Sek Lung is a Marginal Character free essay sample

Generally, it is hard for a person, who is stuck inside the third space, to deal with the relationships from two different cultures, and the result of such a situation is that this person would be marginalized as an outsider by his or her group. In the novel The Jade Peony, Sek-Lung is depicted as a character who feels that it is hard to blend inside himself either Chinese or Canadian culture, and his closest relationship with Poh-Poh also makes him marginalized by other family members. Thus, Sek-Lung is considered as an outsider from both China town and Canadian society and even in his own family. As a Chinese child who was born in Canada, Sek-Lung is living in an immigrant family, and he gets attracted by the local culture so that makes him drop into the third space and become an outsider of Canadian society. The first reason leading to this matter is mostly due to the fact that he is Chinese. We will write a custom essay sample on Sek Lung is a Marginal Character or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is the truth that never can be changed. No matter how much he wants to be Canadian, he is still a Chinese. The third part of the book also mentions that Sekky knows this fact â€Å"[B]ut even if I was born in Vancouver, even if I should salute the Union Jack a hundred million times, even if I had the cleanest hands in all the Dominion of Canada and pray forever, I would still be Chinese†(Choy 152). What Sek-Lung said shows that he knows he is an outsider of Canadian society and that he could never be a real Canadian. Sek-Lung’s bad health condition is another reason why he is an outsider of Canadian society. In the novel, Sek-Lung is the character that was born with serious a breathing problem so that he could not go to school like his brothers or sister, and he has to stay at home. â€Å"[B]ut the school doctor rejected my attempt to get back into the classroom. [†¦] ‘Sek-Lung still has breathing problems,’ he told Kiam to explain to Father. ‘I recommend he stay with his home studies and try again next year† (Choy 173). He really wants to go to school and study English to become more familiar with Canada culture. However, due to the lung disease, the opportunities to absorb the Canadian society and to make Canadian friends are being missed and that makes him further away from the Canadian society. In addition, when Sek-Lung stays at home, the traditional Chinese culture is instilled into his mind by Poh-Poh so that he cannot blend in with Canadian society. He believes all of Poh-Poh’s words, especially her superstitious beliefs. When Sek-Lung’s condition is getting better and he goes to school in September, he still thinks it is because of Poh-Poh although she is already dead. Sek-Lung thinks that â€Å"Grandmama had kept her promise† (Choy 197). He is influenced by Poh-Poh’s traditional Chinese mentality and it is totally different from the Canadian culture and foreign to Canadian society. He cannot tell Canadian people about the superstitious belief because no one would listen to him and no one would believe it. Consequently, Sek-Lung is an outsider of Canadian society, not only because he is Chinese, but also because he is denied the chance to touch the Canadian society by his illness and is influenced deeply by Poh-Poh’s traditional Chinese culture. On the other hand, Sek-Lung is also an outsider of the Chinese group. He was born in Canada and the different environment in which he grows up makes him different from other Chinese people so that he cannot be a fully Chinese person like others. First of all, he knows very little about Chinese. For example, he feels a headache about family ranking and Chinese kinship terms which are contained in the Chinese culture and he uses wrong titles for other family members. He mentions in the third part of the book that â€Å"I would say ‘Third Uncle’ instead of ‘Great Uncle’† (Choy 145). Stepmother and Poh-Poh both think that Sek-Lung being confused about the way to call people is brainless. That is how Chinese people think about him and that makes Sek-Lung feel a sense of loss because he is poor in Chinese so that he cannot fully understand Chinese values. In the second place, Sek-Lung is worshipping everything foreign. That is entirely different from learning foreign culture. In the book, Sek-Lung wants to be a Canadian rather than Chinese and he wants to have an appearance like white