PERSEVERANCE. "The Old Man and the Sea"

So.  Let us reminisce about the last nine blogs.  There was a certain word exercised quite a bit more than any other word.  Does anyone know?!  Anyone?!  Anyone at all?!  *Flails arm around Hermione-Granger-style in hopes of being chosen*  I KNOW.  PERSEVERANCE!  DING DING DING.  WE HAVE A WINNER.  Yup.  In my opinion, perseverance and "The Old Man and the Sea" are like peanut butter and jelly.  Perseverance being the jelly.  If there was one thing that consistently popped into my head while reading this little novella and while blogging about it, as well, it was always "What in the world did this man have in his cereal this morning?!  How is he still functioning in any manner at all?!"  This guy is seriously on the brink of simply imploding on himself from fatigue and just being delirious.  A lot of stuff has happened to him leading up to his adventure with the marlin and after hooking the marlin.  For one he hasn't caught a single specimen of sea life in eighty-four days.  Imagine having a lemonade stand that is what you depend on to put food on the table and to produce money to purchase necessary things for life.  Imagine there are no lemons in the world for eighty-four days for you to make your delicious juicy lemonade with?!  The feelings you are experiencing about your metaphorical lemonade stand are most likely what any normal person would feel in the old mans position, yet some how he remains positive through the whole ordeal.  Every one around him, except the boy, only have negative things to say about him yet it never gets to him.  He remains positive and optimistic about his situation up until the end. Next when he is battling a fish larger than his own boat and it leads him out to sea for three days, he doesn't give up.  He only tries harder.  Once that perseverance finally pays off, he is faced with blood thirsty sharks who relentlessly eat at his prized fish he still attempts to fight them off even though all he has his a harpoon, that he looses, and a small knife.  If there were perseverance awards somewhere in the world, the old man would dominate.  


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