The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

“Why is it that old men wake up so early in the morning? Is it the desire to live one day longer?”

He was as loved the lions as much as he loved the boy. But the old man never dreamed about the boy.

Why not the boy and nothing else...

He was in a way sympathetic towards the birds, especially the small, fragile dark terns that were always flying as if looking for something but failing each time to find whatever they were flying for.

He was a little contemptuous of the large, stupid, yellow loggerheads that looked strange when they mated and funny when they ate the Portuguese men-of war with their eyes shut.

Many people were cruel to them and it pained the old man that a turtle’s heart beat for hours even after it was killed and cut up.

“If the other fishermen heard me talk aloud, they would probably think I’m mad. But since I’m not, I really do not care,”

“But I wish I could see him just once to know what I’m fighting.”

He thought about how no one should be alone when they are old but then, that couldn’t be helped.

“You are all alone and so you better work alone.”

Then he spotted a flight of wild ducks and knew that no man was ever alone at sea.

The old man felt rejuvenated after he had said his prayers, but the truth was that his physical discomfort still existed and had, in fact, increased.

The old man had proved himself again and again in the past. But when he faced a challenging situation like this, he totally forgot about the past and was keen to prove a point again.

“Don’t think too much, old man. Rest both your body and mind.

“Maybe it’s my fault for not having trained my left hand better. But he has had so many opportunities to learn.

But then, a man has not been made to accept defeat. He can be completely destroyed but never defeated.

“Besides, isn’t everything in life a sin? You think too much, old man. You were born to be a fisherman and the fish was born to be a fish!”