to lynch Tom, he can still have faith in him that he can come back from the darkness. This idealism shows its darker side when Atticus dismisses Bob Ewell’s death threats as unimportant.

Atticus has many admirable qualities that can encourage us in life. First of all, the countercultural values that Atticus holds are worth listening to. Specifically this manifests itself when Atticus agrees to support Tom Robinson in his trial even with no hope of winning.

He also has a love of humanity regardless of the values of the individual people (even if they dramatically contradict his own). An example in the book is when he tells his children to be consistent in their visits to the ailing Mr. Dubose (who despises Atticus’s values). He is very non dogmatic in accepting her regardless of her prejudices, and is able to look at her situation very objectively. Atticus uses her as an example to his children of how important bravery is in her battling her lifelong morphine addiction. Atticus’ unconditional love and acceptance of the individual people he meets in his life is even more remarkable when you consider how we often have knee-jerk reactions to people when they don’t agree with us.

This love of humanity that Atticus possesses leads to a few more admirable qualities. First off his parenting style would probably be worth modeling. It is a very hands-off style in which he gently but in a way firmly guides his children to maturation. He also openly holds ambiguity in life to be an important thing to realize, constantly telling his children and other people he meets that issues are usually more complex than they seem. He also hasn’t them fortunes believe in the inherent flaws of human systems such as how the court did not acquit the innocent Tom Robinson in the trial. He is set with these flaws and has accepted it. As Jean Vanier would say he is “ in love with reality”, or as the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca would say “he is adjusted his expectations of the legal system so that he can expect them to favor whites regardless of their status as non-guilty or guilty and us doesn’t have to get angry when the court acts on ingrained prejudices”. Because of this he can be content and can be such a firm rock in the lives of the people he meets and the moral backbone of the Maycomb. He is content but still saddened by the lack of justice in the outcome of the case of Tom Robinson but he is still hopeful the future when he talks about how the jury took longer to convict Tom Robinson this time which means they’re getting better as opposed to when in the past they’ve taken only minutes to decide the outcome of a black person on trial.

Overall, To Kill a Mockingbird was a great book. There are so many themes that are worth meditating on. It is also a piece of engrossing historical fiction . The suspense I felt while reading the court scene is a testament to Harper Lee’s writing ability because it is fairly clear from the beginning that Bob Ewell is going to in the trial solely on the basis of the color of his skin. It is a great commentary on so many things and is as valuable now as it is when it was written, as history tends to repeat itself. Today maybe the values Harper Lee talks about in the book could be applied to things such as current inequalities in our justice system or maybe our refusal to try out new ideas in our everyday life just because they are not very popular. The possibilities are endless and it is great to read a book that is so open ended in its meaning. I would recommend it to most people, and look forward to reading it again some day.