people. â€Å"I sometimes wished that my skin would turn white, my hair go brown, my eyes widen and turn blue, and Mr. and Mrs. O’Connor next door would adopt me and I would be Jack O’Connor’s little brother† (Choy 151). This kind of idea makes Sek-Lung feels marginalized in the Chinese group due to the conflict of his appearance and his wish that pushes him to be an outsider to the Chinese. What’s more, Suk-Lung does not like the Chinese language. For instance, he has the strongest reaction to Chinese language of all the characters in the book and that makes him be outside the Chinese group. He thinks that Chinese is harder than English. He says â€Å"English words seemed more forthright to me, blunt like road signs. Chinese words were awkward and messy, like quicksand† (Choy 150). That means he likes English much more than Chinese. Thus, it can be seen that Sek-Lung has strong western ideas which are contrary to the Chinese culture although he was born in a Chinese family. To sum up, living in a Chinese group, Sek-Lung does not have the same Chinese opinions like others. He doesn’t know a lot about the Chinese culture, he wants to look like a foreigner and he even does not like the Chinese language. Those things make him grow farther and farther away from the Chinese group. Moreover, Sek-Lung has been marginalized in the family due to his close relationship with his grandmother. As the book mentions, Poh-Poh is the most powerful person in the family who occupies the highest status and she prefers Suk-Lung above all other kids. For starters, because of his good relationship with Poh-Poh Suk-Lung attracts much jealousy from his family members especially from Jook Liang. For example, in Jook-Liang’s part, she said â€Å"For years, I had been nagged to remember to wash diapers and generally clean up after my baby brother, who was now three years old and sickly. I was tired of his always leaking at both ends. [†¦]Baby brother was sick again. Always sick. Always getting all the attention [†¦]† (Choy 27). Compared with the way Jook Liang is treated by Poh-Poh: washing diapers of little brother, always being told that she is useless, never being taught but expected to work. The ways Liang and Sekky were treated by Poh-Poh are unequal and that is why Sek-Lung has been jealous and marginalized by Liang. Furthermore, Sek-Lung follows Poh-Poh, and does abnormal thing which makes the whole family ashamed of them. In order to make wind chimes they search the garbage so as to find materials with the result that other family members feel ashamed. Second brother Jung Sum said â€Å"All of our friends are laughing at us! They also make the first son Kiam feel unhappy and said they are beggars. The whole family is ashamed of them and Sek-Lung being ashamed of following Poh-Poh so that makes him be marginalized by other family members and become an outsider in the family. Finally, Sek-Lung becomes marginalized by the family because he has shown his belief in superstition by Poh-Poh. After Poh-Poh’s death, Sek-Lung says that he can always see Poh-Poh’s ghost in the house, so that makes other family member feel weird because only he can see the ghost in the house but they cannot, so they dont believe him and think he is abnormal as well. â€Å"Sister Liang refused to take me out anywhere her jitterbugging girlfriend might see or hear me† (Choy 178). His behaviour is not accepted by his brothers and sister or even his parents. Although he lives with them together and they love him, his superstitious opinions of seeing Poh-Poh’s ghost still confused him to be marginalized by the whole family. All in all, Sek-Lung is an outsider like a marginal member in his family because he spends too much time with Poh-Poh so that makes him be treated better than other kids, does shameful things and is deeply influenced by Poh-Poh’s opinion. Sek-Lung is a person who wants to be a simple Canadian, a kid who knows very little about Chinese culture, a son who is affected by grandmother’s old traditions and an outsider of society. He wants to be Canadian but he can’t; he is living in a traditional Chinese family but he knows nothing about their traditions. He has the best grandmother who loves him most in the world but he is marginalized by other family members because of his grandmother. To conclude, Sek-Lung is an outsider of society. He belongs neither to Canadian society nor Chinese group, and even is marginalized by his own family.

