The old man and the sea content. Foreign literature abridged. All works of the school curriculum in a brief summary. Main characters of the story

Very summary(in a nutshell)

Fisherman Santiago has not been able 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 is worn out, he doesn’t even have money for food. Once again he goes fishing, but this time alone. Luck smiles on him and a very large fish falls on the hook. He fights with her for several days and finally kills her. Unfortunately for him, he felt blood and sharks were coming. They slowly eat all the fish, despite Santiago's best efforts. He arrives at the port only with a huge head. Many fishermen gather around, surprised by the size of the fish.

Summary (details)

For eighty-four days now, 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 returns to the shore again and again 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 gaunt", with deep wrinkles on the back of his head and brown spots on his cheeks and neck - signs of prolonged exposure to the sun near the water. The man's hands are completely covered with old scars from the twine. Only his eyes still shine with a cheerful sparkle and their color “looks like the sea.” These are “the eyes of a man who does not give up.”

The old man and the boy love to sit on the Terrace and drink beer, talking about everything in the world. Santiago remembers his youth, how he first took Manolin on a hike when he was only five years old, and a live fish almost smashed their boat into 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 tender care of the boy. Young fishermen laugh at Santiago, and older ones 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 resting on old newspapers covering the “bare 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 far from the shore, steering his boat “straight into the fresh morning breath of the ocean.” Santiago observes the life of birds and inhabitants of the deep sea, feeling unity with nature. They are all like friends to him. Today he decides to fish in a different place than usual, in the hope that luck will finally smile on him and he will be able to catch a big fish.

Santiago unwinds the lines and lowers the bait into the sea. He always casts his gear more accurately than other fishermen, he just Lately things are not going my way. But finally the man’s cherished dream comes true and a big fish is caught on the bait. It is so large that it drags the old man’s boat along with it, as if in a tow, right into the open sea.

The old fisherman's line is strong, and the fish swims near the surface and does not go into the depths, so he can keep the catch on the hook. But a strong rival is in no hurry to die.

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

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

The fish goes under water again. The old man looks into the distance and realizes how lonely he is now, but “a man at sea is never alone.” Santiago remembers his youth and former strength, how he once defeated a “mighty black man” in a Casablanca tavern and won a bet. But the fish is still in no hurry to slow down.

A few more days pass like this. Santiago is already so tired and exhausted that he even decides to read prayers (“Our Father” and “Virgin Mary”) 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 with fatigue, his arms are deeply cut by the whip, sweat rolls down his burned face, he feels dizzy, and black spots flash before his eyes. But finally the prey begins to jump and walk in circles. This encourages Santiago and gives him confidence that now he will certainly be able to defeat his opponent. And indeed, soon the fish approaches the surface, and the old man, gathering his remaining strength, inflicts a fatal blow on it 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 several, 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 loot. Santiago kills the next two sharks by attaching a knife to his oar, but they still manage to tear off a significant portion of the meat from the dead fish.

Returning home, the exhausted man, having thrown a fish skeleton 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 old man’s wounded hands, Manolin cannot hold back his tears. He quietly leaves the house to bring coffee to his friend.

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

On the same day, a group of tourists arrives at the Terrace. Having noticed the skeleton of a huge fish among a pile 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.

Year: 1952 Genre: story

1952 The last work of Hemingway published during his lifetime is published in Bimini. This is the story "The Old Man and the Sea". This work tells the story of the life of the old fisherman Santiago, about fishing in Cuba. The plot revolves around an important event for Santiago - a fight on the high seas with a giant marlin, which is the largest and most important catch in a fisherman’s life.

The main idea of “The Old Man and the Sea” is that Ernest Hemingway shows the struggle of a person with the elements of life. The main thing in life is overcoming difficulties. The author emphasizes the idea that under no circumstances should you give up. One involuntarily recalls the biblical wisdom: “Everyone is given such a cross as he can bear.”

Read summary Hemingway The Old Man and the Sea

On the first pages of the book, the reader meets an old man named Santiago. He is an experienced Cuban fisherman who is lonely. He lives by fishing and selling his catch. He is lucky, his boat almost never returns empty...

One day, a boy named Manolin goes out to sea with Santiago. This boy loves the old man dearly, even though he is not his own. With all his childish soul, he wants to help Santiago in some way. Manolin’s parents do not share their son’s feelings and believe that their child does not belong at sea. But the boy stubbornly accompanies Santiago and waits for his return. After all, it is so important for every person to realize that they are expected, that someone needs them.

For some reason, the old fisherman's luck ran out. For 84 days now, Santiago's networks have been empty. Every day he returns from the sea sadder and sadder. Manolin helps the old man as best he can: he helps put fishing gear in the boat, catches sardines for bait, and waits on the shore for the old fisherman to return. Every day the boy finds words of consolation for old Santiago. But that doesn’t make it any easier...

