[IronJack]

I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work. I've always liked For Whom the Bell Tolls better, and while it is longer, it is less obscure.

As for Salinger, I suspect his opinion of himself is higher than merited by a single work, regardless of how relevant it was to an angst-ridden generation in 1951. Let's just say he falls into the category of What Have You Done Lately?

[samtheman]

I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work.

US education is a leftist monolith? Whatever The Party says they must teach, they must teach?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I've never understood why English teachers choose Old Man and the Sea for the representative Hemingway work. I've always liked For Whom the Bell Tolls better, and while it is longer, it is less obscure.

I love talking about Hemingway. Ever since he got hung with the PC "misogynist" label, all his work seems to have been denigrated.

You're right, The Old Man and the Sea was completely different from all of his other works, written at the end of his life when his health was failing.

His entire writing ethic was based on _TRUTH_. The way you started a novel was to write a true sentence, and keep writing them until your novel was complete. His stories took place in the real world, amid real political and physical circumstances. Nothing made up, everything could really happen just the way he wrote it. Same with his dialog, and he was one of the best at dialog, as far as I am concerned.

The Old Man and the Sea, however, was not based on _TRUTH_, it was based on emotion. The constellations the old man sees while battling the fish and taking it home would not have been visible during the time of year the story takes place. All kinds of other things, too, but it's been a while since I read a critique. The point is, as you say, TOMATS is not representative of Hemingway's work.

It was still a nice story, but nothing like my favorite, "The Sun Also Rises."

Now that's a novel. They don't make'em like that anymore.

[wildcatf4f3]

A Farewell to arms! bit where they're wiping the dirt off the pasta as they scarf it in the trench---

[rock58seg]

As for Salinger, I suspect his opinion of himself is higher than merited by a single work, regardless of how relevant it was to an angst-ridden generation in 1951.

Worse than Catcher in the Rye were his books Franny and zooy and Raise High the Roofbeams Carpenter, all of which I read and reread because I kept searching for the reasons others thought they were great books. Never have found the reasons.

[Melas]

Apples and oranges. Old Mand and the Sea is a character work and cannot be compared to For Whom the Bell Tolls which despite the strong lead of the protagonist of Jordan, is still an epic with it's subplots within subplots. OMS stands the test of time as one of the best character works of any author, ever.

[Carolinamom]

I know for a fact that some English teachers of American lit choose Old Man and the Sea and Catcher in the Rye because they themselves have read them in the past and thus these novels are familiar and easy to teach AND because their students will be more inclined to read these SHORT novels.

(-former English teacher of British lit)

[Doctor Stochastic]

It's hard to say. I liked "Old Man and the Sea" but I really disliked "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Of course, I didn't like much Hemmingway anyway.

[Old Professer]

Well,isn't most of yesterday just unfinished tomorrows?

[Old Professer]

I am a thief of the highest order and from myself I freely steal, henceforth (until the muse moves me), my tagline shall be:

Isn't most of yesterday just an unfinished tomorrow?