Cabildos in Puerto Rico essays

Cabildos in Puerto Rico essays In around 1515, Juan Ponce de Len established two Cabildos: Cabildo of San Juan and Cabildo of San Germn. The Cabildos were the local representative assemblies; they served strictly under Governors appointed by the Crown and at their pleasure. In the last moments of the colonial era, Cuba and Puerto Rico managed after much struggle to win representation in the Spanish courts. However, these Cabildos played an important role in the community life of Puerto Rico at the time. They provided the aid and representation that the people needed, regardless of economic struggles. Cabildos were essential to community life because of their help in eclectic problems and the representation they gave to the people. An oligarchic structure of the Cabildos, although made up of relatives and friends from the elite, was rather successful, and played an important part in the Cabildos success in community life. The Cabildos were not a democratic institution; they were organized and controlled by the laws of the Indies. Both Cabildos, San Juan and San Germn, were composed of an Alcalde Ordinario, and several Regidores Regidores, who elected the alcaldes, were appointed by the King or posts were sold at auctions. Sugar mill owners, also known as hacenderos, and ganaderos were also part of the economic oligarchy of the Cabildos. This structure, although most positions were held by relatives and friends of the Regidores and Alcaldes of the elite group, was somewhat effective, even when most of the time it was against the law. Cabildos as well gave the people representation. The Father of the Republic, or the Cabildo, met weekly o monthly to discuss community matters. Besides from these regular meetings, they held Cabildos Abiertos, or open meetings, when they had urgent municipal problems. It was only in Cabildos Abiertos where community members chosen by the council could participate. Ev...

Comprehensive Examination Responses Presented in Partial Fulfillment Research Paper

Comprehensive Examination Responses Presented in Partial Fulfillment - Research Paper Example Identify and analyze the issues associated with sample selection, validity, and bias in such a study. Case Study A case study is one of the methods used in qualitative research. The development of the case study method took place in the 1880s and it has since been used in almost all fields of study. It is also the most preferred study method because it removes the wide gap between theory and practice. According to Toloie-Eshlaghy, Chitsaz, Karimian, and Charkhchi (2011), a case study is experimental and uses the details of a real phenomenon to probe into specific social issues of interest to the researchers. A case study includes a real situation with real people and events taking place in a real environment, which gives researchers a sense of the facts as they are in real life. In addition, the information used in a case study is controlled to provide factual details about the place, people, and occurrences of a particular location. This enables researchers to carry out their activities in reference to a real situation. A case study is thus regarded as an organized piece of research on a parti cular event with the aim of explaining a specific phenomenon. A case study is often used in social research to enable a researcher to actualize a theoretical idea. In addition, a case study may be used to teach research students how to undertake research in an effective manner and thus act as a study tool to integrate theory and practice. ... The different features of a case study include its use of different methods of collecting data to gather information regarding specific occurrences, its focus on a specific subject and the depth to which the subject of focus is investigated. The main aim of using the case study research method is to describe the causative relationships between phenomena in real life, since it tends to be deep rather than extensive in its investigations (Breslin & Buchanan, 2008). Case studies are therefore also used to evaluate the effects of certain interventions introduced in given scenarios and can therefore be used as a tool to recommend solutions to issues facing organizations in real life. As a research tool, a case study is exploratory and descriptive, and provides case examples to students to enhance their practical research skills. However, the actual transformation from theory to practice requires diverse resources, some of which may be out of the students’ reach. The use of a case s tudy in the description of phenomena in real life is limited to the knowledge of the scenario under study (Toloie-Eshlaghy, Chitsaz, Karimian, & Charkhchi, 2011). This is because a case study relies on information regarding particular phenomena to draw inferences on causal relations, but without adequate information, the case study would not be effective. A case study therefore employs different methods of collecting data to provide adequate, relevant and factual information regarding occurrences in real life and offers researchers a basis for the study. With such information, it is possible to draw a pattern indicating the relationship between one subject and the other and

Writing about Hospitality Industry Research Paper

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What is e-commerce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

