Very short content (in a nutshell)

Fisherman Santiago has been unable to catch a fish for 84 days. Even the parents of his faithful friend, the boy Manolin, forbade him to fish with him, considering him unlucky. Santiago is old, he was worn out, there is no money even for food. Once again, he goes fishing, but already alone. Luck smiles at him and a very large fish gets on the hook. For several days he fights with her, and finally kills her. To his misfortune, he felt blood, sharks are coming. They slowly eat all the fish, despite Santiago's best efforts. He comes to the port only with a huge head. There are many fishermen around who are surprised by the size of the fish.

Summary (detailed)

For eighty-four days an old man named Santiago has been fishing alone in the Gulf Stream in his boat. All this time he is haunted by failure: the man again and again returns to the shore without a catch.

At first, the old man was helped by a boy named Manolin - his friend. But soon the parents forbade their son to fish with Santiago and sent him to work on another, happier boat.

What follows is a description of the old man's appearance. Santiago is "thin and emaciated", with deep wrinkles at the back of his head and brown spots on the cheeks and neck - traces of prolonged exposure to the sun near the water. The man's arms are all covered with old towline scars. Only his eyes still shine with a cheerful brilliance and their color "look like the sea." These are "the eyes of a man who does not give up."

The old man and the boy like to sit on the Terrace and drink beer, talking about everything in the world. Santiago reminisces about his youth, about how he first took Manolin with him when he was only five years old, and a live fish almost blew their boat to pieces, and the boy almost died.

Manolin loves Santiago, because it was the old man who taught him everything he knows about fishing. Santiago also takes care of the boy tenderly. Young fishermen laugh at Santiago, and the elderly look at him with sadness, and only Manolin sincerely believes in his teacher and never doubts his skill.

After talking with a friend, Santiago falls asleep wrapped in a blanket and nestled on the old newspapers covering the "naked springs" of his bed. He dreams of the Africa of his youth.

The next day, the old man gets up earlier than usual, wakes up the boy, who helps him get ready for the journey, and sails away from the shore, driving his boat "straight into the fresh morning breath of the ocean." Santiago observes the life of birds and the inhabitants of the deep sea, feeling oneness with nature. They are all like friends to him. Today he decides to fish in a different place than usual, in the hope that finally luck will smile on him and he will be able to catch a big fish.

Santiago unwinds the lines and drops the bait into the sea. He always throws his tackle more accurately than other fishermen, he just hasn't been lucky lately. But finally, the cherished dream of a man comes true and a large fish comes across for bait. She is so big that she drags the old man's boat behind her, as if in tow, right into the open sea.

The line of the old fisherman is strong, and the fish swims near the surface and does not go deep, so he can keep the prey on the hook. But a strong opponent is in no hurry to die.

Thus the day passes and the night comes. Still holding the fish on the hook, the old man talks a lot both with her and with himself. He recalls his hunt for marlin, sympathizes with a small bird that sat down to rest on his line. And he constantly thinks about the boy and regrets that he is not around.

The fish still continues to resist death. But finally, she emerges from the water, and the old man manages to see his rival for the first time: “She was all on fire in the sun, her head and back were dark purple, and the stripes on her sides seemed very wide and pale lilac in bright light. Instead of a nose, she had a sword ... "

The fish goes back into the water. The old man looks into the distance and realizes how lonely he is now, but "a man in the sea is never alone." Santiago reminisces about his youth and former strength, about how he once defeated a "powerful Negro" in a Casablanca tavern and won a bet. And the fish are in no hurry to slow down.

This goes on for a few more days. Santiago is already so tired and exhausted that he even decides to read prayers (“Our Father” and “Virgin Mary”) in order to ask God for help, although he does not believe in the existence of the Almighty.

The fight continues. The old man's back aches from fatigue, his arms are deeply cut with a whip, sweat rolls down his burned face, his head is spinning, and black spots flash before his eyes. But finally, the prey begins to bounce and walk in circles. This encourages Santiago and gives him confidence that now he will surely be able to defeat his opponent. Indeed, soon the fish approaches the surface, and the old man, having gathered the remnants of his strength, inflicts a mortal blow on her with a harpoon.

