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Summary for Lesson 1
In today’s lesson we began our study of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains lots of ideas on the historical context of the novel and how it connects to the central themes and motifs of the novel, thinking particularly about the life of the author and how his experiences influenced his thoughts on life and human nature. It also contains our work on the moral of the story and what lies within the book’s semantic field. We also looked at the theme of fate and luck in the book, and how it is important throughout the book, whilst also questioning whether this book overall can be labelled a sad book. The class worked really well today, I particularly enjoyed hearing what they liked or disliked within the novel as they came up with some really interesting, well-evidenced and nuanced ideas. They spoke about the themes of the book beautifully, and were able to really effectively evaluate the way in which Hemingway’s life can help to shed light on the central ideas of the story. They connected the literary canon the book exists within to the wider themes gorgeously and also thought about the idea of culture clash in a very sophisticated and mature way. Really well done everyone, keep up the fab work and I will see you all next week 😊
Homework
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Question 1:
For the phrase ‘a man can be destroyed but not defeated’ I think Santiago means he will not give up overwise it is like being defeated. Referring to being destroyed he will catch the fish even if he dies and he is determined to catch the fish. I agree, yet I do not agree. I agree because a proper poor fisherman would never give up if that is the only thing he can eat and if it is very rare to catch a fish like the old man, I would think it was their only chance to catch a fish. I do not agree because a very rich man who wants to fish can give up and he has other choices for food rather than fish and he might catch loads of fish whenever he goes fishing so if he stops then he would still catch loads of fish.
Question 2:
The sea represents loneliness, because the sea is endless and there is nobody near him except from the fish which he, the old man, is trying to kill and when the fish is killed, he is even more lonely. Page 32 it says, ‘I wish I had the boy’ the old man said aloud. On page 97 it says, ‘He noticed how pleasant it was to have someone to talk to instead of speaking only to himself and to the sea.’
Resilience, because he gives up some things, he does to keep an eye on the fish like sleeping, to catch the fish but ends up with sharks eating the fish. On page 89 it says, ‘The old man hit him as he shut his jaws.’
Determined, because he wants to carry on what he is doing but he must carry on the painfulness to carry on. On page 46 it says, ‘He is coming up,’ he said. ‘Come on hand. Please come on.’
Frustrated, because the same about the one above, he is frustrated about not catching the fish and if he did, he could turn straight back home and either eat it or sell it for money. On page 46 it says, ‘He is coming up,’ he said. ‘Come on hand. Please come on.’ You can almost imagine that he is saying it with a rather frustrated voice.
Shocked, because he is surprised that the fish did not die. On page 32 it says, ‘But 4 hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea.’
Angry, because he cannot kill the fish. On page 32 it says, ‘But 4 hours later the fish was still swimming steadily out to sea.’ I can feel the tension in him when the fish has not died.
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To Beth,
Homework: What does the sea symbolise?
Ernest Hemingway includes the sea in the book, I think the sea can represent mystery as it is possible to contain almost anything. For example, the main characters are fishermen’s and their task is to collect fish for food from the sea, “he must be huge, he thought” here, the first ‘he’ refers to the marlin, the word ‘thought’ emphasises the uncertainty in the old man’s voice and the variety of animal possibilities belonging to the sea; as the fish leads the old man for a large amount of time, it depicts a sense of mystery due to the unmentioned places the fish travels to.
Thank you,
Amy
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Dear Beth,
Thank you for the lesson here is the homework for question 2 :
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wrCPJV6MvaowA5pFJxJirRyxcC1tJDy56Th51cpbxnM/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you 😀 😀
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Hi Beth, here is my work!
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Do you agree with this? Why or why not?
I agree with this since many things can destroy man, but as long as man perseveres, carries on and is persistent, he cannot be defeated.
Santiago can be destroyed in many ways. Some examples are death, not catching a fish for 84 days and being towed by the marlin for 4 days. These all have something in common. They will not defeat man. People can learn from the dead and on their ideas, experiments and work, they can build better things, more useful things that people will benefit from. Not catching a fish for 84 days has destroyed his reputation but instead of being defeated and giving up, Santiago becomes more determined and goes further than anyone else and stays longer than anyone else. Being towed by the marlin only makes him more determined to kill it. So, this shows that nothing can defeat man unless they give up.