What is e-commerce - Essay Example In the last decade, with the growing popularity of the internet and more people having their own personal computers, the market for e-commerce is outstanding. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Today most major retail stores have a virtual store as well, making it even easier for their customers to access their products. E-commerce was first developed in the nineteen seventies as a way for businesses to electronically send information to one another in a faster and more efficient way. With the introduction of the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) businesses were able to send documents like purchase orders and invoices electronically from one facility to the next. In nineteen seventy nine "online shopping was invented in the United Kingdom by Michael Aldrich and during the nineteen eighties it was used extensively particularly by auto manufacturers such as Ford, Peugeot-Talbot, General Motors and Nissan" (Seybold). It is believed that the reason why e-commerce has grown so quickly since its first invention in the nineteen seventies is because it is efficient and makes transactions more simple and accessible to everyone. Since it's first introduction e-commerce continued to grow. "From the nineteen nineties onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing" (Graham). The ERP software allowed businesses to store and retrieve information in real time, making online purchases more secure for both the customer and the seller. This "modular software design should mean a business can select the modules they need, mix and match modules from different vendors, and add new modules of their own to improve business performance" (Graham). Data mining is a process that transforms data into information and can be particularly helpful in detecting fraud and keeping online purchases safe while at the same time providing useful marketing information to companies about a consumer's interests. With the invention of this new process, people felt more secure purchasing items and services online because they knew that their financial infor mation would be safe. The results of data mining can help companies market their products to a specific customer group. "Based on the collections on data mining, data warehouses were intended as large-scale collection, storage, and staging areas for corporate data. Data could be retrieved from one central point or data could be distributed to 'retail stores' or 'data marts' that were tailored for ready access by users" (Frieden). Along with the invention of the EFT and EDI these three new processes are what ultimately propelled e-commerce into what it is today. The main concern for the future of e-commerce is the continued security of customers and making sure that transactions remain private. Even though online transactions are growing in number and popularity everyday, many analogists believe that e-commerce is heading for a fall. Consumers find it easier to bargain shop online, then they do shopping in physical stores. It is easier to do because all that is required is a simple click of the mouse, but a negative side affect to the opportunity for consumers to buy online is that many companies will go out of

Country Of Origin Effects Commerce Essay

Country Of Origin Effects Commerce Essay HASSAN and SAMLI (1994, page 99.) define the effect of country of origin as the influence that the manufacturer country has on the positive or negative consumer judgment. One of the most famous books of this topic is JAFFES and NEBENZAHLs work (2001). It opens the introductory chapter with the following provocative question: Please, fill out the following sentence: A luxury car made in Greece is The question shows the essence of country of origin effect very well. According to ROTH and ROMEO (1992) the COO effect is how consumers consider a product coming from a given a country. Empirical studies have shown that when a customer becomes aware of the country of origin of a product his/her image about the product is influenced either positively or negatively according to his perceptions. Consumers tend to have a stereotype about product and countries that have been formed by experience, hearsay, myth. These stereotypes are generally broad and vague according to which they judge a specific country or a specific product to be the best : French Perfumes, Italian Leather, Chinese Silk and Japanese Technology are all examples of such stereotypes. Therefore the country, the type of product, and the image of the company all its brand play a crucial rule in deciding whether the country of origin will engender a positive or a negative reaction. Country Image : Precursors to Country of Origin Effects Country image can be defined as the sum of information in the consumers mind about a nation/country. In this regard, SULLIVAN MORT and HAN (2000) said, the less information we have about a given country the more dangers the sales of its products will encounter. It has been a long known fact that Made In label is just as powerful and just as valuable as a Made By label. German engineering, Japanese miniaturization, Italian flair, Swedish design, British class, Swiss precision those are brand values which rub off onto all the products that come from those countries Country Image is the reason why, in the early 1990s, Americans bought Toyota Corollas (which were quite expensive) rather than