Santiago pulls the dead fish to the boat, never ceasing to admire the greatness and beauty of this creature, and ties his prey. Some time passes, and the blood flowing from the wounds of the fish begins to attract sharks: first a few, and then a whole flock.

The man manages to kill the first predator with a harpoon. Dying, she goes into the depths, taking with her the old man's weapon and about forty pounds of his booty. Santiago kills the next two sharks by attaching a knife to his oar, but they still manage to tear off a significant part of the meat of the dead fish.

Returning home, the exhausted man, leaving the skeleton of a fish on the shore near his ship, somehow gets to the hut and immediately goes to bed. The next morning the fishermen measure this skeleton with ropes.

Santiago continues to sleep when a boy looks into his hut. Noticing the wounded hands of the old man, Manolin cannot hold back her tears. He quietly leaves the house to bring coffee to his friend.

After taking care that no one disturbs the old man, the boy returns to the hut. When Santiago wakes up, Manolin promises him that they will always fish together from now on. The man offers the boy to take the swordfish for himself as a trophy.

On the same day, a group of tourists arrive at the Terrace. Noticing the skeleton of a huge fish among the piles of garbage on the shore, vacationers mistake it for the remains of a shark. Upstairs, in his hut, the old man is sleeping again, and the boy is guarding him. Santiago dreams of African lions again.

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Main character story - the old man Santiago, lives on the fact that he sells the fish he caught. Together with him, a boy named Manolin goes out to sea. The boy loves the old man, wants to help him, but the boy's parents are against him going to sea with him, because the old man is unlucky - for eighty-four days he has not been able to catch a single fish. The boy feels sorry for the old man, so he helps him with tackle and a boat, catches him sardines for bait, waits on the shore for his return to help collect tackle.

In the morning, getting into the boat, Santiago tells the boy that this fishing will certainly be successful. Having set sail from the shore, he calmly watches how his boat is carried downstream. He knows the sea well, loves it, even communicates with it mentally.

And now comes the moment that the old man has been waiting for for many days - one fishing line is sharply pulled down under the influence of great gravity. The old man realizes that a very large fish has been caught. He wants to pull the fish closer to the side of the boat in order to finish it off with a harpoon, but he does not succeed - the fish itself pulls the boat along, stepping aside. The old man is very sorry that Manolin is not next to him - he would have helped him pull up the fish.

Further in the story is a description of the real duel that takes place between the old man and the fish. The fish turned out to be very hardy, for almost two days it dragged the old man's boat behind him. Santiago's hands were already numb from fatigue, and everything was confused in his head. Finally, the strength of the fish ran out, it floated to the surface close to the boat and even turned on its side, as if substituting itself under the blow of the harpoon more comfortably. The old man thrusts the harpoon into the fish, then, warding off extreme fatigue, pulls the fish up to the boat and ties it to the side, noticing that the fish is a couple of feet longer than the boat. He orients himself to the wind and turns the boat towards the shore, imagining how much money he can get for such a big fish.

After some time, the old man sees that a shark is approaching his boat, attracted by the smell of blood. The shark doesn't need an old man - it has set its sights on the fish, intending to have a good meal. The old man tries to drive away the shark, sticks a harpoon into it, but the shark sinks to the bottom, nevertheless biting off a large piece of fish and carrying the harpoon away. And soon a whole flock of sharks appears. The old man ties the knife to the oar, preparing to drive them away from the fish, but he manages to kill only one shark, the rest swim away only when only the tail and skeleton remain of the fish.

Only at night the old man was able to get to the shore, where the boy was waiting for him. The old man, showing him what was left of his huge prey, could not stand it and burst into tears, but the boy reassured him, saying that now he would only go to sea with him, and they would catch more than one such fish. And in the morning, tourists appeared on the shore, who were amazed to see a huge skeleton of a fish lying there.

Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea was first published in 1952. The work tells about an episode from the life of an old Cuban fisherman who fought on the high seas with a huge marlin, which became his biggest prey in life. The Old Man and the Sea is the last known work published during the writer's lifetime. The story was awarded the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes.

Main characters

Old Man Santiago- a fisherman who knows the sea perfectly. His "eyes were the color of the sea, the cheerful eyes of a man who does not give up."