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Dear Beth,
Here is my homework for lesson 2:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mZf75jTqOKbekWfR0giJ5edyJLlKfJz2-D1Yp0w-dK0/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you 😀 😀
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To Beth ,
Here is my work,
Best regards, Alicia
What is Santiago’s fatal flaw/ Achille’s Heel?
I think Santiago’s main weakness is he cares too much about nature. This is shown when he is deciding whether or not to slaughter the marlin. This means he has respect for the great fish and does not want to lead it to its death. This is because he thinks that it won’t hurt to treat him like he would treat his brother since we all come from nature. It is also shown when he says that no one is worthy to eat the fish-it shows that he thinks the fish deserves equal suspect to humans. Santiago is uneasy when he is deciding whether or not to murder it.
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Dear Beth ,
Thank you for giving me such a wonderful lesson! Can you please post the powerpoint onto this page from Lesson 2? Thank you!
Enjoy a lovely Easter!
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Summary for Lesson 2
In today’s lesson we continued our study of The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the paragraphs assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains all our work on ‘the iceberg effect’ of Hemingway’s writing, thinking about how his oft-called economy of style is reflected in his style, structure and themes. We also looked at identifying the different lifestyle Santiago represents, and why Hemingway may have made the choice to frame this culture in the way that he did. It also contains our ideas on the difficulties of summarising this book in one sentence, and our analysis of a passage from the book, which the students brilliantly thought about from many different angles, considering the passage in light of different themes and ideas. Everyone worked beautifully today, I really enjoyed all of our discussions on this novel and was particularly impressed by your group presentations. Really well done everyone, keep up the amazing work! 🙂
Homework
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The Old man and the Sea Homework Lesson 2 Q1
I think that Santiago has many fatal flaw/Achillie’s heel. One of them is his care for nature, you can explore this seen when he meets the marlin. You can see how he regrets catching the marlin and go into a deep description a worth of nature that he doesn’t want to fish the marlin, but as humans are, he thought that every human hunts, eat and kill. So he had no choice but to kill it. Although, he didn’t kill the fish. The shark killed it. You could see his affection for nature here when he thought about the fish being eaten by this monstrous animals. His affection for this animal never ends. Even when he went back ashore his village after a few weeks of an unsuccessful week of catching fish.
Another of his fatal flaw was his different interests and multi-tasking. As you can see, he thinks about baseball through out the book. He is also constantly multi-tasking. You can find it still in where he had a weak arm, he eats tuna (while holding his fishing rod). This can cause him to lose concentration to succeed in catching the fish.You can also find him thinking about baseball while fishing the gigantic marlin. This suggest that he is multi-tasking and is not concentrating.
Another of his Achillie’s heel is how to prospect his future. This can be seen when the marlin was eaten by the sharks. He could’ve prospect his future and go to another place to fish instead of fishing in the middle of a shark sushi bar. This suggests that he doesn’t think carefully or they are bad at geography and doesn’t know where sharks usually go. He is basically wasting his time and doesn’t have any common sense. This leads on to my next point, time managements.
As I explained before, time management. You can see it more obviously in the middle (still when he was fishing the marlin). He had fished this fish for weeks and keep grabbing on and on until it reaches the end of it’s fate, eaten by sharks. That suggests that he doesn’t plan his time carefully, and end up having nothing. I am not saying to not persevere, but just to think about where you are and get ready for a day’s trip. Now, he ended up a few weeks to have wasted his time and his efforts for something you didn’t need.
His last fatal flaw is how he never gets prepared. You can see this when he describes about him owning a few items. All of them are pretty useful, but he didn’t get other essential items that he needed for his journey. He only brought a harpoon and some other essentials. Though, he didn’t bring a compass, a map, etc. These are essentials when you go in the middle of the ocean. Though he didn’t.
That is all the fatal flaws that Santiago had in the book.
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To Beth,
Homework, Question: discuss the role of the Manolin, is he necessary to the story?