Geo Prizms (which were quite cheap), even though they were exactly the same car, made in the same factory. This is because the American consumers believed that Japanese cars offered greater value than American cars. Countries thus try hard to maintain their images and hence generate a positive reputation for their products in international market. Country image (as suggested in Henry Stewart Publications 1744-0696 (2005) Vol. 1, 2, 164-172 Place Branding) is propagated through channels that can be described in a Hexagonal Pattern of communication : Each of these components has a huge impact on the image that country projects : The loudest branding effort comes from countrys tourism promotion, and peoples experience of visiting the country as tourists or business travelers. The countrys exports with a clearly marked Made in label are powerful ambassadors of the countrys image internationally. The policy decisions made of the countrys government. Policy makers are nowadays much closer to the international media than they ever used to be. From the way company attract the investment, foreign talent and foreign companies to work with it. The countrys cultural activities and cultural exports: a world tour by a national opera company, the works of a famous author, the national sports team. The people of the country themselves: the hospitality they provide to the visitors coming from abroad and the way they behave when abroad. In this regard an under the realms of an experiment asked young people to freely associate the five words they think (adjectives, product categories, food products, values, etc.) are the most consistent with the countries under analysis (this part were inspired by the contributions of Kayanak, Kucukemiroglu 1992; Usunier 1993; Usunier, Lee 2005). The results show that the consumers clearly classified each country with a few product types, this is the stereotype (or the consumer perception) that contributes to country of origin effects while evaluating the available product. The salient result as observed is tabulated below : Country Association Country Association Italy Art History culture China Plagiarism design fashion Cheap Food and Wine(psta, Pizza, Vino Communism Elegance Style Economic and population growth Quality Food and Rice France Fashion Luxury Japan Innovation New Tech Elegance Precission Quality Quality Food(Sushi) Culture Population Food and Wine(Cheese, Baguette, Champagne) Tokyo Germany Cars USA Innovation Beer Freedom Industry Technology Leader ower superiority arrogance Engineering Food (Fast Food) Discipline Organization Multiculturalism Strongness solidity Associated Concepts to Country of Origin From a conceptual point of view it is particularly important to underline that the notion of Country of origin is by no means plain and univocal. Initially, the concept of Country of Origin (COO) was considered as the Made in Country (see the review by Nebenzahl et al., 1997), or the Country of Manufacture (COM) (see the review by Samiee 1994). This was the country which appeared on the made in label, which would generally be the country where final assembly of the good took place. For example designer labels from Gucci, Versace loose their sheen when they include Made in China label because part of the manufacturing tool place there. In contemporary world though other concepts have progressively emerged in the COO literature, such as Country of Design (COD) in the review by Nebenzahl et al., 1997; Jaffà ©, Nebenzahl 2001), referring to the country where the product was designed and developed. For example the latest Audi TT luxury car model was designed in Germany but is being manufactured from Hungary, but with Germanys known reputation in engineering field the model is promoted by the name of country it is designed at. Moreover, global companies nowadays are manipulating brand names to suggest particular origins (country of brand (COB) effects). Thus COO is increasingly considered as that country which consumers typically associate with a product or brand, irrespective of where it is actually manufactured. For example, even though Nike Apparels are manufactured in low cost destinations like India, China etc. the brand recognition of Nike overcomes the country of manufacturing effect and the products are considered to be American. Manifestations of Country Of Origin Effect The country of origin effect can be realized in various different forms among the consumers. The major manifestations are : Individualist / Collectivists Where Individualist favor country of origin bases to ascertain the superior attributes of the product, the collectivists favor home country of origin products over the foreign ones. On Basis of Industrialization Countries are categorized on the levels of industrialization they have achieved. Consumers in such cases are lesser product specific. They believe the products from industrialized nations are superior in quality and thus the products from developing nations suffer bias. Ethnocentrism Under the feeling of national pride, consumers like to purchase the products of home country. For example, the buy American effect, Honda recognized it and specifically mentioned how many component were manufacture in America when launching its models there. One might generalize that for more technical product, there is a less positive perception towards product of developing nations. Similarly, less developed nations