Old Man and the Sea - 16

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is a book that is much different than the other two summer reading books. The other two books I read were Fahrenheit 451 and The Grapes of Wrath. All three of the books were written about different time periods and are much different. A big difference in the three book is the ton of each of them, the tone is different in all three because there are three different authors for the three books.

The Old Man and the Sea is much different than The Grapes of Wrath. The grapes of wrath is written about a certain and exact time period, and the old man and the sea is more of a relative time frame. Also the grapes of wrath is stuffed with symbolism and most of the characters in the story are allusions to something else that has a greater meaning than just a character. Also most everything that happens in that book symbolizes something that has previously happened in history. Where as in The Old Man and the Sea there is not much symbolism. The thing that holds the most symbolism is when the old man starts sounding like Jesus. But other than that, there is not much symbolism. However, much of the book can be directly applied to the reader's life and the symbolisms in the book is how it symbolizes things in the reader's life and for the reader. The tone of The Grapes of Wrath is very fast paced and demanding. You feel the stress and feel yourself getting overwhelmed and caught up in the frenzy of the book, and this all happens because of the rapid tone in the book and the ground that the book covers. Sometimes one chapter will cover many months of things happening, when in The Old Man and the Sea the entire book only covers five days. Also the tone of it is way slower and more relaxed, as well as much less demanding.

The Old Man and the Sea is also very different than Fahrenheit 451. In that book, it all symbolizes the future and what is going to happen and what is to come. Whereas The Old Man and the Sea applies directly to current life and does not predict the future, but help you to see where you are now and what you need to be doing differently.

My favorite book of the three was The Old Man and the Sea. I did not just favor it because it was the shortest and the simplest, but because it was the most relaxed book. After reading the other two books and digging deep into the books to figure out the symbolism and such, it was so nice to have a book that was straightforward and simple. It was an excellent read and was a comfort to read and I loved the tone of the book and the easy going laid back nature of it.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.