Ernest Miller Hemingway

On the next turn,the old man nearly had the fish.But again he righted himself and swam slowly away.You are killing me,fish,the old man thought.But you have a right to.Never have I seen a greater,or more beautiful,or a calmer or more noble thing than you,brother.Come on and kill me.I do not care who kills who.Now you are getting confused in the head,he thought.You must keep your head clear.Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man,or a fish,he thought.“Clear up,head,”he said in a voice he could hardly hear.“Clear up.”

Twice more it was the same on the turns.I do not know,the old man thought.He had been on the point of feeling himself go each time.I do not know.But I will try it once more.He tried it once more and he felt himself going when he turned the fish.The fish righted himself and swam off again slowly with the great tail weaving in the air.I'll try it again,the old man promised,although his hands were mushy now and he could only see well in flashes.He tried it again and it was the same.

So he thought,and he felt himself going before he started;I will try it once again.He took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride.He put it against the fish's agony and the fish came over onto his side and swam gently on his side,his bill almost touching the planking of the skiff and started to pass the boat,long,deep,wide,silver and barred with purple and interminable in the water.The old man dropped the line and put his foot on it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and drove it down with all his strength,and more strength he had just summoned,into the fish's side just behind the great chest fin that rose high in the air to the altitude of the man's chest.

He felt the iron go in and he leaned on it and drove it further and then pushed all his weight after it.Then the fish came alive,with his death in him,and rose high out of the water showing all his great length and width and all his power and his beauty.He seemed to hang in the air above the old man in the skiff.Then he fell into the water with a crash that sent spray over the old man and over all of the skiff.

The old man felt faint and sick and he could not see well.But he cleared the harpoon line and let it run slowly through his raw hands and,when he could see,he saw the fish was on his back with his silver belly up.

Reading Check

Use your own words to share this story with your friends and talk about your feelings after reading it.

_________________________________________________________________________