The Old Man and the Sea- Sin

On page 105 I found an interesting topic on sin, and the old man's thoughts of it.

He was confused on what is sin and what is not sin. He does not even think he believes in sin, but a tiny part of him still does. It does call for interesting thoughts and questions on it, though. For different people sin can be different. Someone may consider something a sin, while others don't. This is often decided upon their religious beliefs, but also on their beliefs in general. So, the old man obviously has some excuse to be confused on what he is doing and whether or not it is a sin.

Then, he gets even more confused because he wonders if killing fish is a sin. First, it is no. This fish is for food for him and other people. After thinking about that for a little bit, though, he realizes that that is not the only reason he fishes, though. Part of the reason is just because he enjoys it. It's a bit of a hobby to him. The other part, though is for pride. This is where it gets confusing on whether or not it is a sin. Pride is a well known deadly sin to most people.

When he thinks after that, he says he love the fish. So is it not a sin? Or is it a bigger sin? This more of depends on the situation itself. If the fish being tortured or slowly dieing a painful death? That wouldn't be a sin to kill it then would it? Or what if it is in self-defense? Deep down, if something feels wrong, then it is probably a sin. That is, if you believe that type of thing.

I like, though, that he comes to the conclusion of this quote towards the end of his thoughts on this. "everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive." (page 106) To kill something doesn't mean it has to be literal and it is so true that in some way we will kill something/everything.

Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1995. Print.