Signpost Notes
•Contrasts and Contradictions:
When a character does something
that contrasts with what you would expect or
contradicts his earlier
acts or statement, STOP and ask “Why is the character doing
that?”
•Aha Moment:
When a character realizes, understands, or finally
figures out something, STOP
and ask yourself “How might this
change things?”
•Tough Question:
When a character asks herself a very difficult
question, STOP and ask yourself
“What does this question make me
wonder about?”
•Words of the Wiser:
When a character (probably older and wiser)
takes the main character aside and
offers serious advice, STOP and
ask, “What’s the life lesson and how might it
affect the character?”
•Again and Again:
When you notice a word, phrase, or situation
mentioned over and over, STOP and
ask yourself, “Why does this
keep happening?”
•Memory Moment:
When the author interrupts the action to tell
you about a memory, STOP and ask
yourself, “Why might this
memory be important?”
While I read “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway, something that I noticed was how the man talked. The man would get mad at different body parts and insult them as if they were separate from him and he could not control them. At one point he said that he wished he had been born with two good hands instead of just his right hand being useful. He even said that the hand was worthless. Though there was no disability that made his left hand unusable, he was just not left-handed. In his mind, that was a disability. When his hands get cut or cramp up he thinks that the hands are doing it on purpose. He tells his hand to uncramp as if he was telling a person to put something down. He also acknowledges when he is talking to him self. He will advise himself to eat because he’s acting crazy and he will feel better with food in his system. He does not think this in his head, he says it out loud. He talks to himself like he is giving advice that will only be heard and followed out if it is spoken. It’s like he is more connected to nature than his body and forgets that he is one connected system. The man even talks to the fish strangely. The way he talks is as if the fish can understand what he is saying. He asks the fish to bite his line, he pleads for the fish to let him kill him, and he asks the fish to stop pulling the boat. The man even yells at the jellyfish to let them know how much he hates them. The man seems to be disconnected with in himself although strange and some what interesting he reaches out to be part of nature and connect with the fish.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway, I noticed many patterns and motifs throughout the book. The pattern I noticed most was the way the main character, Santiago, personifies multiple body parts of his. This includes things such as his eyes and especially his hands. He refers to these things multiple times throughout the book as “the hands” or “the eyes”. He is very cruel to his hands and eyes. At one point, Santiago criticizes himself for being born with “only one good hand”. To Santiago, his right hand is his “good hand” and he is not left-handed. The other thing I noticed about the book is the way Hemmingway wrote it. Hemmingway was very specific with the places he put quotations around what Santiago was saying, thinking, and feeling. This would change the perspective of the writing from third person to first person all throughout the entirety of The Old Man and the Sea. At times I would not even realize that the point of view had changed. This would leave me very confused as to what was happening in the book. Changing the point of view around took away from the book, in my opinion. However, I feel like Hemmingway did this on purpose. It really showed how Santiago felt and it would display Santiago’s struggle of fishing by himself in a little skiff. By changing the perspective around, I could see how Santiago treats himself. He would talk to himself in a strange way. He would even talk to the fish in a weird way, too. Hemmingway’s style of writing is a very strange, yet effective style. This style is displayed through the things Santiago says and does all throughout the novella.
ReplyDeleteIn old man and the sea by earnest hemmingway there are a few recurring themes that pop up continually throughout the book. The main theme that we witness is Santiago 's relationship with the marlin fish. Again and again the old man speaks to the fish as if he were human. It becomes very confusing when Santiago explains his love and respect for the fish but then will go on to talk about killing him. This is a major contrast and contradiction that I still do not understand. He says that it is not a sin to kill the fish because he loves and respects him. How is it not a sin by loving the fish? Wouldn't that make it even worse because you had this connection with the fish and you betrayed the fish by killing him? Santiago gives the fish human characteristics and speaks of him as if he were human. If the fish was human as Santiago sees him that would be extremely wrong of him to kill another human for loving him so much. Although this is a fish Santiago sees him in a human like aspect and that worries me about Santiago's mental health if he believes in killing out of love.