Boy Manolin- a young fisherman whom Santiago taught to fish; He loved the old man very much, took care of him.

The old man was fishing alone in the Gulf Stream. For 84 days he did not catch a single fish. The first 40 days he had a boy with him. But the boy's parents, deciding that the old man was now "unlucky", ordered Manolin to go to the sea in another boat - "happy". “The old man was thin and emaciated, deep wrinkles cut through the back of his head,” and his cheeks were covered with patches of harmless skin cancer caused by the sun. There were old string scars on his arms.

Once a boy and an old man were sitting on the terrace and drinking beer. The boy remembered how he caught his first fish at the age of 5 - he remembered everything from the very first day when the old man took him to the sea. Santiago shared that he would go to sea before dawn tomorrow.

The old man lived very poorly in a hut made of royal palm leaves. The boy brought Santiago dinner - he did not want the old man to fish without eating. After supper the old man went to bed. "He dreamed of the Africa of his youth", its smell brought from the shore, "distant lands and lion cubs coming ashore".

Early in the morning, after drinking coffee with the boy, Santiago went to sea. “The old man decided in advance that he would go far from the coast.” "In his mind he always called the sea la mar, which is the Spanish name for the people who love him." "The old man constantly thought of the sea as a woman." Santiago decided today to try his luck there, "where flocks of bonito and albacore go." He cast the hooks with the bait and slowly swam downstream. Soon the old man caught a tuna and threw it under the stern deck, concluding that it would be good bait.

Suddenly, one of the rods trembled and bent down to the water - the old man realized that the marlin had been baited. After waiting a little, he began to pull the line. However, the fish turned out to be too big and dragged the boat behind it in tow. “She will die soon,” thought the old man. She can't swim forever. But after 4 hours, the fish still went to sea, and the old man was still standing, holding the stretched line. He carefully sat down on the mast, resting and trying to conserve his strength.

It got colder after sunset, and the old man threw a sack over his back. The lights of Havana began to fade, from which Santiago concluded that they were moving further and further east. The old man regretted that the boy was not with him. “It is impossible for a person to remain alone in old age,” he thought. “However, it is inevitable.”

The old man thought about how much money this big fish would bring him if it had tasty meat. Before sunrise, he pecked at one of the baits behind his back. To prevent another fish from plucking a big one for him, he cut the line. The old man again regretted that the boy was not with him: "You can only rely on yourself." At some point, the fish pulled hard, he fell down and cut his cheek. At dawn, the old man noticed that the fish was heading north. It was impossible to pull the forest - from a jerk, the wound can expand and "if the fish emerges, the hook can break out completely."

The fish suddenly rushed and knocked the old man down. When he felt the forest, he saw that blood was flowing from his hand. Moving the line to his left shoulder, he washed away the blood - the abrasion was just on the part of the arm that he needed for work. This upset him. The old man cleaned the tuna he caught yesterday and began to chew. His left hand was completely cramped. I hate it when my arm hurts, he thought. - Own body - and such a catch!

Suddenly, the old man felt that the draft had weakened, the scaffolding slowly went up and fish began to appear on the surface of the water. “She burned all over in the sun, her head and back were dark purple.<…>Instead of a nose, she had a sword as long as a baseball stick and sharp at the end as a rapier.” The fish was two feet longer than the boat. The old man "saw many fish weighing more than a thousand pounds, and he himself caught two such fish in his time, but never before had he had to do it alone."

Although the old man did not believe in God, in order to catch this fish, he decided to read the Our Father ten times and the Mother of God the same number of times. The sun was setting and the fish were swimming.

The old man caught a mackerel - now he has enough food for the whole night and another day. The pain that the rope caused him turned into a dull ache. He could not tie the string to the boat - so that it would not break from the jerk of the fish, he had to constantly weaken the traction with his own body. The old man decided to sleep a little, taking the wood with both hands. He dreamed of a huge flock of porpoises, and then a yellow shoal and lions coming out on it. He woke up from a jerk - the forest was rapidly leaving for the sea. The fish began to jump, the boat rushed forward. The fish went with the flow. The old man regretted that his left hand weaker than the right.

