Essay Comparing The Old Man And The Sea To Life

The beauty of a book is that is exists in the imagination of every mind which reads it. Each person contains their own history of experiences and ideas to bring to the story through their interpretation. One perspective bringing the novella The Old Man and the Sea to life is a 19 minute animated film directed by Aleksandr Petrov in 1999. The film was made in a unique artistic style, by painted glass plates sliding over one another. The film won numerous awards including the Oscar for the best animated short film. The novella is about an old and experienced fisherman, Santiago, who has a boy, Manolin, as a companion. After 84 days without a catch, the old man goes deeper into the water and hooks an enormous marlin. There is a long battle between the old man and the marlin, which the old man eventually wins, but then loses the marlin to sharks when rowing it back to land. Although Petrov’s film omitted many aspects of the novella to fit it into a short film, he still captured the essence of the novella and then used artistic creativity to further it; he specifically succeeded in capturing man’s interconnectedness to nature and the relationship between the old man and the boy. Critics may argue that

The film expresses Hemingway’s theme the brotherhood between man and nature through its artistic design. It also illustrates the relationship between the old man and the boy present within the novella. It is very clear that Petrov connected to this story. He poured his heart into the production of the film, through the usually filmmaking, as well as the care he puts into the beautiful paintings from which the film is animated. He had a profound commitment to bringing the story as he saw it to life. Petrov had a clear perspective on the story as he read it which he had a burning desire to share with the world, just as a creative take on a story exists in each human mind, at some point in their lives as a