Analysis: Day 1 - The Old Man and The Sea

In the book, The Old Man and The Sea, there are no chapters in the book.  Instead, the book is broken down into five days, each of which has an impactful meaning to the books story.  Althought a couple of the days may seem like they meant more to the story, each day contribute necessary and significant  information.
A look at Day One:
When the book starts, obviously it is day one of the five day story.  Although nothing exciting and mind blowing happens, this "day" is very useful to set up the whole setting that is yet to come.  You learn that Santiago is on a cold streak in catching fish.  This may be the most needed fact in the whole book, because it gives you background on what the story is to be about.  Like I said in an earlier blog, without it it would be a book about a old man fishing.  How boring.  "In the first forty days a boy had been with him.  But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week.  It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help..." (Hemingway, 9).  In reading this, you learn that Santiago and Manolin have a very close, loving relationship. It gets you tied into the story with kind of a romance feeling, but in a guy way.  Other information that was provided that was relevant to the story was the other fisherman making fun of Santiago.  It made me feel bad for what he was going through, and you wanted to see him catch a fish soon. Although this was not the day where he hooked the big fish, this day provided background information on what the story was going to be about.

Bibliography

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