Figurative Language In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea

In the novel The Old Man and The Sea, written by Ernest Hemingway a credible author, the use of figurative language was not sparse. Figurative language enhances the story line and makes the book interesting and detailed. The most notable uses of figurative language were similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, and hyperboles. Similes are described as a comparison using like or as. We found many examples throughout the text. “ The clouds over the land now rose like mountains and the coast was only a long green line with the gray blue hills behind it”(page 35), this simile exemplifies the comparison between the rising of the clouds to the rising of the mountains. This gives a vivid description of what Santiago is seeing. The next use of figurative language in the book is metaphors. On page 64, the old man says “there are three things that are brothers: the fish and my two hands”. Also, on page 76 he says “The punishment of the hook is nothing. The punishment of hunger, and that he is against something that he does not comprehend, is everything”. These two examples constitute part of his journey on the sea, by comparing things like the brotherhood between the fish and his two

For example, “...when the ocean can be so cruel? She is kind and very beautiful.” (page 29). Throughout the book the old man refers to the sea as a woman. He believes she is kind and forgiving, but conversely she is harsh and cruel. This is a typical example for this type of figurative language because the sea is obviously not human, and therefore cannot have character traits such as kind. Later, when the plot starts to escalate, the author uses personification while talking about beads of water. He said the fishing line was so taunt that the beads of water were jumping from it. Alongside the last example, the beads of water cannot jump as if they were living. Personification gives the reader a deeper perception of the