• Copywork365
  • Posts
  • 31-JAN-2025 | Excerpt from "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

31-JAN-2025 | Excerpt from "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

Author

Dan Bogachek
January 31, 2025

Excerpt from "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon or the sail that was furled around the mast. The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. 🏁

  • Repetition on “forty days” for emphasis. And it’s likely a Bible reference: the 40-day time period appears many times throughout. Usually associated with tests, discipline, or punishment.

  • Throughout this opening excerpt, Hemingway repeatedly hands us two images or ideas at a time in each sentence, juxtaposed. See all the and’s?

You glance at your watch.

It’s 6:28. You’ve been at it since 3.
Crap. Your hot date is at 7. Running late. Sink shower it is.
Nowhere close to done editing…

“…at least all the ideas are laid out, so there’s that. Did I miss anything? I don’t think so? Ok, but how do I make it flow? I need to get the final draft to Stacey for design asap, team cutoff is at noon Thursday…”

You’ve spent dinner completely distracted. Your date just took off. You go home exhausted, plod to your desk, and flip open the laptop.

Or… what if:

5:41 — you’re out of the shower and lip-syncing.
6:17 — dressed to the nines and zenned out.
7:03 — the sunset glints off your aviators as you smile hello.
8:36 — it actually feels like you’re hitting it off. Not just hot, funny to boot.
Next morning, 9:27 — final draft ready in your inbox.
10:31 — Stacey messages back, “thanks, looks good!”

The difference?

Copygloss handled it. Before you left for the date, actually.

For help with editing, email Dan:
[email protected].