Most of the time, movies have deleted scenes and alternate endings. These are used by the director to choose scenes he wants in the movie and to take out ones he finds that are unnecessary or aren't beneficial to the storyline. I believe authors too have a number of scenes they considered adding to their novels or alternate endings they had for the story. Although we, as readers, aren't informed on the endings or scenes that could have been in some of America's favorite novels, we can imagine.
The idea of being the author of The Old Man and the Sea and getting to make any change I would want got my imagination rolling. To begin, I would have sent Manolin on the fishing trip with Santiago even after his parents told him he couldn't (Hemingway 9). Teenagers are known for doing the opposite of what their parents tell them to do, so this wouldn't be too shocking. Manolin joining the old man on his journey would provide much more dialogue to the novel. It would also be interesting to see if the relationship between Santiago and Manolin would stay pleasant during the long, tough journey. Another scene I would add to the novel would include Joe DiMaggio. The old man had several dreams throughout the novel. I would have loved it if Santiago had a dream where he was fishing with DiMaggio. They'd be spending a peaceful day near shore just fishing and conversing. He would eventually wake up and realize that it was all just a dream. Including this dream scene wouldn't necessarily change the story line of the novel, but I am very interested to see what questions the old man would ask Joe DiMaggio. The final thing I would change about the novel has very little to do with the plot itself. I would add chapters to the book with each day of the three day journey being its own chapter. This would make the novel a lot clearer, and much easier to understand.
[Bibliography]
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print.
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