The morning of day 85 comes. Santiago is more confident than ever that there will certainly be a catch today. He calmly gets into the boat and, without a trace of excitement on his face, watches the waves carry the boat. Old man Santiago loves the sea, he mentally talks to it. He turns to the water element with a request for a rich catch.

The fragile little boat is rocked by the waves. And now comes an exciting moment for any fisherman - Santiago’s fishing line is stretched like a string. It's about to burst! An experienced fisherman understands that there, in the depths, there is a fish of incredible weight. Santiago tries to pull the fish closer to the side of the boat in order to finish it off with a harpoon. He fails to perform such a maneuver - the fish is strong and pulls the boat behind it. The old Cuban fisherman regrets that Manolin is not around at the moment. He would certainly help. How difficult it is to be alone!

The climax of the work is a lengthy description of the struggle between Santiago and the fish. The fight lasts almost two days - this indicates the size and endurance of the fish. The fish resists. She drags behind her the boat of an old Cuban fisherman. Old man Santiago was exhausted. His hands were numb, and his thoughts were confused... You might think that this is the end of hopes and dreams...

But no matter how strong the fish is, its strength is running out. She is no longer so eager to pull Santiago’s boat behind her. He does this less and less. Finally, she has practically no strength at all. Then the fish floated to the surface of the sea not far from the boat, and even turned on its side, as if it wanted Santiago to be more comfortable throwing the harpoon. The old fisherman does just that. Here it is, the desired prey! He uses his last strength to tie the fish to the side of his boat. At the very last moment, the thought flashes through his fevered mind that the fish is longer than his boat. How will they float?

Santiago is an experienced Cuban fisherman. To arrive at the shore, he navigates by the wind, or rather by its direction and strength, and directs the boat where it is needed. Santiago with the prey sails to his native shore.

Everything seems to be fine, the old Cuban is satisfied with the result of his work. But..., at one moment Santiago sees that a huge shark is overtaking him. A shark hunts a fisherman's prey. She doesn't need the old fisherman himself.

Santiago resists as best he can. He even plunges a harpoon into the shark. It seems like a short respite - the shark bites off a piece of prey and goes under the water with a harpoon. But bad luck! After some time, a whole school of sharks appears. Santiago is scared and at the same time sorry for his prey. The old fisherman shows skill - he ties a knife to an oar and kills one of the sharks. Of course, this is not at all enough... While the fisherman is fighting with one, the others eat up his catch so much that only the tail and skeleton remain. So now poor Santiago sails on his little boat, and behind him drags the skeleton of his recent prey...

The day turns to evening and finally night comes. Santiago, exhausted and tired, sails to his native shore. And there Manolin is waiting for him. An old Cuban fisherman shows the boy what is left of his catch. He is so offended that he cries without being embarrassed by a child. Boy Manolin calms Santiago as best he can. He convinces the old fisherman that from now on they will always fish together and, of course, will catch many, many more fish. After all, together it’s always good. How great it is to feel supported!

Morning of a new day. A huge crowd of tourists gather on the deserted shore and are amazed by the skeleton of a fish of incredible size lying on the sand. They are drawing different conclusions about who brought this skeleton here. Simple human curiosity...

Picture or drawing The Old Man and the Sea

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Hemingway Ernest Miller
The work “The Old Man and the Sea”

