Monday, March 8, 2010

Old Man and the Sea Essay Prompt



We encounter many, many obstacles throughout our entire lives. Almost everyone happens to have some sort of struggle every now and then and they vary in length and severity. Some of them affect us for a short time and some of them affect us for life. Obstacles could be physical or mental. In The Old Man and the Sea, Santiago struggles against many obstacles throughout the book. Santiago must struggle to survive, to stay fed and to catch the audacious and vexed admiral of all Marlin. Obstacles will always affect you in the long term no matter what is the subject.
Santiago is in the worst situation that anyone could be in, it has been 84 days since he had last caught a fish and selling his fish is his lone source of income. "Do you think we can buy a terminal of the lottery with an eighty-five? Tomorrow is the eighty-fifth day [of no fish]" (17). As of now, all Santiago is doing is surviving off what he can find and off the food that the boy can give him and he does not like this because a boy taking care of a man makes Santiago seem inferior.
This three month streak of bad luck affected Santiago because he was extremely hungry and worried that he could not catch a fish. He is an old man and obviously needs food more than anything because of his frailness. But, the 84 days of not catching a fish yet he is still fishing shows that he is devoted. This proved to be a great obstacle since it was more than physical but also mental because it lowered his morale.
When Santiago is on the boat, he had been holding the line leading to the hooked to the energetic marlin patiently for nearly a day now, and the one thing he needs when holding that line is strength. Santiago has been completely detached from the pain in his hand"Eat it now [the tuna] and it will strengthen the hand" (58). Holding a line with a 1500 pound marlin on the other side is no easy task, and a lonely, old man attempting this task must be even harder.
The tuna that Santiago has just caught was symbolic of his strength against the marlin which he needs to pursue and hold the line. This was an obstacle for Santiago because he needed all his strength to pull in that marlin and catching a separate fish on a separate line is much harder when you have an extremely large fish franticly pulling the boat.
Santiago did not know for sure the true size of the marlin. All that he knew was that "He is two feet longer than the skiff,..." (63). This is seems exaggerated even for a marlin because the skiff along is 16 feet long. The one thing that he did not know about the marlin was his weight, which of course you could not even tell by looking at him.
Even though Santiago had that 16 ft skiff, "...but four hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea, towing the skiff, and the old man was still braced solidly with the line across his back". If a fish can tow you and a 16 ft boat out to sea, it must be big. This marlin was his big break, his winning lottery ticket and his pot of gold and he was optimistic and ecstatic for the catch. This is an obstacle to Santiago because how could a 1500 pound fish towing you out to sea NOT be an obstacle?
Santiago struggles very much as a fisherman in many ways, both mentally and physically. Being a fisherman is an obstacle in itself, the fish is the objective. What separates Santiago from the rest is that Santiago faced his obstacles head on, whether it be catching two fish at the same time or catching a three fourths of a ton marlin. At the end of the day, he figuratively won over these obstacles by persevering.

(By the way, the Literary Analysis Terms are in bold.)

11 comments:

  1. 1. The thesis is that many people face obstacles and Santiago faced many challenges. The fact that many people go through them and there are different types. It engages me because of the way it is brought about. I myself like the Admiral of all marlins part.
    2. I think the quote about the length of the marlin was very effective. It clearly showed that the marlin was 2 feet longer than the skiff showing that it was massive. It stood out because it was so accurate and went well with the topic.
    3. I really liked the writing style and the word choice. The way it was written engaged me well. "Santiago must struggle to survive, to stay fed and to catch the Admiral of all Marlin." i personally liked this part the best. I really liked the word choice and thought it was funny that he used Admiral of all marlin.
    4. I think the part about the length of days that the old man had gone without a fish could be fixed. Also separate the introduction and the first paragraph.

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  2. 1. The thesis of this essay is that there are many obstacles in life that need to be overcome. I like the opening paragraph because it engages the reader and has good grammar usage.
    2. I too think that the quote about the marlin was very effective in showing what the writer was trying to say. It helps the writer by strengthening the essay's topic itself.
    3. I also agree with word choice and writing style, but i think that it turned into a rant at times. That isn't nessisarily a bad thing, but it does get repetitive after a while.
    4. I think that there isn't really a weak aspect of the essay. It seems that it is well written the way it is, and there really isn't much to be changed except for spelling and grammar errors here and there

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  3. 1. The essay's thesis is "We encounter many, many obstacles throughout our entire lives." It is a concise thesis and could be a little more detailed with a better word choice.

    2. The quotation that was best integrated into the essay was "Eat it now [the tuna] and it will strengthen the hand" I thought that this was a great quote to choose for your story. Good job.