have a tendency to favor products from developed nations. Strategies for Usage of COO Effect in International Marketing In contemporary world, companies have come to realize the importance of coutry of origin effect and have started to give it due importance while strategizing their international marketing plans. Nowadays, a companys marketing strategy is dependent not only on the strength of its brand image but the country image as well. According to Jaffe and Nebenzahl (2001), four possible strategies can be used. First scenario considers companies having both, a strong country and brand image. Second scenario considers companies with a weak country image but a strong brand image. Third Scenario looks at companies with a weak brand image, but a strong country image, and fourth scenario looks at companies having both a weak country and a weak brand image. 1. Strong Country Strong Brand Image This is the best position for a company when both the product and the country have strong brand images. In this case, strategically, both the brand and the made in country should be emphasized, especially if it is a global one. Some major examples of this are: Buick (made in US),Sony (made in Japan) and Zeiss (made in Germany). 2. Weak Country Strong Brand Image The scenario of a weak country image but a strong brand image generally refers to products whose production or assembly has been outsourced to developing/emerging economies. In this condition, the emphasis should be placed on the brand name, while the country of origin needs to be de emphasizing as much as possible. BT provides an excellent case of neutralizing the country of origin. A few years ago British Telecom researched the aptness of their brand in overseas markets. The results showed that they had problems with the companys name in Japan where British was synonymous of the past, colonial and not for innovation or moving forward. That is when they decided to become BT 3. Strong Country Weak Brand Image This category contains products which are perceived to be of lower quality vis à   vis the competitors from same country. Strategically, these brands should try to piggyback on strong country image by emphasizing their made in attribute. This strategy works very well for brands/products with bad image or without any image. Some examples include Japanese brands like Suzuki or Miranda Cameras and/or Daihatsu automobiles. 4. Weak Country Weak Brand Image This category contains products that have weak country image as well as a weak brand image. In this case one potential strategy is strategic piggybacking on some strong local brand. For example, Samsung, the South Korean products manufacturer, gained entry into the US in microwave ovens segment distributing them through General Electric under the GE label. Similar strategy was followed by Mitsubishi in its entry into the United States using the Chrysler distribution network. Country or Origin Effect : Critical Results When the influence of country of origin effect and brand perception was studied for convenience, shopping and specialty goods, empirical results (from the paper Luxury brand and country of origin effect: results of an international empirical study, Prof. Gaetano Aiello, Dr. Raffaele Donvito, Prof. Bruno Godey and Prof. Daniele Pederzoli) revealed : Brand Perception and Country of origin have medium and medium high impact on perceptual evaluation of shopping goods and a medium high and high impact on luxury goods. Brand and Country of origin decrease their impact on purchasing decisions; The Country of origin has a medium influence only in the purchasing decisions of luxury goods, while the brand maintains its influence also on shopping goods. Country of origin do not affect evaluation and purchase of convenience goods. Brand affects evaluation and purchase decisions much more than Country of origin in shopping and specialty goods The study also reveals the top most criteria in evaluation and purchase of convenience goods is Price, and Design for specialty goods. Brand Perceptions ranks second in this hierarchy Country of origin is instead around the last of within the items considered. References Astous A., Ahmed S.A., (1999), The importance of country images in the formation of consumer product perceptions International marketing review, vol. 16, n.2. Bilkey W.J., Nes E., (1982), Country of origin effects on product evaluations, Journal of International Business Studies, 13, pp.89-99. Nebenzahl I.D., Jaffe ´ E.D., Lampert S.I., (1997), Towards a theory of country image effect on product evaluation, Management International Review, 37, pp. 27-49. Roth M.S., Romeo G.B. (1992), Matching product categoriey and Country Image Perceptions: A framework for managing Country of Origin Effects, Journal of International Studies, Winter. Jagdish Agrawal, Wagner A.kamakura, Country of origin: A competitive advantage International Journal of Research in Marketing Vol. 16, No. 4 December (1999) P.255 267 International Marketing, Thirteenth Edition, Philip R Cateora, John L Graham and Prashant Salwan SULLIVAN MORT, Gillian Maree HAN, C. Min 2000: Multifaceted country image impact on purchase intensions for goods: a study in the asia pacific economic conference region. (www.digital.re.kr/hanlab/private/discussant.PDF) A Chapter taken from the book Brand America: The mother of All Brands by Simon Anholt and Jememy Hildreth, published by Cyan Books, 2004.