“The old man was fishing all alone on his boat in the Gulf Stream. For eighty-four days he had been going to sea and had not caught a single fish. For the first forty days he had a boy with him. But day after day he did not bring a catch, and the parents told the boy that the old man was now clearly alao, that is, the most unlucky, and they ordered him to go to sea on another boat, which actually brought three good fish in the 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 the gear or the gaff, the harpoon into the sail wrapped around the mast. The sail was covered in patches of burlap and, folded, resembled the banner of a completely defeated regiment.”
This is the background to the events that unfold in a small fishing village in Cuba. Main character- old man Santiago - “thin, emaciated, the back of his head was cut by deep wrinkles, and his cheeks were covered with brown spots of harmless skin cancer, which is caused by the sun’s rays reflected by the surface of the tropical sea.” He taught the boy Manolin to fish. The boy loves the old man and wants to help him. He is ready to catch him sardines as bait for his going out to sea tomorrow. They go up to Santiago's poor hut, built from the leaves of a royal palm tree. In the hut there is a table, a chair, and a hole in the earthen floor 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 the old man must get lucky, as well as the latest sports news, baseball scores and famous players such as DiMaggio. When the old man goes to bed, he dreams of the Africa of his youth, “its long golden shores and shallows, high cliffs and huge white mountains. He no longer dreams of fights, or women, or great events. But often in his dreams there appear distant countries and lions coming ashore.”
The next day, early in the morning, the old man goes fishing. The boy helps him take down the sail and prepare the boat. The old man says that this time he “believes in luck.”
One after another, fishing boats leave the shore and go out to sea. The old man loves the sea, he thinks of it with tenderness, as of a woman. Having attached the bait to the hooks, it slowly floats with the current. Mentally communicates with birds and fish. Accustomed to loneliness, he talks out loud to himself. He knows the different inhabitants of the ocean, their habits, and he has his own tender attitude towards them.
The old man is sensitive to what is happening in the depths. One of the bars shook. The fishing line goes down, the old man feels a huge weight that carries it with him. A dramatic multi-hour duel unfolds between Santiago and a huge fish.
The old man tries to pull up the line, but he doesn’t succeed. On the contrary, she pulls the boat behind her, as if in tow. 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.
About 4 hours pass. It's approaching noon. 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 turns out to be tenacious.
Night. The fish pulls the boat further and further from the shore. The lights of Havana fade in the distance. The old man is tired, he tightly clutches the rope thrown over his shoulder. The thought of fish does not leave him for a second. Sometimes he feels sorry for her. “Isn’t this fish a miracle, God only knows how many years it lived in the world. Never before have I come across such a strong fish. And just think how strange she behaves. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t jump because she’s very smart.” Mentally talks to the fish. “I won’t part with you until I die.”
The fish begins to pull less powerfully, it has clearly weakened. But the old man's strength is running out. His hand goes numb. Finally the forest began to go up, and fish appeared on the surface. She burns in the sun, her head and back are dark purple, and instead of a nose there is a sword as long as a baseball bat. It is two feet longer than the boat. Having appeared on the surface, it begins to go into the depths again, pulling the boat along with it, and the old man has to mobilize all his strength to prevent it from falling off. Not believing in God, he reads “Our Father.” “Even though it’s unfair, 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 remembers baseball games. He remembers how he once measured strength in a Casablanca tavern with a powerful black man, the most strong man in the port, how they sat at the table for a whole day, without giving up, and how he eventually gained the upper hand. He took part in similar fights more than once, won, but then gave it up, deciding that he needed his right hand for fishing.
The battle with the fish continues. He holds the line with his right hand, knowing that when his strength runs out, it will be replaced by his 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. The old man's thoughts are confused due to fatigue. “Listen, fish,” he tells her. - After all, you still have to die. Why do you need me to die too?”
The last act of the fight. “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 was suffering, and then it turned over and swam quietly on its side.” Raising the harpoon, he thrusts it into the fish's side with all his might. She feels the iron entering 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. He ties the fish to the boat and begins to move towards the shore. He mentally estimates: the fish weighs at least fifteen hundred pounds, which can be sold for thirty cents a pound. “I think the great DiMaggio would be proud of me today.” The direction of the wind tells him which way to sail to get home.
An hour passes before the first shark appears. Smelling the smell of blood, she rushes after the boat and the fish tied to it. She approached the stern, bit into the fish, and 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 a rope and a huge piece of fish. “Man was not created to suffer defeat. A person can be destroyed, but cannot be defeated.”
Accompanied by a piece of fish. Notices the fins of a whole school of sharks. They are approaching with great speed. The old man greets them, holding up an oar with a knife tied to it. Sharks attack fish. The old man enters into battle with them. One of the sharks is killed. Finally the sharks left behind. They had nothing left to eat.
When he entered the bay, everyone was sleeping. Having removed the mast and tied the sail, he felt tired. A huge tail of a fish rose behind the stern of his boat. All that was left of her was a skeleton.
On the shore, the boy meets a tired, crying old man. He reassures Santiago, assures him 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 ashore. 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.

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Hemingway - famous writer, from whose pen many interesting works came out. Hemingway wrote the story The Old Man and the Sea in 1952. This was his last work that was published during the writer’s lifetime. She talks about one episode from the life of a Cuban fisherman who had to wage a real fight with a huge fish. To get to know the episode better, we offer you the story.

Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea

In the story The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway introduces the reader to Santiago, who often fished in the Gulf Stream. Only for the eightieth day the fisherman has been returning with nothing. The boy Manolin once tried to fish with him, but his parents forced him to switch to another boat, because they considered the old man a failure. And indeed, the boy now managed to return with the catch, but it was painful for him to watch the old man, whom the boy tried to help to the best of his ability.

Description of Santiago

Next, the writer gives a description of his main character. Old Santiago had a thin, emaciated build, with wrinkles and spots on his face that were caused by the rays of the sun. The old man's hands were scarred, which proved how lucky he had been in the past when he managed to pull a big fish out of the sea. Everything about our hero is old. Only the eyes, the color of the sea, were cheerful.