    3. I thought that the second to last paragraph was very well-written and was persuasive. I really liked the sentence: "This is an obstacle to Santiago because how could a 1500 pound fish towing you out to sea NOT be an obstacle?"

    4. If you had to change one thing I would suggest expanding the conclusion paragraph. It is pretty short and could use some more explanation. But other than that, the essay's great.

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  4. The thesis is that many people face obstacles and Santiago faced many challenges. There are a lot of them to, more than normal. People must struggle to get through. if you don’t, you die

    I thought the quotes were worked in well. The arguments were really sound. I especially liked the detailed description of the marlin. It just shows you what Santiago was up against.

    I thought that the writing was great. Your voice really came though. It was funny and well written. It made it easy to read.” Santiago must struggle to survive, to stay fed and to catch the Admiral of all Marlin”.

    It seemed a little rantish at times. Almost as if you were trying to hard at some points. Some of the arguments could be little better.

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  5. 1. The thesis is how people hit many barriers in their lives. This isn't exact, but its what the quote says in other words.

    2. The best quote is how the fish was two feet longer than the skiff. This really shows the complication of the fish's length and that interferes with later events in the plot of the story.

    3. The essay's mechanics are very well. There's punctuations where needed. The spelling is great as well.

    4. The conclusion paragraph should've left thoughts open to the reader. Possibly a persuasive anecdote.

    3.

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  6. The thesis in this essay is people go through many many obstacles in their lives. It is clear but it could have been better if maybe he used a little more examples.
    The best quote is the one that showed how the fish was towing him out to sea. I think this because it described what the fish was doing very well.
    The essay's use of quotes was very well. He put quotes in just the right places with what he was saying.
    All i would say that needs to be added to this essay is the literary analysis words, but other then that, good job mr.mutilator

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  7. 1. The thesis says that people must go through many obstacles in life, some more severe than others. The wording is engaging, especially the part about the admiral of all marlin. It does a good job at making the reader want to continue.
    2. The quote about the marlin's size is worked in very well. It shows just how big the marlin was and how much of a problem that would cause. Choosing a quote that compared it to the boat not just the normal size helps the paragraph because it makes it seem like an even bigger problem. It's well explained in the paragraph too.
    3. This essay was very engaging and it kept the reader's attention. You can tell that the author is trying to explain things cleverly to the audience. I really liked "This is an obstacle to Santiago because how could a 1500 pound fish towing you out to sea NOT be an obstacle?" It makes a good point and makes the argument even stronger.
    4. All that really needs to be changed about this essay is adding in the literary terms. Otherwise the word choice and flow of the essay is good.

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  8. 1. Your thesis is about the obstacles we, and specifically, Santiago, face in our daily lives. It is engaging and interesting, and manages to stay clear and focused. You word choice and convention use assist in making your introduction appealing.
    2. My favorite quote of yours was "Do you think we can buy a terminal of the lottery with an eighty-five? Tomorrow is the eighty-fifth day [of no fish]". I simply find it amazing that anyone could go 85 days without any success at their job. The way you used it in your example also enhanced the quote and the essay.
    3. A combination of word choice and tone made your essay great. I could really feel your ideas flowing off the page and into my mind. As for vocabulary, your choices were sophisticated and intelligent.
    4. As people have said before, your writing can be a little redundant occasionally. Altering this can only help your essay, and make it become ever greater than it is now. Overall, very good report.

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  9. 1.The thesis of this essay is that Santiago had to face in his everyday life just like the rest of us. Just because he's fictional doesn't mean he is exempt from these struggles

    2."This marlin was his big break, his winning lottery ticket and his pot of gold and he was optimistic and ecstatic for the catch." This is, in my opinion the best quote in the story. It shows how important the fish was to Santiago.

    3.The author's word choice was the story's best quality. It painted a picture that set the read down so you could analyze the book as if you were in the boat with Santiago.

    4. One improvement that could be made is to ease off of the redundancy. The little bit that this essay has brings it's overall quality down.

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  10. The thesis is that everybody deals with obstacles and you need to overcome them.

    I think that the second quote was the best. It has a great incite to the book, It also connects and has a great amount of detail.

    The word choice was a great part of the essay, You could relate to what the author was writing.

    Like the reviewers before the essay was redundant. If that was taking care of the essay would be superb.

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  11. The thesis of this essay is that there are many obstacles in life that need to be overcome. I like the opening paragraph because it engages the reader. I think that the quote about the marlin was very effective in showing what the writer was trying to say. I also agree with word choice and writing style, but i think that it turned into a rant at times. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does get repetitive after a while. The essay seems to be well written the way it is, and there really isn't much to be changed except for spelling and grammar errors.

    ReplyDelete