The old man in the sea :: essays research papers

The Old Man and the Sea Book report The title of this book is The Old Man and the Sea . The number of pages is 127. Copyright date is 1952(re-newel date is 1980). The type of book is fiction. This book takes place in the Gulf Stream, and its time is in the past. This book is told in third person point of view. One of the main character’s was an old Cuban man named Santiago who was thin, with deep wrinkles in the back if his neck and had scars on his hands from handling the fishing rope. The other character was a young boy named Manolin, which Santiago taught how to fish . Manolin is loyal to Santiago and even when his parents forbid him to go fishing with Santiago, he wants to help his friend at all times. Manolin does not act as a young boy; he is mature and sensitive This book is about an old man who taught this young boy how to fish and the boy loved him. He even brought him fishing many times. But the past 84 days the old man had not caught one fish. After 40 days of not catching anything the boy left and fished on another boat. One day, the old man was out on the water fishing. He had caught the biggest marlin he had ever seen. He then had decided to tie the fish on to the boat when heading back. He notices a large mako shark that is coming after his fish. He gets his harpoon out ready to kill. The shark takes a chunk out of his fish and the old man harpoons and kills the shark but his harpoon broke. Now he was left only with a knife to protect what was left of the fish. The fish is now bleeding. A couple hours later on his voyage home, he sees to more sharks heading right for his fish. Both sharks take a chunk out of the fish but the old man manages to stab both sharks in the eye killing them. His fish was getting smaller and smaller because of the sharks. This time while stabbing the sharks in the eyes his knife breaks, now all he has to kill the sharks is a oar. If any more sharks come he is ruined. A couple more hours of sailing two more sharks come and eat the rest of his fish, leaving just the head and scales of the enormous fish he had. The old man in the sea :: essays research papers The Old Man and the Sea Book report The title of this book is The Old Man and the Sea . The number of pages is 127. Copyright date is 1952(re-newel date is 1980). The type of book is fiction. This book takes place in the Gulf Stream, and its time is in the past. This book is told in third person point of view. One of the main character’s was an old Cuban man named Santiago who was thin, with deep wrinkles in the back if his neck and had scars on his hands from handling the fishing rope. The other character was a young boy named Manolin, which Santiago taught how to fish . Manolin is loyal to Santiago and even when his parents forbid him to go fishing with Santiago, he wants to help his friend at all times. Manolin does not act as a young boy; he is mature and sensitive This book is about an old man who taught this young boy how to fish and the boy loved him. He even brought him fishing many times. But the past 84 days the old man had not caught one fish. After 40 days of not catching anything the boy left and fished on another boat. One day, the old man was out on the water fishing. He had caught the biggest marlin he had ever seen. He then had decided to tie the fish on to the boat when heading back. He notices a large mako shark that is coming after his fish. He gets his harpoon out ready to kill. The shark takes a chunk out of his fish and the old man harpoons and kills the shark but his harpoon broke. Now he was left only with a knife to protect what was left of the fish. The fish is now bleeding. A couple hours later on his voyage home, he sees to more sharks heading right for his fish. Both sharks take a chunk out of the fish but the old man manages to stab both sharks in the eye killing them. His fish was getting smaller and smaller because of the sharks. This time while stabbing the sharks in the eyes his knife breaks, now all he has to kill the sharks is a oar. If any more sharks come he is ruined. A couple more hours of sailing two more sharks come and eat the rest of his fish, leaving just the head and scales of the enormous fish he had.