Lunchtime post: The Old Man and the Sea - post III

You so want the old man to succeed but even when he seems to have made it the shark’s circle and the struggle to catch the fish proves to be too much for him to handle on his own

Highlights from the final third and a bit of the book

* The old man and the Marlin compete with each other for three days until the fish tires circles the boat and is finally killed with the harpoon but the struggle has left the old man with a sore back and shoulder and hands cut to ribbons

* The Marlin is too big to put in the boat so he lashes it to the side and then is attacked repeatedly by sharks. He manages to kill four but the first dies with his harpoon stuck in his flesh and the fourth breaks off the knife he had tied to the end of the oar

* When two more sharks come all the old man can do is try to fight them off with a club and they sail away but by now half the fish has been eaten and then at midnight a pack comes and finishes the fish off

* He struggles a shore and manages to get to bed and the boy finds him there in the morning and cries over the damage to his hands while the rest of the fisherman amaze at the skeleton of the fish still strapped to the boat

* The boy promises to come back on board with him but after leaving the old man to go and get medical supplies he is crying because he knows that this fish will be the last that the old man catches

Full review will come tomorrow