A short tale and a simple one, told eloquently but elegantly, hardly any adjectives. This could be looked at on so many levels. Is Santiago, the old fisherman, a representation of Jesus, with his wounded hands the dead giveaway? And although the fish and Santiago are deadly adversaries, Santiago thinks of the fish as a friend, a fellow battler in life. Is the work a study in futility? After all, at the end of the story, he only has to get up the next day and fish, just like so many of us have to get up the next day to work. Do the contemporary (ie early 1950s) baseball references have any meaning? This work has its critics, but the story was interesting and simple, though so much so that I was glad that it was relatively short.
7 out of 10.
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