“The sun was rising for the third time since he went out to sea, and then the fish began to circle.” The old man began to pull the line towards himself. Two hours passed, but the fish were still circling. The old man is very tired. By the end of the third lap, the fish surfaced thirty yards from the boat. Her tail "was larger than the largest sickle". Finally, the prey was at the edge of the boat. The old man raised the harpoon high and plunged the fish into the side. She rose high above the water, “it seemed that she was hanging in the air above the old man and the boat,” then she threw herself into the sea, flooding the fisherman and the whole boat with water.

The old man felt ill, but when he came to his senses, he saw that the fish was lying on its back, and the sea around was stained with its blood. After examining the prey, the old man concluded: "It weighs at least half a ton." The old man tied the fish to the boat and headed home.

An hour later, the first shark overtook him - he swam to the smell of blood that flowed from the wound of the dead fish. Seeing a shark, the old man prepared a harpoon. The predator plunged its jaws into the fish. The old man threw a harpoon at the shark and killed it. “She took about forty pounds of fish with her,” the old man said aloud. The shark dragged his harpoon and the rest of the rope to the bottom. Now the fish was bleeding again - others would come for this shark. It seemed to the fisherman as if the shark had rushed at him.

Two hours later, he spotted the first of two sharks. He raised an oar with a knife tied to it and hit the predator in the back, and then plunged the knife into her eyes. The old man lured out the second shark, he had to stab it several times before the predator died. The fish has become much lighter. “They must have taken with them at least a quarter of the fish, and, moreover, the best meat.”

"The next shark came alone." The old man hit her with an oar with a knife, the blade broke. "The sharks attacked him again just before sunset." There were two of them - the old man beat the predators with a club until they swam away. “He didn’t want to look at the fish. He knew half of her was gone."

The old man decided to fight until he died. He "saw the glow of city lights about ten o'clock in the evening." At midnight, a whole flock of sharks attacked the fisherman. "He beat them on the heads with a truncheon and heard the jaws snapping and the boat shaking as they grabbed the fish from below." When the club was gone, he tore the tiller out of its socket and began to beat the sharks with it. When one of the sharks swam up to the head of the fish, the old man realized that "it's all over." Now the boat was going easily, but "the old man did not think of anything and did not feel anything." “At night, the sharks pounced on the gnawed carcass of the fish, like gluttons grabbing leftovers from the table. The old man ignored them."

Santiago entered the little bay when the lights on the Terrace were already out. As he made his way to his hut, he turned and, in the light of the lantern, saw a huge fish tail and a bare line of spine. The boy came to him while he was still sleeping. Seeing the hands of the old man, Manolin began to cry.

“A lot of fishermen gathered around the boat,” one of the fishermen measured the skeleton - “From nose to tail it was eighteen feet.”

The boy brought hot coffee to the old man. The old man allowed Manolin to take the fish sword as a keepsake. The boy said that they were looking for the old man, and now they will fish together, because he still has a lot to learn. Manolin promised Santiago: "I will bring you happiness."

A tourist who came to the Terrace asked what kind of skeleton lay near the shore. The waiter answered: "Sharks", and wanted to explain what happened. However, the woman only said to her companion in surprise: “I didn’t know that sharks have such beautiful, gracefully curved tails!” .

“Upstairs, in his hut, the old man slept again. He was sleeping face down again, with a boy guarding him. The old man dreamed of lions.

Conclusion

The protagonist of the story "The Old Man and the Sea" - the fisherman Santiago appears before the reader as a strong-willed, purposeful, internally strong person who does not give up even in the most difficult situation. The old man is depicted as part of the elemental world of nature, even in his appearance the author draws parallels with the sea, for a fisherman it is natural, “his own environment”. Although at the end of the story Santiago actually suffers defeat, he remains undefeated in the highest sense: “But man is not created to suffer defeat. Man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated."

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Ernest Hemingway

"The Old Man and the Sea"

“The old man was fishing all alone in his boat in the Gulf Stream. For eighty-four days he had been sailing in the sea and had not caught a single fish. For the first forty days he had a boy with him. But day after day did not bring a catch, and the parents told the boy that the old man was now clearly salao, that is, the most unlucky one, and ordered to go to sea on another boat, which really brought three good fish in the very first week. It was hard for the boy to watch how the old man returned every day with nothing, and he went ashore to help him carry tackle or a hook, a harpoon to a sail wrapped around the mast. The sail was covered with patches of burlap and, folded, resembled the banner of a completely defeated regiment.

