The Old Man and The Sea - 7

7) What techniques does the author use to engage the audience and make the story effective?  Give examples to support your analysis (mystery, humor, symbolism, suspense, etc.).

Ernest Hemingway uses quite a few different techniques to make the story effective and emotional to the reader.  He creates the most relatable characters, even if the situations might not be quite so relatable.  I think we can all relate to a time where we tried and tried, but we just could not succeed.  This has happened to all of us, even if not at quite a large scale.  The old man spends countless hours fishing and only after nearly three months does he catch anything worthwhile (Hemingway 38).  Even if the reader has not done something that time consuming and failed, we have all felt unlucky or powerless at one time or another.  This makes the book relatable to the reader, and helps create an emotional connection between the readers and the characters.
Hemingway also uses symbolism to provoke thought in the reader and interest him/her.  In the story, I would say that the marlin symbolizes an alternate version of Santiago.  He considers the marlin a brother, and determines that the fish is old and male (Hemingway 61).  In the story, not only is the old man battling with the fish, he is mentally battling himself.  He is attempting to get past his own weaknesses.  The whole fight with the marlin is actually a symbol for a fight with himself.  Another symbol is the lions.  Often through the book, it talks about the old man's dreams of lions on a beach (Hemingway 24).  The lions symbolize Santiago's lost strength in the way that they are unreachable. His love for lions also shows that he connects with them as a predator to another.  He is a predator to the marlin, even if he does not really want to kill it, he needs to for survival, not unlike a lion killing it's prey.
Through the novella, the reader is always engaged.  There is not any one point where the reader is uninterested, in my opinion.  The whole book is relatable in one way or another, from the character traits to the situations.  I think that this is the key to making a book that is well respected.  The book must be relatable or the reader will not understand. Hemingway, E. The Old Man and The Sea. New York, NY: Scribner, 1980