Life is filled with choices. In The Old Man and the Sea Santiago is faced with many difficult ones. Santiago Is a very knowledgeable man but, he made some bad choices while fishing which caused his eighty-five day drought. He usually thinks things through and makes the right decision but when he started having trouble catching fish he began to feel nervous and makes bad decisions. One decision that Santiago made which affected his trip a lot was when he decided to go very far out from shore to attempt to catch a fish. “The old man stared at his lines going straight down into water that was a mile deep” (40).Santiago impulsively went deeper into the ocean. He felt as though he could not turn back. He told the boy that he was confident that he would catch a fish. I think that the old man was motivated to go out partly because he is Manolin’s role model and he did not want to let the boy down by not catching a fish. He also believes that there will be a lot of fish deep in the sea because it is September, the best fishing month of the year. “[September] The month when they great fish come, anyone can be a fisherman in May” (18).
Another reason the old man made the decision to keep going deeper into the sea was a decision he made because he was desperate for a fish. It was a good idea because he could catch larger fish than those which were close to shore. He was in need of money so he went very far out. The old man should have gone far out, but he had traveled too far. “He looked behind him and saw that no land was visible” (46).
Many bad things came from Santiago’s decision to go out. He was able to hook the marlin but he had to struggle with it for a very long time. He grew tired and weak. Santiago began to loose hope when the marlin was being taken by the sharks. The old man began to doubt himself. “You’re tired old man, you’re tired inside” (112). Also, if Santiago had not gone out so far he would probably still have been able to catch a large fish without as much risk of being attacked by the sharks. If Santiago did stay closer to the shore and was having trouble catching his fish he could have received assistance from a nearby fisherman.
Santiago was faced with many difficult choices in The Old Man and the Sea. One that had a very large impact on him was the decision to go deep into the sea. Santiago’s trip could have been less dangerous and painful if he had stayed closer to shore. His decision put a great deal of physical and mental strain on him However, Santiago was courageous and decided that he had to go far out to catch the perfect fish. His choice was bold but perilous and he returned from his journey weaker, but he was proud of himself for persevering.
9 comments:
Raheem, your story was lacking some, i hate to use this word but enticing qoutes and ideas. As i read your story i was almost bored to sleep. Your thesis was there but not much to back it up. I liked in the first paragraph when you mentioned that you thought the reseason that Santiago went out further was so to show manloin his determination because of his some what big brother or hero role that he potrayed to him. All in all good story, well written.
heeem.
i really liked your essay. you did a good job of incorperating your own thoughts into your essay while still explaining the detail writtne in the story. you had good vocabulary and owrd choicee.
heeemyyyy , good story. you put a lot of your thoughts into it .. good job . You used good quotes and made many good points and used backup details. you pulled it together veryy well !
Interesting thesis Raheem. I found your thesis both engaging and provocative. It is very original and I doubt I will find it anywhere else on this blog. I found that your paragraphs gave too much background to the decisions and not enough detail to the decisions themselves. I thought your quotations did help the paragraphs a lot though. Keep up the good work Raheem.
Raheem your story is really good you had lots of detail that made me enjoy it. I thought you should have some quotes. I liked how you told use how determined santiago was in catching the matlin.
Raheem, your thesis statement was clear and concise. I like how you organized your story and put vocab words that impressed me. The quote that I like was “He looked behind him and saw that no land was visible” (46). I agreed to your supporting quote and that he went too far. I would say overall, your essay was good and stayed on topic and had good strong intro, body, and conclusion paragraph.
Raheem, your thesis statement was clear and concise. I like how you organized your story and put vocab words that impressed me. The quote that I like was “He looked behind him and saw that no land was visible” (46). I agreed to your supporting quote and that he went too far. I would say overall, your essay was good and stayed on topic and had good strong intro, body, and conclusion paragraph.
I felt that your thesis was good, and I felt that you incorporated it even better. I liked the quote on page 18 because it shows that he was serious of his job and that he wasn’t in it for the pride. Other people wouldn't have said that. They would have said, fishing is the hardest job year round or something like that. I really liked you beginning sentence. It got my hooked into reading more. I would have made the story a little more interesting because after the first paragraph I felt that it sort of fell apart. Good story!
Before I get to the story I wanted to say...Zach DON'T EVER SAY THE WORD ENTICING AGAIN!!!
Now to the Story...I found this essay very original and your thesis was interesting. I lied the quote when he say no land was visible. This showed how much dedication the old man said...You need to keep the story flowing though. First paragraph was pretty insightful but then you kind of fell apart. Other than that great story.
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