This is the backstory of events that unfold in a small fishing village in Cuba. The protagonist, old Santiago, is “thin, emaciated, deep wrinkles cut through the back of his head, and his cheeks were covered with brown spots of harmless skin cancer that cause Sun rays reflected by the smooth surface of the tropical sea. He taught the boy Manolin to fish. The boy loves the old man, wants to help him. He is ready to catch him a sardine as a bait for his tomorrow's sailing. They go up to the poor hut of Santiago, built from the leaves of the royal palm. In the hut there is a table, a chair, in the earthen floor there is a recess for cooking. The old man is lonely and poor: his meal is a bowl of yellow rice with fish. They talk to the boy about fishing, how lucky the old man is, the latest sports news, baseball scores, and famous players like DiMaggio. When the old man goes to bed, he dreams of the Africa of his youth, “its long golden coasts and shallows, high cliffs and huge white mountains. He no longer dreams of fights, women, or great events. But often distant lands and lions come ashore in his dreams.

The next day, early in the morning, the old man goes fishing. The boy helps him pull down the sail, prepare the boat. The old man says that this time he "believes in luck".

One by one, fishing boats leave the shore and go to sea. The old man loves the sea, he thinks of it with tenderness, as of a woman. Having put the bait on the hooks, it slowly floats with the flow. Mentally communicates with birds, with fish. Accustomed to loneliness, he talks aloud to himself. He knows the different inhabitants of the ocean, their habits, he has his own tender attitude towards them.

The old man is sensitive to what is happening in the depths. One of the rods trembled. The fishing line goes down, the old man feels a huge heaviness, which entails it. A dramatic many-hour duel between Santiago and a huge fish unfolds.

The old man tries to pull up the line, but it doesn't work. On the contrary, she pulls, as if in tow, the boat behind her. The old man regrets that the boy is not with him. But it's good that the fish pulls to the side, and not down to the bottom.

It takes about four hours. Noon approaches. This cannot go on forever, the old man thinks, soon the fish will die and then it will be possible to pull it up. But the fish is alive.

Night. The fish pulls the boat farther from the shore. The lights of Havana are fading in the distance. The old man is tired, he tightly grips the rope thrown over his shoulder. The thought of the fish never leaves him for a second. Sometimes he feels sorry for her. “Well, isn’t this fish a miracle, God alone knows how many years it has lived in the world. I have never seen such a strong fish before. And just think how weird she's acting. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t jump, because she’s very smart.” Mentally talking to the fish. "I won't leave you until I die."

The fish begins to pull not so powerfully, it has clearly weakened. But the old man's strength is running out. His hand is numb. Finally, the forest began to go up, and fish are shown on the surface. She burns in the sun, her head and back are dark purple, and instead of a nose she has a sword as long as a baseball bat. It is two feet longer than the boat. Having appeared on the surface, she begins to go into the depths again, pulling the boat behind her, and the old man has to mobilize all his strength to prevent her from breaking loose. Not believing in God, he reads "Our Father". “Though it is unfair, but I will prove to her what a person is capable of and what he can endure.”

Another day passes. To distract himself, the old man reminisces about baseball games. He remembers how once in a Casablanca tavern he measured his strength with a mighty black man, the strongest man in the port, how they sat at the table for a whole day, not lowering their hands, and how he eventually prevailed. He participated in such fights more than once, won, but then gave up this business, deciding that he needed his right hand for fishing.

The battle with the fish continues. He holds the forest with his right hand, knowing that when the strength runs out, it will be replaced by the left. The fish comes to the surface, then approaches the boat, then moves away from it. The old man is preparing a harpoon to finish off the fish. But she steps aside. From fatigue, thoughts are confused in the head of the old man. “Listen, fish,” he tells her. “Because you don’t care to die. Why do you want me to die too.”

The last act of the duel. “He gathered all his pain, and all the rest of his strength, and all his long-lost pride, and threw it all against the torment that the fish endured, and then it turned over and quietly swam on its side ...”. Raising the harpoon, he thrusts it with all his might into the side of the fish. Feels how the iron enters her flesh, and pushes it deeper and deeper ...

