Symbols of the Sea

Ok, I only have five more blogs to do for the summer. This is actually quite exciting. The first one went by pretty fast and so I am hoping that I can continue that effort and speed with the rest of them. Ok, back to the book The Old Man and the Sea. The Sea in the book is very important. That might sound really stupid seeing how the book is called The Old Man and the Sea, but give me the rest of the blog to explain myself. Throughout the entire story, the sea has many different symbols. In the book, this is the only singular item that very clearly symbolizes more than one thing. For example, the old man in the book loves the sea. For him, it is a place where he can be alone and where no one else is around. It is his place where he can escape. On a cam day, when things are going well for the old man he does not have to worry about catching a huge fish, the sea is his place for relaxing. Therefore, the sea is a symbol of relaxation. Another theme that the sea symbolizes is hardships in life. Sometimes, the sea can be the most comforting and relaxing place in the world, but when it is raining outside and the weather is bad, then the sea can be a major obstacle. When the weather is bad, the old man has to worry about catching fish while worrying about if his boat will be flipped by the storm or if it will start sinking. To me as the reader, I find it interesting that something that can be so relaxing and pure and beautiful can also be very scary and hard to face. In these ways, I find the sea in the book the Old Man and the Sea is a very interesting symbol of many thing which include relaxation and fear in some parts of the book.