Rewriting Hemingway's Novel about the Old Man and Sea

Graphic Organizer

Original Text

· The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Type of Change

· Divergence: Changing the ending so that the fish reaches the shore alive and the old man passes away in his sleep.

Setting

· Place: The Cuban coast and the old man's hut.

· Appearance/Feel: The sea is calm and serene, symbolizing peacefulness. The hut is simple and made of wood and palm leaves and adorned with shells from sea. Its appearance reflects the old man's humble life and his connection to the sea, the coast, and his immediate environment.

· Original Scene Elements to Keep: The sea, the boat, and the hut.

Point of View

· Narrator: The story is narrated from a third-person limited perspective, focusing on the fish's journey to the shore. One can see the characters and the scene but not inside the characters’ heads.

· Influence on Perspective: The narrative focuses on the natural world's resilience and the cycle of life and the connection between the man and the sea. He is bringing a live fish to shore, separating it from its habitat, and in exchange he is giving up his own life on the shore, as his spirit leaves while he dies in his sleep. The exchange is symbolic.

Characters

1. The Fish: Big, grand, powerful, majestic and strong, symbolizing endurance and the awesome power of life.

2. The Old Man (Santiago): Frail, life at its end, dignified, embodying the acceptance of life's natural course.

Conflict

· Main Conflict: The struggle between life and death, with the fish fighting for survival and the old man facing his own mortality. The fish lives, and the man dies. The conflict is resolved in the sense that life wins but not in the way one might expect.

· Type of Conflict: Man vs. Nature and Man vs. Self.

Plot

· Exposition: The old man dreams of lions on the African beach, symbolizing his youth and strength, freedom and power, control and wonder and having a future.

· Rising Action: The fish, hooked by the old man, fights to reach the shore alive. It wants to live—but so too does the old man.

· Climax: The fish, against all odds, reaches the shore, signifying triumph over adversity. The old man, however, is not really in control of his own mortality. His soul is called home but a greater power than he and departs while the old man sleeps.