He is overcome by nausea and weakness, his head is foggy, but he still pulls the fish to the side. Tie the fish to the boat and start moving towards the shore. Mentally calculates: the fish weighs at least fifteen hundred pounds, which can be sold for thirty cents a pound. "I think that the great DiMaggio could be proud of me today." The direction of the wind tells him which way to swim to get home.

An hour passes before the first shark shows up. Smelling the smell of blood, she rushes after the boat and the fish tied to it. She approached the stern, dug into the fish, began to tear it apart. The old man hit her with a harpoon. She sinks to the bottom, taking with her a harpoon, part of the rope and a huge piece of fish. “Man is not made to fail. Man can be destroyed, but not defeated.

Served with a piece of fish. Notices the fins of a whole flock of sharks. They are approaching at great speed. The old man meets them by raising an oar with a knife tied to it. Sharks pounce on fish. The old man joins them in battle. One of the sharks is killed. Finally the sharks left. They had nothing to eat.

When he entered the bay, everyone was asleep. As he unmasted and lashed the sail, he felt tired. Behind the stern of his boat rose a huge fish tail. All that was left of her was a skeleton.

On the shore, the boy meets a tired, crying old man. He reassures Santiago, assures that from now on they will fish together, because he still has a lot to learn. He believes that he will bring good luck to the old man.

The next morning rich tourists come to the shore. They are surprised to notice a long white spine with a huge tail. The waiter tries to explain to them, but they are very far from understanding the drama that happened here.

Events unfold in a small fishing village in Cuba. The protagonist of the work, Santiago, was not a handsome man. He traded in fishing, which he taught the boy, Manolin. The old man went to sea for many days, but did not catch a single fish. He was in despair. It was hard for Manolin to watch Santiago return from fishing with nothing, he was sincerely sorry for the old man. The boy fell in love with Santiago, and wanted to catch him sardines for bait for the next day. After that, they go to lonely Santiago's hut and go to bed.

The next day the old man goes fishing. Along the way, a huge fish clings to the hook. He struggles with it for a long time, noting that the fish leads to the side, and not to the bottom.

Several hours passed. It's already noon, and the fish still won't give up. She pulls the old man further from the shore. Santiago rejoices. He had never come across such a strong and big fish. It is already night, and the boat is drifting farther and farther from the shore. Suddenly, an exhausted fish appeared on the surface. Her sword is as big as a baseball bat. Gaining strength, she again goes to the bottom. The old man fights to the last, mobilizing his forces.

Thus another day passed. The old man begins to remember his youth. He has already been in fights. Once he had to defeat the strongest negro in the port. There were others, but he gave up this occupation, deciding that the hand would be useful for fishing.

The fish fight continues. Santiago no longer feels his strength. The fish rises to the surface. She approaches, then retreats. The final moment comes, and the old man thrusts a harpoon into the side of the fish.

He ties the fish to the board and calculates how much money he will get for the fish. He is overcome by nausea and weakness, but Santiago rows to the shore.

It doesn't take long before the first shark appears. She smelled blood. Others follow after her. The first shark was fat to bite the fish. Santiago hits her with a harpoon. The harpoon is stuck in it, and the shark goes to the bottom.

While he was eating a piece of fish, he noticed more sharks. They were approaching at great speed. He tied the knife to the oar and began to fight back. Finally, the sharks retreated. They had nothing to eat. When he sailed home, the village was already asleep. He looked astern and saw one fish skeleton.

On the shore, Manolin meets him. He reassures Santiago, saying that from now on he will go to sea with him all the time. He thinks he will bring the old man good luck.

Rich tourists came ashore in the morning. They saw the skeleton of a large fish and are trying to figure out what it is. They are very surprised. A waiter in a small cafe trying to explain to them what happened last night. But they do not understand the tragedy that has happened.

Compositions

Man and nature (based on the novel by E. Hemingway "The Old Man and the Sea")

The Old Man and the Sea is Ernest Hemingway's most famous novel. The idea of ​​the work was nurtured by the author for many years, but the final version of the story was published only in 1952, when Hemingway moved to Cuba and resumed his literary activity after participating in World War II.