The boy spoke to the old man and offered to go out to sea with him, but the fisherman did not agree. Manolin was upset by the refusal, but could not do anything, continuing to believe that everything would work out for the old man. It was Santiago who taught him to fish when he went to sea with him at the age of five. And today the boy treated the old man to beer and had a conversation, remembering the past. The conversation turned to tomorrow's fishing. The boy asked what the old man would have for dinner. He said that there was rice and fish, and the child understood that he didn’t have any rice, just as he didn’t have a net, which had been sold a long time ago.

The boy went to get some sardines to feed Santiago dinner, while the old man stayed behind to read the newspaper. When the boy returned, they talked about fishing and baseball players, and after dinner they went to bed.

In the morning, Santiago decided to go further out to sea. Having cast a fishing line with bait, he swam with the flow, communicating with the sea and observing the sea inhabitants. The old man believed that today he would definitely return with the booty. The fisherman was guided by the frigate - a bird that was a faithful assistant to any fisherman. The first tuna is caught, which Santiago leaves as bait for larger fish. Suddenly Santiago notices that a larger prey has been caught on the hook and begins to pull. But that was not the case.

Our summary of the story The Old Man and the Sea for reader's diary The struggle continues. The author describes how the old man tries to pull out the fish, but he fails. The fish is huge. The old man does not let go of the line, but meanwhile the fish goes out to sea, dragging the boat behind it. Santiago hopes that the fish will die, but hour after hour the monster goes further and further into the sea. Santiago wants to see what kind of fish it is. He thinks about her more and more often, at the same time wanting to defeat his enemy and set him free. The old man spends the whole night fighting. But the fish did not get tired and continued to carry the boat into the distance. In the morning, the hero’s hands became numb, but the old man could not lose his catch, because such a fish was worth a lot of money.

Hemingway goes on to say that the forests gradually began to weaken, and the prey emerged from the water. It was a large dark purple fish with a sword instead of a nose. It was longer than Santiago's boat by a full two feet. The old man did not give up. So another day flew by. To amuse himself, he talked out loud, thought about baseball players, remembered how he fought with a black man and how he won.

To be able to refresh himself, the old man cast another fishing rod, which he caught a mackerel with. Then he decided to rest a little, and holding the line, he fell asleep. The old man dreamed of lions, then porpoises appeared, and then lions again. Santiago woke up because his arm was strongly pulled. It was the fish that changed its direction of movement. The fisherman knew that soon she would get tired, appear from above, and then he would use a harpoon.

Santiago was also losing strength. He is tired as he has never been tired before, and soon a fish appears on the surface. She swims in circles near the boat, and the fisherman tries to pull her closer. He talks to the fish, persuades it to surrender, and when it appears, the fisherman shoots with a harpoon and hits it right in the heart. Santiago killed the fish and decided to secure it to the boat, because there was no other way to deliver it to the shore.

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The main character of the story, old man Santiago, lives by selling the fish he catches. A boy named Manolin goes out to sea with him. The boy loves the old man, wants to help him, but the boy’s parents are against him going to sea with him, since the old man is unlucky - he has not been able to catch a single fish for eighty-four days. The boy feels sorry for the old man, so he helps him with the gear and the boat, catches him sardines for bait, and waits on the shore for his return to help collect the gear.

In the morning, getting into the boat, Santiago tells the boy that this fishing will certainly be successful. Casting off from the shore, he calmly watches his boat being carried along by the current. He knows the sea well, loves it, even communicates with it mentally.

And then 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 he has caught a very big fish. He wants to pull the fish closer to the side of the boat in order to finish it off with a harpoon, but he fails - the fish itself pulls the boat along with it, moving to the side. The old man is very sorry that Manolin is not next to him - he would have helped him reel in the fish.

Further in the story there is a description of the real fight that takes place between the old man and the fish. The fish turned out to be very hardy; it dragged the old man’s boat along with it for almost two days. Santiago’s hands were already going numb from fatigue, and everything was confused in his head. Finally, the fish's strength ran out, it floated to the surface close to the boat and even turned on its side, as if exposing itself more comfortably to the blow of the harpoon. The old man plunges the harpoon into the fish, then, fighting off extreme fatigue, pulls the fish to the boat and ties it to the side, noticing that the fish is a couple of feet longer than the boat. He navigates 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 a shark approaching his boat, attracted by the smell of blood. The shark doesn't need the old man - she set her 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 goes to the bottom, still biting off a large piece of fish and carrying away the harpoon. And soon a whole school of sharks appears. The old man ties a knife to an 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 of the fish remain.

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