English 2333
25 Oct 2012
Midterm

Both of these texts describe situations in which the lone character got into big problem(s), and ultimately, was unable to reach full success.

Things just did not work out.

The question

is, is there evidence in the text, is there reason to believe, that the author would have wanted the character to do anything differently, so that the end result was successful?
That is, might the author like us to think that these two situations, Santiago’s fishing trip(s) or Amelie at Yumimoto
Corporation ----2.

that the author never intended for the character to

succeed, never cared about succeeding;

the character failed in

a big way because it was a story about failing; the point was not to advise the reader ‘don’t do it like this’; the point was,
‘there are important lessons people should learn about failure and humiliation.
Answer
Both the stories, Old Man and the Sea and Fear and
Trembling have similarities. The main character go through hardships, suffering till the end, Santiago with catching the fish but losing it and Amelie getting hired at Yumimoto as a translator ends up cleaning bathrooms there.

I believe that Hemingway never really cared about succeeding. I agree that the character failed in a big way but the point was not to advise the reader ‘don’t do it like this’; the point was, ‘there are important lessons people should learn about failure and humiliation.’ Santiago does not catch a single fish for consecutive eighty-four days and then when he goes determined that he must, he does. But if Hemingway showed that
Santiago caught the fish after three days of non-stop struggle and came back a hero, it would end up being just like every other story, a cliché. These kinds of stories are what bores people because not only is it unrealistic but many cannot relate to it. Not every ending has to be a happy one and that is exactly what Hemingway shows.
There is evidence that he does not want Santiago to succeed because he keeps on placing Santiago from one hardship to another. At first, he is a lonely man with nobody there for him except Manolin, the little boy who loves him a lot. Then, he is unable to catch fish for a very long time and people start pitying him and try to talk him out of it saying that he has become too old for the sea. But Santiago was not the type to give up and this was a commendable trait. He kept fighting till the end even after being defeated. He fought with the sharks to save his fish with everything he had but in vain. He then comes back but that too in the middle of the night and just goes up to

his cabin not getting the chance of telling people what really happened. To make it worse the tourists come, and see the remains of this skeleton in the mud and do not even realize it is a marlin. They do not understand Santiago’s great victory, and there is nobody to correct their perceptions. This is the ultimate humiliation as tourists are not smart. However, even though Santiago is bruised and defeated he still does not quit and tells Manolin that once he gets better he will be back out to the sea once again because he does pity himself for what has gone wrong. For him, small jobs value even if nobody knows about it. When he fights, he does it with humility, not ego.
On the other hand, Nothomb’s Fear and trembling appears quiet similar. It is a true story and tells us what exactly happened with her at Yumimoto, from her point of view. She does not seem to regret anything she has done and throughout the book she sticks to what she believes in. This is noble but then again this nobility of hers which her superiors see as arrogance gets her out of one frying pan and into another.
There are quite a few evidences in the text to believe that the Nothomb might have wanted herself to do some things differently. However, the author’s intention was not to succeed, though everything does go well for Amelie unlike Santiago.
Initially, Nothomb writes she finally gets to publish her book about her time in the company which becomes a success and Fubuki

who had always disliked her sends her a letter congratulating her, but without all the drama in the office; her conflicts with
Fubuki, the incident with Omochi, her writing the report for Mr.
Tenshi; if none of these had happened she would not really have an exciting story to write about. She might have written it but it would have been plain and dull. The point was not to advise the reader ‘don’t do it like this’; the point was, ‘there are important lessons people should learn about failure and humiliation.’ It was because Amelie always tried to prove her point to her superiors she ended up cleaning bathrooms and this humiliation evidently taught her a few things. She considered herself to be paying for her sins. It was her monastic retreat.
Better behavior could have resulted in better result but then again she would not really learn new things if she just sat there mute doing what she was told to without really understanding why she was doing them. It was not a story of surrendering to defeat but instead trying to do things as they were required to be done. Because she always did this she had questions which nobody in Japan was accustomed to, so they would consider it disrespectful.