At that time, Ernest Hemingway was already a recognized writer. His novels Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, collections of short prose Men Without Women, The Snows of Kilimanjaro were in great demand among readers and were successfully published.

The Old Man and the Sea brought Hemingway two of the most prestigious awards in the field of literature - the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize. The first was awarded to the writer in 1953, the second - a year later, in 1954. The wording of the Nobel Committee was as follows: "For the narrative skill, once again demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea."

The story is truly a masterpiece. She inspired many cultural figures to create new works, in particular artistic adaptations. The first film was made in 1958. The issuing country is the USA. The director's chair was taken by John Sturgess, the role of old man Santiago was played by Spencer Tracy.

Screen version of the work

In 1990, Jud Taylor directed another TV version of the cult work. And in 1999, Russia went on a bold experiment by releasing an animated version of The Old Man and the Sea. The short animation won BAFTA and Oscar awards.

The most recent project based on the story was released in 2012. This is the film "The Old Man" from the Kazakh director Ermek Tursunov. He was warmly received by critics and nominated for the national Nika award.

Let's remember the plot of this realistic and magical, cruel and touching, simple and infinitely deep work.

Cuba. Havana. An old fisherman named Santiago is getting ready for his next trip to the sea. This season is not good for Santiago. This is the eighty-fourth time he has returned without a catch. The old man is no longer what he used to be. His hands lost their former strength and dexterity, deep wrinkles dotted his face, neck, nape, from constant physical labor and poverty, he emaciated and dried up. Only the still mighty shoulders and eyes of the color of the sea, "the cheerful eyes of a man who never gives up," remained unchanged.

Santiago really wasn't in the habit of falling into despair. Despite the hardships of life, he "never lost hope or faith in the future." And now, on the eve of the eighty-fifth exit to the sea, Santiago does not intend to retreat. The evening before fishing with him is spent by his faithful friend - the neighbor's boy Manolin. The boy used to be Santiago's partner, but due to the failures that befell the old fisherman, Manolin's parents forbade him to go to sea with the old man and sent him to a more successful boat.

Despite the fact that young Manolo now has a stable income, he misses fishing with old man Santiago. He was his first teacher. It seems that then Manolin was about five years old when he first went with the old man to the sea. Manolo was almost killed by the mighty blow of the fish that Santiago caught. Yes, then the old man was still lucky.

Good friends - the old man and the boy - talked a little about baseball, sports celebrities, fishing and those distant times when Santiago was still as young as Manolin and sailed on a fishing boat to the shores of Africa. Falling asleep on a chair in his poor hut, Santiago sees the African coast and the handsome lions who come out to look at the fishermen.

Saying goodbye to the boy, Santiago goes to sea. This is his element, here he feels free and calm, as if in a well-known house. The youth calls the sea el mar ( masculine), treats him as a rival and even an enemy. The old man always called him la mar ( feminine) and never feels hostility to this sometimes capricious, but always desirable and pliable element. Santiago "constantly thinks of the sea as a woman who bestows great favors or denies them, and if she allows herself to act rashly or unkindly, what can you do, such is her nature."

The old man talks with marine life - flying fish, sea swallows, huge turtles, colorful physalia. He loves flying fish and considers them his best friends, faithful companions during long swims. He regrets sea swallows for their fragility and defenselessness. Fizaliy hates because their poison killed many sailors. He enjoys watching them being devoured by mighty turtles. The old man ate turtle eggs and drank shark oil all summer to gain strength before the autumn season when the really big fish came.

Santiago is sure that luck will smile on him today. He specifically swims far into the sea to great depths. There is probably a fish waiting for him here.

Soon the fishing line really starts to move - someone pecked at his treat. "Eat, fish. Eat. Well, eat, please, - the old man says, - The sardines are so fresh, and you are so cold in the water, at a depth of six hundred feet ... Don't be shy, fish. Eat, please."

The fish is full of tuna, now it's time to pull the line. Then the hook will plunge into the very heart of the prey, it will float to the surface and be finished off by the harpoon. Such a depth - the fish, for sure, is huge!