ReplyDeleteIn Ernest Hemingway's the Old Man and the Sea there were many things that stood out to me. The first is the dream that Santiago has about the lions on the beaches of Africa. I did not understand why this dream was included in the book at first. It seemed very out of place. Throughout the book, however, I noticed a few things that allowed me to find a place for the dream into the book as a whole. The first his Santiago’s way of fishing. He fishes the traditional way with no radio, no motorboat, and no companion. His way of fishing allows him to feel the fish at the end of his line and struggle with the fish. While most fisherman in cuba have equipment to more easily real in large fish, Santiago chooses not to change his ways. His pride tells him that he must keep struggling with these fish to prove himself. Another thing that I noticed was that after he had caught the fish and was sailing him back to the island he curses the sharks for taking his fish. He feels that the sharks do not deserve to take his fish because they did not struggle with the fish and did not respect the fish and what it took to kill it. to me these two events show that the old man feels that to truly respect and love the fish one must fight with it and feel its full strength. It seems that the old man thinks that by choosing not to struggle that he is giving up his pride. Suddenly the dream started to fit for me. The old man dreams of the lions because they were not struggling, but relaxing. they were able to hold on to all of their pride and dignity while being able to relax on the beach. The old man is longing for the day that he can stop struggling and hold onto his pride. The realization for me made the book that much more enjoyable for me.
ReplyDeleteIn my signposts from the Old Man and the Sea, a connection between my notes is personification. I found that the Old Man speaks to his body, the sea, birds, and fish like they are people. This is significant to the book because it shares with the reader how lonely the Old Man is. The Old Man missed his late wife and the boy very much so he filled in the loneliness by speaking to things like the fish and the birds. The Old Man stated how the birds are his best friends because they show him where the fish are, giving the birds personification to be best friends. In my notes I also wrote how the Old Man has to love the fish to eat and kill it. This is meaningful to the book because he believes it would be a sin if he didn’t because if he killed the only company he had out at sea, he would see himself as a murderer not a hunter. A memory moment in the Old Man and the Sea is when he stops the story and tells the reader about his former arm wrestling life style. This is is significant to the book because it show how even before he was a fisherman. He explains how he still couldn’t use his left hand. He believes not having two good hands is a disability when really is normal. The Old Man is very lonely by himself in the sea. He gives these things personification and speaks to them as if they could answer to make himself feel more apart of the setting around him and less lonely.
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, I recognized that he puts great emphasis on the relationships that Santiago has. These are not romantic relationships but rather relationships that balance respect, frustration, and conflict. The first of these relationships we see as readers is his connection to the boy. Both the boy and Santiago respect each other greatly and had relied on each other on past fishing trips. For the fishing trip that is covered for most of the book, however, Santiago did not have the boy there to help him and he frequently voices that he wishes he did. The next few relationships we see are between Santiago and the many marine animals that surround him. In most of these cases he talks out loud to the animals that he loves or hates, be they birds or jellyfish. Next we see the main interaction between Santiago and the large marlin he hooks. Santiago speaks out loud when he explains that he has lots of respect for the dolphin and he loves it, but he must kill the dolphin. This strange relationship would not have been so clearly established in other stories or books; they would most likely have just described the conflict as a one-sided struggle on the part of Santiago. In Hemingway’s writing, we receive direct insight into Santiago’s feelings toward his relationship with the fish because he talks to himself. This is not the only situation in which we collect information on one of Santiago’s strange interactions via him talking to himself. Santiago also talks to his own body parts on more than one occasion. Specifically, he speaks to his left hand after it cramps up, scolding and questioning it. Through this extensive and repetitive collection of interactions between Santiago and the things around him, I conclude that this story relies on the emotion expressed by his relationships in order to develop Santiago’s character.
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