Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Old Man and The Sea

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

50 reviews

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So it's my first Hemingway work and while it was enjoyable, I also found it somewhat underwhelming, primarily due to my own high expectations. It's a simple but well-written character-driven novella focusing on the struggles of an old fisherman down on his luck. I could discourse at great length about how this book is or could be about perseverance, about having hope no matter what, we never know what might be around the corner in life, how an artist is often their own worst critic, etc. But apparently, Hemingway said the below quote in one of his letters:

"Then there is the other secret. There isn't any symbolism [sic]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The sharks are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know."

So I'm not gonna explain any of that and leave things to your own imagination. 😄 It's a great work for sure but I personally find Steinbeck's writing to be more appealing so far.

Content Warnings

sam_fielder_137's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I don’t have much to say about this one. I just felt like it was far too boring. It was a 127 page book about a single man catching a single fish. If I had to summarize it in one sentence it would be: A whole book about another book’s single paragraph. Fine, but too long for the amount of story it contained.

Content Warnings

michaelion's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging informative fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I used to go fishing a lot with my dad and it's not really an experience I would think to write about, so props for making fishing seem exciting on paper. Like it's fun in person but I never would've thought it could be written in a thrilling way too. The odds were stacked against this to be boring, thankfully it wasn't, but it also isn't my cup of tea. It has it's moments.

Content Warnings

tita_loves_literature's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

crowcrow's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.0

(Had to read it for school.)

You'd have a better time actually fishing.

On a positive, I thought the descriptions were nice, minus the bathroom breaks, which were unnecessary. But after reading about Hemingway's life I wouldn't be surprised if that was just his style of humor.

And on that note, I HIGHLY suggest you go and research about the author and his thrilling adventures instead of reading this mellow whatever it was.

Content Warnings

genben's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Loved this book!!!!
It was such a nice story even if the end

he didn’t “win” because of the sharks.

The story was exactly like the title suggests and I loved how he explains creatures in the ocean (the turtles, the Portuguese Man of War, etc) as well as describing everything so simple yet beautifully.

Another part I enjoyed was the old man talking to himself, I get he is alone and might be “losing his mind” a bit 🤣 but it was funny to listen to him talk to himself because that’s exactly what I would be doing in that situation as well (I do that a lot anyways lol).

Final thing I’ll say was I love the young boy and him relationship, it was so nice and to be honest I was really expecting the man to die in the end but I’m so glad how it ended. Like a realistic ending from a difficult journey, yet wasn’t PERFECT.

Was my first Ernest Hemingway book and I was very pleased!! :)

Content Warnings