But, to the surprise of the old man, the fish did not appear above the sea surface. With a powerful jerk, she pulled the boat behind her and began to drag it into the open sea. The old man clung to the line with force. He won't release this fish. Not so easy.

For four hours the fish had been pulling the boat with the old man like a huge tugboat. Santiago was as weary as his prey. He was thirsty and hungry, the straw hat hit his head, and the hand clutching the fishing line ached treacherously. But the main thing is that the fish did not appear on the surface. “I would like to look at her with at least one eye,” the old man reasoned aloud, “then I would know with whom I am dealing.”

The lights of Havana had long since disappeared from view, the sea area was shrouded in night darkness, and the duel between fish and man continued. Santiago admired his opponent. He had never come across such a strong fish, "she grabbed the bait like a male, and fights me like a male, without any fear."

If only this miracle fish realized its advantage, if only it could see that its opponent is one person, and that old man. She could rush with all her might or rush to the bottom like a stone and kill the old man. Fortunately, fish are not as smart as people, although they are more dexterous and noble.

Now the old man is happy that he had the honor to fight such a worthy opponent. The only pity is that there is no boy nearby, he would certainly want to see this duel with his own eyes. With a boy it would not be so difficult and lonely. A person should not be left alone in old age - Santiago argues aloud - but this, alas, is inevitable.

At dawn, the old man eats the tuna that the boy gave him. He needs to gain strength to continue the fight. “I should have fed the big fish,” Santiago thinks, “because they are my relatives.” But this cannot be done, he will catch her in order to show the boy and prove what a person is capable of and what he can endure. "Fish, I love and respect you very much, but I will kill you before the evening comes."

Finally, Santiago's mighty adversary surrenders. The fish jumps to the surface and appears before the old man in all its dazzling splendor. Her smooth body shimmered in the sun, with dark purple stripes down her sides, and for a nose she had a sword as big as a baseball stick and sharp as a rapier.

Gathering the rest of his strength, the old man enters the final battle. The fish is circling around the boat, in its death throes trying to turn over the flimsy boat. Having contrived, Santiago plunges the harpoon into the body of the fish. This is victory!

Tying the fish to the boat, it seems to the old man that he has clung to the side of a huge ship. You can get a lot of money for such fish. Now it's time to hurry home to the lights of Havana.

Trouble appeared very soon in the guise of a shark. She was drawn to the blood that flowed from the wound on the side of the fish. Armed with a harpoon, the old man killed the predator. She dragged to the bottom a piece of fish that she managed to grab, a harpoon and the whole rope. This fight was won, but the old man knew full well that others would follow the shark. First they will eat the fish, and then they will take him.

Another masterpiece from Ernest Hemingway is a novel that tells about an American who came to Spain during civil war in 1937.

In anticipation of predators, the old man's thoughts were confused. He thought aloud about sin, the definition of which he did not understand and did not believe in, thought about the strength of the spirit, the limits of human endurance, the saving elixir of hope, and about the fish that he had killed this afternoon.

Maybe in vain he killed this strong noble fish? He got the better of her thanks to cunning, but she fought honestly, without preparing any evil for him. No! He did not kill the fish out of petty desire for profit, he killed it out of pride, because he is a fisherman and she is a fish. But he loves her and now they swim side by side like brothers.

The next flock of sharks began to attack the boat even more rapidly. Predators pounced on the fish, snatching off pieces of its flesh with their powerful jaws. The old man tied a knife to the oar and thus tried to fight off the sharks. He killed a few of them, maimed others, but it was beyond his strength to cope with a whole flock. Now he is too weak for such a duel.

When old Santiago landed on the coast of Havana, there was a huge skeleton at the side of his boat - sharks gnawed it whole. No one dared to speak to Santiago. What a fish! She must have been a real beauty! Only the boy came to visit his friend. Now he will again go to sea with the old man. Santiago has no more luck? Nonsense! The boy will bring it again! Do not dare to despair, because you, old man, never lose heart. You will still be useful. And even if your hands are no longer as strong as before, you can teach the boy, because you know everything in the world.

The sun shone serenely over the coast of Havana. A group of tourists with curiosity examined someone's huge skeleton. The big fish is probably a shark. They never thought they had such graceful tails. Meanwhile, the boy guarded the sleeping old man. The old man dreamed of lions.