"The Old Man and the Sea" Question 5

This book is a very simple book.  I'm struggling with this question and I'm going to say that right off the bat.  I'm not entirely sure what was going down in Cuba in the 1950's, so it's hard to say how well this novel reflected history, behavior, and social issues of the setting.  That's for sure.  They do talk about Joe Dimaggio quite a bit, so I can infer that they were a town that idolized celebrities and sports just like America did in the 1950's, well still do.  A social issue that I can infer is a typical one.  The old man didn't have much money, had no family, and had absolutely atrocious luck therefore he was looked down upon by the town.  Not many people never even tried to make conversation with him.  Most people simply made fun of him, and not even to his face.  This shows just how immature human kind is.  No matter how old we are, where we are, our social class, etc.  We are immature.  Some more than others.  This book symbolized multiple things:  friendship, luck, suffering, and off course perseverance.  We see the friendship between the boy and the old man, of course, but we also see the friendship between the fish and the old man.  I use 'friendship' loosely, but the two definitely had something going on.  The old man repeatedly referred to the fish as his 'brother' and talked to him like a peer despite the fact he never wavered in his destination; which was to kill the fish.  Despite the fact the old man doesn't really blame his drought on luck, his peers seem to put a lot of stalk into it.  When the old man goes eighty-four days without anything, they even begin to avoid him saying the 'salao' could rub off on them.  The old man prefers to believe that skill and preparedness is more important than superstition.  Luck is very present throughout the book, dictating the old mans friendships and his own temperament without even him even giving the say-so. So of course the most significant theme I saw in this book was perseverance.  I also saw friendship and optimism as a very good lesson in this book as well.  The man was considered about as unlucky as they come and no one believed he would ever catch anything agin.  He had everything going against him but he was relentless and persevered.  He had optimism and continued on.  He was rewarded big time for trudging on through the metaphorical storm that is life.  

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.