In my opinion, the Manolin is an enormously important role, this is because the little boy acts similar to the symbol of hope and inspiration pushing the old man further into his dreams. For example, when the Manolin asks to go fishing with the old man once again. This brings out the optimistic side of the old man which eventually leads him back to fishing. Secondly, the close relationship between the Manolin and the old man allows him to take care of the old man, ‘the old man opened his eyes [and] for a moment he was far away’ here, it emphasizes the bond between them both and the trust that allows the boy to take care of the old man; this makes the boy act also like a healer which increases the important of the Manolin.
Overall, I believe the Manolin is an essential role to the old man and the sea due to the jobs he takes on whenever a character is unwell in the story, this allows everything to flow.
Amy
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Dear Beth,
For week 2 homework:
Manolin is necessary to the story, ‘The Old Man and the Sea’. Manolin has a love, selflessness, care and faith for Santiago. It says on page 8 and 9:
‘What do you have to eat?’ the boy asked.
‘A pot of yellow rice and fish. Do you want some?’
‘No, I will eat at home. Do you want me to make the fire?’
‘No, I will make it later. Or I may eat the rice cold.’ ‘May I take the cast net?’ ‘Of course.’
This shows Manolin cares for the old man and wants to help him as much as he can.
In the first part of the story Manolin is begging the old man to do the work for him and Manolin keeps on asking the old man to tell him some stories about people like DiMaggio.
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For homework week 3:
Santiago embodied Hemingway’s ideals for manhood by persevering and not relying on other people. He perseveres when he lost his fish. He did not shout to heaven saying, ‘Why can not things go the way they want because I gave up somethings just to catch a fish and it gets eaten by sharks!’ He knew that nothing would do anything to get the fish back and just went to sleep. He did not go to town and tease about what he did and complain that sharks ate it.
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Summary for Lesson 3
In today’s lesson we completed our study of The Old Man and the Sea. The powerpoint with all of the resources is attached below, which should be used to help plan and write the mini essays assigned for homework. The powerpoint contains our thoughts and ideas on some of the central symbols of the novel, focusing particularly on the significance of baseball and Joe DiMaggio in the book, along with our discussion on Hemingway’s fixation on heroism and masculinity. We spoke about the restrictive and, in some ways, destructive philosophy he preaches on what makes a man a man, critically evaluating this in the light of modern ideas regarding men and emotions. We spoke about whether Santiago was an unlikely hero, discussed our final thoughts on the key themes of the novel and Hemingway’s world view, and also completed a mini exam on literary analysis. The class analysed a passage from the text beautifully, considering the effect of word choice, literary techniques, and structure through close textual analysis. Everyone worked excellently today, I was so impressed by the depth and maturity of their contributions and by how diligently they worked on their mini exams. Really well done guys, it has been a pleasure to work with you all and I hope to see you all again soon. Keep up the fabulous work & I really look forward to reading your homework! 😊
Here is the Joe DiMaggio biography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYqeSyB0pYc
Homework
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To Beth,
Lesson 3 homework : what genre is the old man and the sea?
First of all, the most obvious genre or two to me is action and hints of thriller, Golding reflects that from when the old man battles the sharks in an attempt to protect the Marlin, ‘when he saw the other shark… punched them’. The word ‘other’ suggests that there are multiple sharks who are chasing the Marlin. Furthermore, ‘punched’ depicts the strength the old man has to muster in order to defeat these hungry giants. Due to the actions verbs such as ‘punched’, ‘stabbed’ and ‘drove’ it creates a sense of combat in the story, contrasting to peaceful afternoon movies etc.
Next, another group of genres could be horror and satire; horror is presented through the close and detailed description of the shark attack, for instance, ‘drove the knife on the oar down into his brain’ the utter violence emphasises on the unthinkable actions during the combat between both forces. During the journey of the old man and the fish, there was communication such as ‘ how do you feel fish?’ the exaggeration that the fish can speak highlights a sense of abnormality and uncomfortableness to the reader.
Lastly, this novel could be classified as mystery and adventure due to the unknown and lengthened adventure the old man travelled through with the Marlin, the prolonged journey increased the doubt of the old man whether to kill the Marlin as their extended journey has enclosed their relationship to a closer level.Thank you,
Amy
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